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From playful pandas to golden panthers: Animal-inspired watches with surprising designs

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In short

High-end watchmakers are combining specialized artistic crafts with fine mechanical movements to capture diverse fauna across limited-edition releases. Vacheron Constantin brought in outside artisans to craft dials using wood, paper, and feathers within 42mm gold cases. Meanwhile, Patek Philippe utilizes multi-fired grisaille enamel to depict Neapolitan sculpture, and Tiffany & Co. translates high-jewelry heritage into gem-set fauna. The resulting pieces demonstrate a heavy emphasis on decorative mastery alongside slim, self-winding calibres.

Key points

  • Luxury watchmakers are collaborating with artisans outside horology to incorporate non-tr…: Luxury watchmakers are collaborating with artisans outside horology to incorporate non-traditional materials like cotton paper, feathers, and micro-origami.
  • Extremely limited production runs, such as Patek Philippe's six-piece release, highlight…: Extremely limited production runs, such as Patek Philippe's six-piece release, highlight the labor-intensive complexity of decorative arts like grisaille enameling.
  • Heritage jewelry houses are leveraging their iconic brooch designs to create complex, lig…: Heritage jewelry houses are leveraging their iconic brooch designs to create complex, light-transmitting animal dials using precious gemstones.

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An octopus sculpted from glass, a wolf that marks the full moon and a frog whose eyes tell the time. Discover how watchmakers are bringing the animal kingdom to life in unexpected ways.

A panther sculpted in gold, an octopus fashioned from glass or a wolf that marks the full moon: the animal kingdom offers watchmakers a wide scope for creativity. Some capture the texture of fur or feathers through intricate artisanal techniques, while others make eyes, tails and mouths part of a fun time display. Familiar and mythical creatures alike come to life on these watches, giving you more to look at than the time.

Vacheron Constantin Metiers d’Art Tribute to the Animal Kingdom

Feathers, paper and wood become unlikely dial materials in Vacheron Constantin’s six Tribute to the Animal Kingdom concept watches. Created through its One of Not Many Crafts Programme, the series brings together six artisans from outside traditional watchmaking to apply their skills to a miniature canvas.

On Feathersnake, Julien Vermeulen creates a blue-green serpent from more than 200 tiny pieces cut from seven lophophore feathers.…

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