Swiss Luxury Watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hokusai 'Amida Falls' Enamel Tribute

The Reverso Tribute Enamel Hokusai 'Amida Falls,' created by Swiss luxury watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre, is a tribute to the 19th-century ukiyo-e artwork of Japanese painter and printer Katsushika Hokusai. The Amida Falls in the Far Reaches of the Kisokaid Road (Kisoji no oku Amida-ga-taki), the most renowned work from the artist's 1833–34 series of eight woodblock prints titled A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces, is reproduced in miniature on the case-back of the new clock (Shokoku taki meguri). The dial is decorated with guillochage and Grand Feu enamel.

Honoring a Prodigious Japanese Master

Hokusai was one of a small group of Japanese artists in the 19th century who took woodblock printing, a centuries-old technique, from a popular, "low" art form to a legitimate fine art form via innovations in subject matter, colour, and arrangement. The 'Waterfalls' series he painted in his sixties is often regarded as some of the finest examples of landscape painting ever produced. The artist's preoccupation with the power of flowing water and massive topographical elements that dwarf the surrounding picnicking humanity is most evident in the most famous piece of the series, "Amida Falls."

GRAND FEU ENAMEL IN MINIATURE

Artisans at Jaeger-master LeCoultre had to not only miniaturise and imitate every element of the composition, but also create the illusion of the woodblock printing technique, in order to capture the power of Hokusai's original image and faithfully reproduce every detail on a surface measuring just three square centimetres, a little more than one-tenth the size of the original. To do this, the enameller had to develop a new technique that faithfully replicated the bokashi effect of Hokusai's original paper prints while maintaining the artist's signature use of vivid blues and yellows. It is a precisely orchestrated, multi-stage technique that needs 70 hours of effort over the course of several weeks and 12–15 consecutive firings at 800 degrees Celsius.

A Mesmerizing DIAL

The Dauphine hands and faceted appliqué hour markers of this Reverso Tribute watch are the only decorations on the dial, yet their elegance shines through the watch's spare aesthetic. Complementing the little artwork on the case back, this dial features a guilloché lozenge pattern whose texture is heightened by clear Grand Feu enamel in a stunning shade of green.

Executing the lozenge design by hand on a century-old lathe calls for extreme accuracy and dexterity; for example, each of the sixty lines making up the pattern requires three passes of the lathe while the dial plate is held at a precisely calculated angle. Six or more layers of translucent enamel are added thereafter. After the enamelling is complete, the transfer of the chemin de fer minutes record and the application of the indexes pose the last challenge. The whole process of making the dial takes more than 40 hours.

The newest addition to the Hokusai-inspired collection of Reverso Tribute Enamel watches is the "Amida Falls" model.

Source: Jaeger-Lecoultre