Paying tribute through luxury timepieces: the Met partners with Vacheron Constantin

Through its "Masterpiece on your Wrist" program, launched in 2019, Vacheron Constantin transforms iconic works within The Metropolitan Museum of Art into singular wrist-borne tributes. The brand's Les Cabinotiers collection offers clients one-of-a-kind watches featuring dials reimagined from some of the Met's most celebrated paintings and sculptures.

It is a challenge Vacheron Constantin has taken on successfully for years - elevating treasured museum pieces to a new level of admiring exposure on the wrist. In partnering with cultural giants like the Met, the venerable brand continues its legacy of merging utmost craftsmanship with an appreciation of artistic genius, ensuring history's finest works continue to move audiences through different mediums and eras.

Through its partnership with The Met, Vacheron Constantin offers clients a bespoke process to commission a truly unique Legacy piece. Working directly with the museum's curators, clients explore The Met's vast collection firsthand, perusing both iconic works on display as well as items within the archives. From this immersive experience, the client selects the artwork to be reinterpreted for their watch dial. While some parameters apply, the possibilities are vast.

Once the dial design is chosen, the client can further personalize the timepiece by selecting from four case styles, multiple precious metal options, and a choice of three in-house Caliber movements. Ranging from time-only functions to the pinnacle of horological artistry - a minute repeating tourbillon - no two commissions are alike.

Through thoughtful collaboration between client, brand and institution, each "Masterpiece on your Wrist" tells a rich story, merging a appreciation for historic artistry with Vacheron Constantin's dedication to unmatched craft. The result is a heirloom piece bearing the soul of a celebrated work of art.

Vacheron Constantin also invites clients to visit its Geneva manufacture. There, they witness firsthand the dexterity of master artisans as dials are created through chosen techniques. To showcase the breadth of artistic works that can be interpreted, Vacheron Constantin and The Met collaborated on four initial commission examples. Translated exquisitely onto watch dials are Van Gogh's iconic Wheat Field with Cypresses of 1889, Monet's Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies depicting his beloved water lilies of 1899, and Homer's 1895 masterwork Northeaster -- capturing the dramatic power of a Maine coastal storm in vivid brushwork.

Through such historic partnering and craftsmanship, clients gain insight into how celebrated works of art can be preserved through movement in novel yet noble form. Each commission becomes a unique celebration of visual mastery through different mediums, across eras, as only Vacheron Constantin can achieve.

The fourth exemplary commission draws from Augustus Saint-Gaudens' revered bronze sculpture of Diana. Crafted between 1893-1894, it immortalizes the Roman goddess of the moon poised for the hunt, bow and arrow at the ready. This interpretation originates from The Met's half-scale model of the Diana that stood atop the original Madison Square Garden tower in New York from 1893 until its demolition in 1925. Saint-Gaudens created several variations and scales of his mythologically inspired work.

With the four examples as inspiration or by selecting another treasured work, clients ultimately choose the dial design. They then decide upon a Métiers d'Arts technique to be applied by the brand's master artisans. Vacheron Constantin employs several arts in crafting the dial reproductions, drawing from the methods of past artistic legends. Options include miniature enamel painting and Grisaille enamel work - multi-layered processes demanding the highest precision. In miniature enamel painting, each color application requires kiln-firing, risking bubbles or flaws that could render the dial unusable and necessitate starting anew. Even after completion, a final translucent layer is added to unveil greater depth and brilliance.

This approach remains critical to faithfully replicating the fine nuances, hues and brushwork of the original paintings. Grisaille enamel too involves multiple, meticulous applications of pigment. Through such mastery of technique, Vacheron Constantin ensures history's great artistic visions shine on as illuminated, three-dimensional works - their spirit preserved and appreciated anew with each new commission.