CHAUMET ATTRAPE MOI SITU M’AIMES Collection

Legendary Jewellery and watch making house CHAUMET unveils some new precious horology creations of 2013 in collaboration with the Swiss master craftsmen who practice and preserve exceptional savoir-faire and artistic decorative skills. They combine jewellery excellence with High Watchmaking, in a creative world where imagination and emotion know no boundaries.

The new creative complication watch by Chaumet sets the scene for a ballet between the Maison’s iconic bee and the spider, in a décor which is as spectacular as it is exquisite ; the game of seduction, where the pink gold spider represents the hours and the diamond-studded bee the minutes. This unprecedented way of telling the time has been developed exclusively for Chaumet, seamlessly linking technique and aesthetics. Thanks to a totally innovative automatic mechanical movement, this timepiece marks a new chapter in the Maison’s watchmaking history, inspired by innovation, excellence and emotion.

Complication Watch – Bee and the Spider
The bee and the spider… It is an eternal love story, a game of temptation as old as time…Since the beginning at Chaumet, the two embrace and part. Play an exquisite “catch me if you can”. One spins its web to conquer the object of its desire. The other teasingly flies and dances around this love offering. Today the Maison tells of their new romance, suffused with watchmaking savoir-faire and innovation…

Forget about traditional hands and the routine way of indicating time. Here, the dial doesn’t just tell the time, it tells a story. The insects are the stars of the show: the pink gold spider represents the hours and the diamond-set bee the minutes, pointing to them with the tip of a wing. The backstage support is provided by an unprecedented mechanism, designed and developed exclusively for Chaumet, the CP12V-XII automatic winding calibre, a pure product of Swiss watchmaking excellence.

Mounted on two off-centred rails, the spider and the bee each follow their own distinct and intermittent path on the web. Adding exquisite detail to the creative complication, the bezel features diamond-set indexes for the minutes and twelve pink gold cabochons indicating the hours. The visual effect is captivating. The spider moves with the pace of the hours, slowly and patiently, waiting for its prey. The carefree bee boldly tempts it by the minute, edging closer and closer to its hunter until it brushes one of its legs with its wing. The dial is adorned with 43 mother-of-pearl elements representing a spider’s web, highlighted by brilliant-cut diamonds, creating a spectacular relief effect. The exquisite aesthetics, supported by the piece’s technical prowess, embody the emotion of precious time.

Poetry of Nature – Six Models
Six timepieces express the poetry of nature, illustrated by an automatic mechanical movement. The curtain rises to reveal a magical, romantic, playful and graceful performance. Chaumet’s emblematic insects whirl, flutter, play hide and seek, let themselves be caught up by the hours and seduced by the minutes. Enameling, guillochage, miniature painting, engraving; these decorative craft-skills enhance the slightest details, while diamonds illuminate the iridescence of mother-of-pearl, the intensity of China ink or the delicacy of chalcedony. Chaumet reinterprets the telling of time and accomplishes an exceptional technical feat with the creation of an unprecedented and exclusive new caliber.

1. The Mischievous ledidopterans
The mischievous ledidopterans flit and flutter, flying blithely amid a gradation of the emblematic Chaumet blue – enhanced by the setting of the bezel and horns. Irresistibly attracted to the luminous guilloché rays of the rhodium-plated dial, they turn in a graceful movement. Their wings are defined by a silver border.

Carved out of polished agate or tinted mother-of-pearl, the butterflies play with the diamond-set clouds whose sparkle lights up the décor with charming freshness. A blue-grey satin bracelet is the perfect finishing touch to this enchanting tableau.

2. Hidden Geometry of Butterflies
Nature unveils its hidden geometry with the graphic lines of these butterflies set on a white mother-of-pearl dial. Jet black China ink contrasts stunningly with its delicately engraved mother-of-pearl setting.

The butterflies’ sculptural wings are depicted in perfect symmetry while their heads are symbolized by blue sapphires. The four precious stones are cabochon-cut and lend an added majesty to the hours.

3. Sparkling Butterflies
Delicately iridescent lace-like butterflies flutter over the black mother-of-pearl dial and create a captivating contrast with their gossamer white mother-of-pearl wings. The bezel is set with diamonds arranged in a quincunx pattern.

Hard stones – agate, cornelian and smoky quartz – are assembled one by one in a lifelike inlay to form a stunning and colourful tableau.

4. Dragonflies
Carefree dragonflies are lifted in graceful movement and hover over the watch’s dial. The dial, complemented by an ivory painted sapphire glass at its base, accentuates the impression of depth created by the flight of the aerial insects.

Entirely depicted by hand thanks to the miniature painting technique, they flutter their wings with disconcerting reality. The satin bracelet, also dressed in ivory tones, joins in the dance.

5. Mayfly on Cherry Tree
A mayfly sits on a cherry tree branch, enjoying a precious moment of its brief existence. On the white gold dial, delicately hand-engraved in the purest High Watchmaking tradition, diamonds are strewn across an eternal sky.

The branch, carved from gold and applied to the dial, is adorned with a spray of pink mother-of-pearl blossoms that have been delicately sculpted and polished. This alliance of precious materials continues with the insect’s mother-of-pearl wings and gold body.

6. Moon’s Radiance and Nature
A saltwater mother-of-pearl disc illuminates the lapis lazuli dial, adorned with pierrite stone stars. Thus the moon’s halo glows in the dark sky and lights up a nocturnal scene. Insects awaken amidst the miniature painted grasses and the flowers, cabochon-sculpted from dumortierite quartz, sway gently in the breeze.

A snail, a dragonfly and a caterpillar have been cut out of freshwater mother-of-pearl and a hand-painted ladybird enhances the border of the diamond-set bezel.