Vacheron Constantin Realises a Connoisseur’s Exquisite Vision
Eight years in the making, the Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Westminster Sonnerie – Tribute to Johannes Vermeer is a masterpiece in the truest sense of the word. Reflecting the owner’s taste that is inclined towards the subtle, elegant, and artisanal, the watch is seemingly simple on the front, yet intricately decorated on its circumference and immensely complicated within. But the true art of the watch sits on the hinged case back, which bears a magnificent miniature enamel painting by Anita Porchet that reproduces Vermeer’s ethereal Girl with a Pearl Earring. The idea for this uber pocket watch was first mooted by the owner in 2012, before being formally commissioned in 2013 during the Watches & Wonders fair in Hong Kong. Asked about his motivation in commissioning the watch – and waiting nearly a decade – the owner says, “I wanted to have a watch made, cost-and-time-no-object, that incorporated the ultimate in art – miniature enamel by the greatest practicing enameller – with the most difficult and sublime complication, the true Westminster sonnerie – and that alone – not counting the tourbillon escapement, which to me isn’t a complication.” “No such watch existed prior in the history of watchmaking,” he adds, “The watch came out more magnificent and monumental than I had imagined.” And that pretty much sums up the Vermeer pocket watch, which is unquestionably one of the greatest creations ever to emerge from Les Cabinotiers, a wo...
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