In celebration of the 74th Venice International Film Festival (VIFF), which took place from 30 August till 9 September in Venice, Italy, Jaeger-LeCoultre has launched an exclusive artistic edition of Rendez-Vous watches, three limited edition designs that express the three different stages of romantic feelings.
A masterpiece in horology that has always been associated with the world of cinema since its release in 2012, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture marks its partnership of over 12 years with VIFF with the Rendez-Vous Sonatina collection, featuring the incredibly delicate artistry of the Métiers Rares “Rare Handcrafts” artisans.
The Rendez-Vous Sonatina carries no fewer than three crafts: guillochage, painting on mother-of-pearl and gem-setting.
For the first time, the Manufacture’s artisans have produced a miniature painting by hand on the mother-of-pearl dial, hand-decorated with a guilloché motif that stretches across the surface, topped with a slightly tinted layer of paint for a graceful gleam. The miniature paintings are supremely subtle, each with its own personality of unique detailing that appears truer than life.
To complete the decoration of this true watchmaking treasure, brilliant-cut diamonds adorn the bezel to augment the poetic creation on the dial, soaring above the iconic Rendez-Vous collection numerals on the flange to echo the string of stones that delicately surround the dial’s central painting.
The Rendez-Vous Sonatina begins with “Séduction,” the first stage of romance, featuring two swallows flying over a lavender field, symbolising a time of discovery and heightened emotions as lovers get to know one another, a theme often central to major film productions. The guilloché mother-of-pearl sky is dressed in twilit shades of blue and purple, highlighting the birds with feathers on their outstretched wings painted with painstaking meticulousness, harmonised with the flower-shaped aperture that houses the day/night indicator emerges from the heart of the deep lavender-blue plants, as if to provide a window on the rapid passing of time experienced by those falling in love.
A time when the heart is filled with the image of the beloved is encapsulated in the Rendez-Vous Sonatina “Romance.” The state of endless reverie is depicted with a kingfisher – a symbol of peace and prosperity with its blue and orange plumage – perched on the branch of a cherry tree in full bloom with its graduated shades of pink and white, recreating magnificence with the delicate pink paint on the guilloché mother-of-pearl.
Lastly, the Rendez-Vous Sonatina “Amour” depicts the enduring bliss of love through shifting graduated shades from turquoise to sea-green. In this poetic creation, two magpies fly alongside one another above a patch of peonies, often associated with wealth and honour, and are considered to bring good luck and promise a happy marriage.
