Jean Dunand’s ambitious undertaking to create Pièces Uniques, one of-a-kind timepieces that combine cutting-edge mechanical innovation and aesthetic singularity is a gauntlet few contemporary watchmakers would be able to take up.

Thierry Oulevay and Christophe Claret rise to the occasion with this dazzling iteration of the JEAN DUNAND Tourbillon Orbital; a mesmerizing timepiece where passion for Art Deco design and close involvement with master artisans has conspired in the most brilliant fashion to create an incomparable masterpiece.

Jean Dunand’s stylized interpretation of a 12-point fir tree is the decorative theme of this watch. This design is inspired by the abstract geometric designs and floral motifs prevalent during the Art Deco period that aimed to transmit the essence of an object in its sleekest, most elegant and streamlined form.

Capturing the zeitgeist of the 20’s and 30’s the fir-tree pattern radiates from the dial in concentric circles and is set alight with 428 brilliant cut icy diamonds, a beautiful allegory of a winter tree covered in frost that emanates beams of light.

The chapter ring encircling the symbolic fir tree is studded with brilliant cut white diamonds and a solitary black diamond at 12 o’clock set into black gold echoing the Art Deco penchant for elegant black and white tonalities.

In line with Jean Dunand’s commitment to fostering métiers d’art, the technique of invisible setting has been used to mount the 92 Top Wesselton baguette diamonds on the bezel and lugs. This meticulous and extremely time-consuming technique allows these opulent stones to shine in all their faceted glory without any visible means of support, dispensing with prongs, claws or other traditional means of securing stones.

Often imitated, but notoriously difficult to accomplish, the objective of invisible setting is to make the mount of the setting vanish into thin air, making it indistinguishable to the human eye. Developed and honed in the ateliers of haute joaillerie, invisible settings allow craftsmen to breathe life and form into their jewellery without the constraints and aesthetic interference of traditional settings.

However, unlike high jewellery pieces that are often designed and inspired around the specific features of a stone, Jean Dunand’s craftsmen invert the process. At Jean Dunand the thematic and conceptual features of each timepiece are given pride of place so that the design is not limited or conditioned by the stones. The theme dictates the direction and the overriding challenge for our craftsmen is to bring to life a flat 2-dimensional design.

Once a mock-up of the timepiece has been elaborated and the position of each stone determined, does the lapidary source the stones. Having selected the appropriate gems, the next stage involves cutting the stones, a task that demands consummate skill. More often than not, the dictates of the design mean that almost half the stone is sacrificed during this procedure. But this is just the beginning of this meticulous odyssey.

Underneath the gleaming surface of the case and lugs lies a miniature world of support systems to anchor the diamonds in place. To confer solidity to the structure, the rose gold undercarriage of the invisible setting needs to be at least 2mm thick and explains why invisible set pieces contain more gold than traditionally set ones.

The heart of the invisible setting -hailed as the sine qua non of gem setting- relies upon an ingenious set of tiny rails. However, before all 92 baguette cut diamonds are placed on the rails, channels or grooves are cut along the sides of each gem. Here the talent of the stone cutter is put to the test when 1/10th of a millimeter is all that separates one stone from the next. Mistakes come at a high price and three days’ work can be lost in a matter of seconds.

A special “door” at one end of the track allows the stones to be slid along the rails and held in place side by side without any further consolidation and thanks to the special doors, stones can be easily repaired or replaced.

Confecting a watch of this complexity and beauty requires the craftsman to adopt the precision of a mathematician, the 3-dimensional vision of an architect and the patience that only experience can confer. Watching the flying tourbillion orbit the sumptuous 8-carat constellation of precious diamonds on this timepiece is a truly unique and magical spectacle of light in motion.

The world of high complication watchmaking and belle horlogerie have married the technical expertise of a master watchmaker with the artistry of a miniaturist painter to produce a unique, one-off masterpiece.

The mechanical prowess and poetry in motion of the gyrating tourbillon is enhanced with a miniature painting of sublime Oriental charm, an exceptional and highly original work of art.

Miniature painting is still practiced by an elite group of artisans, master craftsmen whose virtuosity is still alive today in a tradition that can be traced to 14th century Persia. With the expansion of the Mongol Empire, the mastery of miniature painting spread to India and the powerful courts of the Mughal emperors. Mughal painting flourished in the mid-16th century with precious works of art whose colours and exquisite detail are still vibrant today.

In Europe miniature painting developed from the art of illuminating manuscripts and was practiced extensively throughout the Middle Ages.

By the 1520’s the courts of France and England commissioned miniaturists to create portraits of their loved ones and following the flight of the Huguenots from France in the 17th century, the tradition of miniature painting found a new home in Geneva making its way onto watch dials and cases in the sumptuous tradition of haute horlogerie.

Jean Dunand, the Swiss artist whose work embodied the spirit of the Art Déco period and whose fascination and appreciation of Oriental art was made patent in his repertoire, is the inspiration and guiding light behind the Jean Dunand watch brand.

Jean Dunand’s passion for the Orient is recreated today in this miniature line portrait of Confucius, hand-painted on a very thin black onyx dial that has been inserted on top of a gold disk.

The Chinese philosopher, renowned for his teachings that revolved around the personal virtues of benevolence, charity, jen-humanity, reciprocity and the importance of ancestor worship, was born to a family of the lesser aristocracy in 551 B.C. Confucius set about to bring order and peace to a divided nation of feudal states and following unsuccessful attempts to secure a patron, turned his attention to the teaching of young men.

Following a fruitful and selfless life, Confucius died peacefully at the age of 72. Upon his death in 479 B.C., Master Kong, or Confucius, was buried just north of the city of Qufu and his disciples planted trees from all over China in his honour. The Kong Lin forest is the world’s oldest and largest private family cemetery and is the resting place for 76 generations of the Kong family, an amazing example of ancestral perpetuity that has never been matched by any other imperial or royal house.

Jean Dunand’s mechanical wonder celebrates the enduring Confucian legacy and has entrusted the meticulous travail of painting a miniature line portrait on the diminutive onyx surface to the capable hands of one single craftsman; the only artist in Switzerland capable of executing the demanding task. Countless hours of manual labour and fifteen kiln firings have been invested in this miniature.

The first challenge for Jean Dunand’s miniaturist is to reinterpret the original rectangular drawing onto the round surface of the onyx and a grid is used to plot the picture. Using top quality Swiss varnishes, the artisan blends his colour palette before undertaking the artistic odyssey where steady hands, keen eyes and patience are called upon, vital prerequisites that pay homage to the Confucian adage that “Impatience over little things introduces confusion into great schemes”.

Because of the delicacy and precision required, the artist handcrafts his paintbrushes from marten hair, often employing only a wisp of twenty odd hairs. Working from the face outwards with the aid of a binocular microscope, the artist applies the colours often repeating a stroke to increase volume that can be appreciated on Confucius’ beard or drawing out the stroke to achieve the nuance and gradation to render the curve of Confucius’ forehead.

Each painting session is followed by a stint in a 90-100° C kiln culminating in a final kiln firing of 6-7 hours. The final result, a mere 3/100ths of a millimeter thick, is proof positive that complication and ornamentation, exceptional technology and consummate artistry do indeed produce remarkable results.

The exquisite dial of the new Tourbillon Orbital watch, embellished with geometric shapes and rich Chinese lacquer, is a fitting tribute to the craftsman and Art Deco artist Jean Dunand, the guiding aesthetic light behind the formidable watchmaking duo formed by Thierry Oulevay and Christophe Claret.

Tourbillon Orbital was the first creation from the brand. This unique masterpiece from JEAN DUNAND Watches is the quintessence of the founders’ philosophy that combines a passion for métiers d’art – rekindling long lost traditional craft techniques such as the art of lacquering- with revolutionary technology powering this unique tourbillion.

Not only does this watch feature a one-minute flying tourbillon that completes a full orbit every sixty seconds, but the entire tourbillon continuously rotates around the dial, completing an entire circle every hour. A watchmaking first and with innumerable technical challenges such as transmission of winding energy to the barrel that is never in one fixed place.

The bold geometric figures and solid colours on the dial celebrate Jean Dunand’s incursion into the abstract geometric style fashionable in the 1920’s. Like the pocket watch cases that were exhibited in those years featuring geometric designs and bright lacquer colours, the stunning application of Chinese lacquer on the Tourbillon Orbital transcends its common use as a protective varnish and becomes an intrinsic, integral part of the decoration.

An ancient technique that is painstaking, unpredictable and extremely complicated to master, Thierry Oulevay invested 2 whole years researching the almost mystical world of lacquer to achieve this splendid dial.

The technical challenge included developing novel ways to apply lacquer on the diminutive surface of the dial while respecting the contours of the sharp 90° angles, the circumference of the round window displaying the orbital tourbillion and the tiny cavity of the zigzag rhomboids with millimetrical precision.

A similar kind of passion consumed Swiss craftsman Jean Dunand who revealed his inestimable know-how in the art of dinanderie -or bronze embossing- in exchange for Japanese master lacquer Seizo Sugawara’s millenary secrets of lacquering in 1912. Jean Dunand’s fabulously embossed vases and other artistic creations would soon be embellished with this precious resin and his name would become synonymous with the sublime art of lacquering.

Art historians agree that China was the birthplace of the art of lacquering following the discovery of a red lacquer wood bowl dating to the Neolithic period in Zhejiang well over 7,000 years ago. Initially used to protect everyday objects from water, acid and alkaline elements, the art of lacquering came into its golden age with the splendid Han Dynasty (202BC- 220 AD) adorning precious objects for the imperial court and combining coloured lacquer with gold and silver inlays.

The Rhus Vernicifera or lacquer tree occurs naturally in China and has been cultivated for millennia for its sap that is collected by tapping the trees and bleeding them at very precise intervals. Traditionally, the precious liquid is sieved through a fine cloth to remove impurities and left to settle, clarify and separate for several months in a dark, damp, cool environment.

The creation of coloured lacquer is a complex process combining powdered vegetable pigments and Tung oil that are notoriously difficult to blend. But the real challenge lies in applying nature’s wonderful gift. Much like working with liquid honey, lacquer has to be applied slowly and great care exerted to avoid leaving trails or traces in each coat

Traditionally, paintbrushes confected from Chinese human hair were employed because marten hair and other animal origin hair were deemed too thick. The environment has to be impeccably clean because the slightest particle of dust will be embedded for posterity in the lacquer.

In keeping with Jean Dunand’s patronage of métiers d’art, master lacquer painters were selected from one of the very few Western workshops capable of manipulating this wonderful material to execute the lacquering details on the dial of the Tourbillon Orbital.

Using the champlevé technique to create a recessed pattern to house the lacquer, troughs or cells are hollowed into the gold base. Once the areas have been clearly demarcated, the lacquer –up to 10 individual coats- is applied layer by layer. Each layer must be perfectly dry before its surface is buffed and smoothed with charcoal and then meticulously polished to acquire its unique lustrous sheen.

The dial of the JEAN DUNAND Tourbillon Orbital Chinese Lacquer watch features red, grey, rich indigo and black lacquered geometric shapes, each colour emanating a distinct warm luster and depth. True to the Art Deco personality of the dial, the skyscraper hands are skeletal allowing for a clear view of the magnificent canvas.

The diamond hour markers on the chapter ring and the 18-carat rose gold case provide the perfect frame for this sumptuous lacquered dial that sets geometry in mot ion: a formidable and unique artistic accomplishment.