Anita Porchet + Romain Gauthier = Perfection

Enamel inspired by Ancient China.

Anita Porchet is probably the most famous enamel artist working with watches. Thanks to the fact that she still remains independant and runs her own workshop, her portfolio is filled with a very diverse range of work. These pieces are the result of partnerships with the world's leading watchmakers.

She's played with the shadows on the Vendôme Square for a watch called Chaumet 12 – Rêverie Nocturne, rendered floral motifs from John Thornton’s botanical illustrations for the Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art Florilège trio, woven the fabric of Chanel's Boy·Friend Tweed Art Large Model and depicted Lake Geneva on a pocket-watch model celebrating Patek Philippe's 175th anniversary.

Porchet who's been enameling since she was twelve years old is prepared to work with various styles, consistently completing the set tasks with flying colors. For the model C by Romain Gauthier x Anita Porchet, she’s created a miniature inspired by the kind of spiritual reverence found in Chinese landscape paintings from the Song dynasty.

The color scheme and brushstrokes will remind Asian-art buffs of a piece called "Summer Mountains" which is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The painting is attributed to the artist Qu Ding and believed to be the only surviving example of his work.

The watch was created for the TimeForArt benefit auction which will be held as a dedicated chapter of the Phillips New York Watch Auction in December, where 100% of the proceeds will be donated to support artists through Swiss Institute exhibitions, programs and workshops. So there's a connection with art as both the source of inspiration and the objective for creating the watch.

It's interesting that an unusual analog watch was chosen as the canvas for this timepiece. The C watch by Romain Gauthier aims to shake up conventional ideas of timekeeping geometry. First there’s the bezel — round yet faceted. Then there's the markings on the dial. Off-centered hours and minutes are shifted to the upper half of the dial.

The small seconds below them actually create a pattern of their own thanks to red rays radiating out beyond the scale. This indication has been kept on the dial for C by Romain Gauthier x Anita Porchet.

Truth be told, they've only kept the red rays and gotten rid of the extra ring of the scale. They've done away with numerals as well. The case of the unique piece is made of platinum like the recent C by Romain Gauthier Platinum Edition.

On the caseback side you can see the bridges of Romain Gauthier's in-house manually wound movement with a 60-hour power reserve. Its finishing deserves a special mention.