Vintage 1945 Le Corbusier La Chaux-de-Fonds

In a marvelous coincidence, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret’s hometown, La Chaux-de-Fonds, happens to be the world capital of watchmaking. Before the world knew him by his pseudonym, Le Corbusier, the young Charles-Edouard spent his formative years in the town’s School of Art, training as a sculptor and engraver. 

 

Inlaid Mother-of-Pearl Dial 

Girard-Perregaux’s craftsmen pay tribute to an early Le Corbusier work by faithfully reproducing it in a bas-relief of mother-of-pearl — a nod to both the piece itself and to Le Corbusier’s beginnings as a sculptor and engraver. 

 

Seven exacting days are required to produce each dial, requiring mastery of multiple skills: design, sculpture, polishing and varnishing. The foremost challenge was to preserve the integrity of the original work’s five colors — necessitating considerable patience and meticulous attention to detail.