WatchMuseum Monet

WatchMuseum would not have been possible without an exceptional watch, a creation patented by Vincent Calabrese. 

The time is displayed in an window. The dial, which is free of hands except for the seconds hand, rotates continuously to return to 12 o'clock and change the number corresponding to the hour. The position of the window indicates the minutes. This type of display already anticipates poetically, as well as technically, what we have done with it since it is called " wandering hours ".

The available space of the dial lends itself wonderfully to a miniature painting. This is better than any other watch. However, let's admit that it is not very original. 

Fortunately, the particularity of this project resides elsewhere. We start from the principle, often verified, that every watch lover has a connection, a particular sensitivity for art, due to his culture, his education. Watchmaking and painting have a lot in common. The same aesthetic research, the same intellectual depth, a manual ability that "in fine" makes the difference. WatchMuseum brings them together in a very intimate experience.

Indeed, the pictorial masterpieces that populate our museums are simultaneously technical achievements, generators of emotions and carriers of messages, visible to the informed eye.  These aspects are of particular interest to us. Indeed, painters deliberately disseminate details in their works that are invitations, keys to understanding, which they offer to the cultivated connoisseur.

WatchMuseum therefore proposes the following route:

• The visitor goes to our website, watchmuseum.ch, to the configurator page.

• He chooses a work from among those proposed, knowing that in a few weeks thousands of paintings will be available.  

• Using the tools provided, they can define exactly the detail they wish to see on the dial. He can also match the colour of the bezel and strap to the artwork.

• The simulation of his watch is sent to him immediately by email automatically from the website.

• Then a miniaturist painter will patiently reproduce the amateur's choice.

• The artist can integrate a secret dedication, which is barely visible. 

• The piece is obviously unique, singular.

For the GPHG we have chosen a work by Monet, les Nymphéas Bleus (size of the original 2m x 2m) with a detail representing a subtle balance of colours and vibrations. As the dial rotates continuously, it never appears at the same angle throughout the day. The watch appears differently to its owner at each moment, it simply lives, as did the blue water lilies of Claude Monnet's pond in Giverny...

Usually a watch, whether simple or complicated, whether it pleases or not, is a point of achievement. For WatchMuseum it is a meeting point of two major arts. The blank space of the dial is a dream that belongs to the amateur.  

It is up to him to fill it with the great masters of painting....