Originating within the Seventeenth century, pendant watches have sparked a number of waves of recognition through the years, together with the Belle Époque within the nineteenth century, Artwork Nouveau within the early twentieth century and the Seventies.
Right now, the type is making a comeback, with luxurious watchmakers from Jaeger-LeCoultre to Chanel providing designs impressed by historical past, but trendy.
“In case you look again on the start of the moveable watch,” says Paul Boutros, vp and head of Americas watches at Phillips Auctions in New York Metropolis, “the pendant watch began out as a comfort, a solution to transport a watch like jewellery and make an announcement.”
In that interval, watches had been all handmade and really costly – so rich individuals discovered methods to connect their watches to chains or ribbons so that they could possibly be worn across the neck or hung from their belts for all to see.
By the nineteenth century, girls had watches and commenced carrying them on lengthy dangling necklaces, identified in French as sautoirs, usually adorned with diamonds and different valuable stones.
Then, “within the Sixties and particularly within the Seventies,” says Mr. Boutros, watchmakers who additionally make jewellery got here out with some elaborate pendant watches. For instance, Piaget made an extended necklace with a tiger-eye dial and gold chain beads in 1971 that bought for CHF 23,750 in 2015 (the equal of $26,515 right now) at a phillips public sale.
“Sautoirs combines Piaget’s virtuosity for ultra-thin watch actions with goldsmithing experience,” Jean-Bernard Forot, Piaget’s heritage director, stated in a telephone interview from the corporate’s headquarters in Plan-les-Ouates, outdoors Geneva. “This was mirrored within the creation of pendants within the ’60s, a time of unimaginable creativity. We known as these lengthy items ‘Swinging Sautoirs’ they usually turned the proper image of the gorgeous jet-setting society of the time that was consistently demanding extra.”
At Watches & Wonders in Geneva 2023, the model presents three one-of-a-kind Piaget Sautoir timepieces (costs to use), with updates to a few of the most evocative designs from the previous.
One Piaget Sautoir is a twisted double strand 18 karat gold chain that took 130 hours to craft, that includes a 25.38 ct oval cabochon-cut Zambian emerald, and an oval 18 karat yellow gold quartz watch with malachite dial and bezel set with diamonds and emeralds.
The second is embellished with turquoise and the third is an 18-carat braided gold chain set with 6.41 carats of diamonds, a particular problem for the craftsman. Mr Forot stated the third Sautoir took seven months to create as a result of the model “had misplaced the strategy of the ’60s. They patiently rediscovered the method, hand-threaded the gold into these tiny chains and put a contemporary eye on it to make it excellent.”
secret watch
A contemporary pendant watch can be usually a secret watch, which is an business time period for a timepiece with a canopy that may be eliminated to indicate the time. This type permits the dial cowl to be embellished with diamonds and different valuable stones, engravings, marquetry or different inventive decorations to boost the sense that the piece is each real jewellery and a watch.
This yr, Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari and Jaeger-LeCoultre all launched lengthy necklaces with hidden dials.
Chanel’s Mademoiselle Privé Lion assortment, which debuted on the Watches & Wonders truthful in Geneva, contains an 18-carat gold pendant watch with a black lacquered dial lined with a diamond-encrusted lion’s face on a black background that may be swiveled out of the best way to inform the time. Set with 336 diamonds totaling 7.90 carats, this quartz watch hangs from a necklace of black onyx, gold beads and diamonds. Solely 20 items shall be produced (value is topic to software).
Arnaud Chastaingt, director of Chanel’s watchmaking creation studio, wrote in an e-mail: “A protracted necklace that may secretly inform the time implies that numerous creativity is required in integrating the motion, camouflaging the dial and machining the hinges.”
The model stated the lion motif was chosen as a result of Leo is the zodiac signal of its founder. “The non-public world of Gabrielle Chanel stays for me an infinite supply of true inspiration,” wrote Monsieur Chastante. “I really like the concept of this lion face, beloved by Mademoiselle Chanel, timed fantastically and secretly.”
Additionally at Watches & Wonders in Geneva, Van Cleef & Arpels offered six long-sleeved secret watches from the Perlée assortment. Every watch is hooked up to a 90cm (35.4in) 18-carat gold chain, culminating in a 25mm spherical secret watch with a mother-of-pearl dial surrounded by a diamond-encrusted gold bezel.
All three types function a jewel-encrusted dial cowl. Two of them are in 18-carat gold with emeralds or sapphires; the third is in 18-carat rose gold with rubies. The opposite three have cabochon-cut gemstone plates protecting the dial: mild blue chalcedony with 18 karat white gold, rose quartz with 18 karat rose gold, or blue sodalite with 18 karat gold.
“At Van Cleef & Arpels, we take a look at watches from a jeweler’s perspective and mix the interpretation of time with the idea of ornament,” Nicolas Bos, the corporate’s president and chief govt, wrote in an e-mail. This gave rise to necklaces, brooches, bracelets and generally even rings with dials. “
Mr Bos famous that the primary Perlée Pendant Thriller watch, launched in 2019, was impressed by the type’s Seventeenth-century origins and the lapel watches and waist chains (the chains used to hold keys and different home goods) that Van Cleef & Arpels used to make.
“Right now,” he writes, “these references invite delicate and sudden inventive interpretations, creating an attention-grabbing perspective on time that’s each private and secret.”
in historical past
Bulgari (Bulgari) additionally launched this yr the distinctive Secret Watch necklace Cameo Imperiale, which was launched in Might this yr. The model’s excessive jewelery occasion in Venice.
Impressed by the Sixties Monete Bulgari assortment that includes historic Roman and Greek cash, the model employs artisans in Torre del Greco, Italy, Conventional aid carving middle, making a cameo portrait of Cleopatra. The determine of the Queen of Egypt is surrounded by diamonds, pink and blue sapphires, forming a canopy that resembles a fragile coin.
This hand-wound watch is provided with the skeletonized motion of the in-house Tourbillon Lumière BVL 208 motion, which is clearly seen by means of the clear sapphire crystal glass. 56 mm case and bracelet in 18 carat rose gold set with diamonds and rubies (value on request).
“Cash are symbols of evolution, they’re an actual and tangible a part of our historical past, they arrive from centuries in the past and are subsequently fascinating,” Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Bulgari’s govt director of product creativity, wrote in an e-mail.
Launched for the primary time in 1931, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s well-known Reverso watch contained a mysterious watch idea in its design: an oblong watch whose case could possibly be pushed to at least one facet, turned over after which pushed again to disclose the opposite facet.
Take for instance the restricted version Reverso Secret Necklace, which debuted on the Geneva Watches & Wonders Honest. The again of the case is about with diamonds and onyx in a geometrical floral sample, whereas the edges of the dial are offered in rose gold, diamonds and black onyx. The oblong watch is powered by the model’s Caliber 846, an in-house 93-part hand-wound motion constructed completely for the Reverso assortment (costs on request).
Crafted in 18-carat pink gold, the 90-centimeter chain is about with diamonds and black onyx beads and is impressed by the twisted black cords that had been generally used as straps on girls’ flip watches within the Thirties. That includes lariat-style diamond-set lugs, the watch is adorned with two tassels adorned with diamonds and a slender onyx pendant.
In whole, the Reverso Secret necklace used greater than 3,000 diamonds, weighing a complete of 18 carats, and required greater than 300 hours of gem-setting work, the model stated.
Catherine Rénier, CEO of the model, stated in an interview on the Geneva Watches and Wonders Honest: “With the deep Reverso custom and the long-standing pendant watch know-how, we see that there’s nonetheless a robust marketplace for distinctive watches that mix the spectacular world of high-end watchmaking and high-end jewellery.” .”
