Presenting an alliance between the decorative arts and watchmaking techniques.
From the Patrimony and the Overseas to the Historiques and the FiftySix, there is no question as to Vacheron Constantin’s immense watchmaking savoir-faire. And its incredible Métiers d’Arts collection of course which never fails to sweep us off our feet. Yet how did the manufacture arrive at such a point where history, art, and science overlap so perfectly within everything it creates? This isn’t an easy question to answer, but if you’d head down to its latest exhibition, The Anatomy of Beauty, this weekend, you’ll definitely be moving in the right direction.
Presented very aptly at the ArtScience Museum Singapore, The Anatomy of Beauty brings a unique haute horlogerie experience from Vacheron Constantin’s manufacture in Geneva to sunny Singapore. Through mindful curation of the sprawling Vacheron Constantin archives, the manufacture’s antique, vintage, and modern timepieces have been organised into three core themes in a bid to examine in detail what it is that defines beauty in a Vacheron Constantin timepiece.
The first theme is Our Heritage: A Legacy as Precious as Time. Here, Vacheron Constantin shares the evolution of timepieces during the early 20th century as it moved from the pocket to the wrist. Women’s jewellery timepieces also formed a significant chapter in Vacheron Constantin history, as are the artistic crafts. Guilloché, enamelling, miniature painting, gemsetting, lacquering, openworking, etc. These skills, inherited from the past and perpetuated for the future, along with technical watchmaking mastery, constitute the essence of Vacheron Constantin.
Next, The Anatomy of Beauty turns the spotlight to finishing and the decorative arts at Vacheron Constantin. All the components of a Vacheron Constantin watch are elevated by the traditional crafts, even those that are not visible once the movement is fully assembled. Celebrating the beauty of the infinitesimally small, there is no detail too minute for Vacheron Constantin, whether on the case, bracelet, or movement.
The third and final room is dedicated to Science and Complications. Technical watchmaking mastery through more than 260 years has made Vacheron Constantin undoubtedly one of the world’s leading manufactures in haute horlogerie. Visitors can experience an immersive showcase in this area, where five horological complications take centre stage. They are the tourbillon, the split-seconds chronograph, the retrograde mechanism, the perpetual calendar, and the minute repeater.
To capture the extreme sense of precision that comes along with the concept of “Anatomy of Beauty”, Hong Kong-based innovation art studio CITYSHAKE expresses the five complications through digital artworks that can be contemplated at the macro and micro levels, where macro turns our eye to calibres and their functionality, and micro sends us barrelling into the heart of the movement to discover every hidden nook and cranny.
Vacheron Constantin The Anatomy of Beauty is on from 16th October to 2nd November 2002 at the ArtScience Museum Singapore.
This event is open to the public and tickets can be booked through the ArtScience Museum website here.
