Jaeger-LeCoultre has unveiled three new limited-edition Reverso Tribute Enamel timepieces to commemorate the city of Venice, coinciding with its participation in the Homo Faber Biennial exhibition this September. Each of these exquisite pieces features a miniature reproduction of one of Claude Monet’s iconic paintings of Venice, reaffirming the Reverso as an ideal canvas for artistic expression.
Claude Monet’s “Venice Series” paintings, created late in his career, beautifully capture the architecture and exceptional light of Venice. During his 10-week stay in autumn 1908, Monet painted 37 images, choosing a dozen different sites and painting them repeatedly to capture the changing light. These paintings are a testament to the artist’s fascination with the city’s unique atmosphere.
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Jaeger-LeCoultre’s new Reverso Tribute Enamel “Venice Series” timepieces showcase the talents and skills of the Manufacture’s in-house Métiers Rares™ (Rare Handcrafts) Atelier. The timepieces bring together the crafts of miniature painting, enameling, and guillochage, while paying tribute to the mission shared with Homo Faber to honor and promote craft in all its forms.
The first challenge in decorating the case-back was to miniaturize original works measuring over 65 x 92 cm onto a surface of 25 x 20 mm. It required 14 layers of enamel to achieve the desired intensity and depth of color, with up to 15 separate firings at temperatures up to 800° Celsius. The enameling alone requires eight or nine hours of work for each dial, with up to five layers of enamel and six or seven separate firings at up to 800°C.
The three dials, decorated with hand-guilloché patterns beneath translucent colored enamel, are an artistic response to the miniature paintings on the case-backs. The final challenge is the faultless application of the indexes and the transfer of the chemin de fer minutes register. The simplicity of the Reverso Tribute design codes, including faceted appliqué hour-markers and Dauphine hands, places full value on the beauty of the decoration.
Each of the three timepieces features a celebrated artwork by Claude Monet. The first, “San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk,” captures the island of San Giorgio Maggiore opposite St Mark’s Square. The miniaturized reproduction required approximately 70 hours of meticulous work, with the dial featuring grand feu enamel in a shade of blue that complements the colors of the sky on the case-back painting. The herringbone guilloché pattern comprises 120 separate lines, each requiring three passages of the lathe, taking eight hours to complete.
The second timepiece, “The Grand Canal Venice,” offers a spellbinding view across the Grand Canal, painted in the afternoon. The case-back reproduction required almost 70 hours of enameling work. The wavy hand-guilloché pattern on the dial repeats the reflections on the water’s surface depicted in Monet’s painting, amplified by layers of translucent grand feu enamel in a soft shade of green.
The third timepiece, “The Doge’s Palace,” was painted from a gondola in the middle of the Grand Canal at 8:00 am. It beautifully evokes the effect of morning light on the water. To reproduce the shimmering beauty of this painting, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s enameller worked for almost 70 hours. The lozenge guilloché pattern on the dial creates constantly changing effects of light and shade, echoing Monet’s fascination with the effect of light on water at different times of day. With a total of 4,905 passages of hand-operated lathe, this highly skilled work takes eight hours to complete.
Offered in a limited edition of 10 pieces each, the Reverso Tribute Enamel “Venice Series” is a fine tribute to the city that hosts the Homo Faber Biennial and a superb marriage of fine watchmaking with the decorative crafts of guillochage, enameling, and miniature painting.
