Over the centuries, we have witnessed timepiece dials morph from solid pieces of metal with hands to beautifully embellished works of art that boast hand enamelling, gem setting, engraving hand painting and more. But now, the house of Bovet 1822 takes up the concept of the dial as canvas by several notches, revolutionizing time with an art form and material never before executed in watchmaking. Introducing the new Bovet Miss Audrey Sweet Art watch with a dial made from pure sugar crystals.
Conceived by Pascal Raffy, owner of Bovet 1822, the idea of using pure sugar crystals for the dial took two years of research, development and testing to become reality. “This patented process, which will not degrade over time or even in extremes of temperature, is very artisanal. The individual sugar crystals are coloured and then put in place one by one, like a miniature painting. The result is extraordinarily beautiful,” he says of the Miss Audrey Sweet Art Watch.
Creating the dial involves a complex, patented process that starts with choosing the right sized crystals – they must be low enough that the hands, once placed, don’t scrape the sugar spheres and cause a breakdown. The next stage is combining them with special bio-degradable lacquer paints that have been applied to the rhodium-treated brass dial. The crystals are gently pushed around to obtain their colour and depth of hue. No two crystals are exactly the same, with some being a solid colour and others being a gradient.
Once coloured, the crystals are then patiently put into place, with several hundred crystals on each dial, after which the dials then undergo a drying process in an oven or kiln.
This entire fragile process of creating the crystals takes about a week. The finished dial offers a shimmering delight of texture, colour and sparkle – attracting the eye like the finest confections. The colours range from dusty rose to bright orange, blue, green and other mouth-watering hues. Naturally, each dial is a unique piece.
As if these were not enough to give this timepiece the sweetest wrist-accessory-of-the-year award, the house of Bovet 1822 has further designed the watch dial with specially shaped highly whimsical hands that form a heart shape once every hour and five minutes when the minute hand catches up to the hour hand.
In addition, the dial is encased in a 36mm Fleurier Amadeo convertible case. Crafted in stainless steel and finished with diamonds, the patented Amadeo case converts from wristwatch to pendant clock to table clock with ease.
The Miss Audrey Sweet Art Watch comes in different colourways including a black and blue gradient sugar crystals dial, a black and green gradient, gold and pink gradient and a blue and grey gradient dial. Other dial colours include purple, blue, black, grey, green, pink or yellow sugar crystals or a gradient of those colours. The bow and bezel of each timepiece are set with 103 round-cut diamonds for added sparkle and each is finished with an alligator strap.
This mouthwateringly sweet timepiece will retail for approximately $25,000.
Source: Forbes