Laurent Ferrier has launched a watch with a hand-engraved dial based on a piece of work by the contemporary French artist Hervé Di Rosa.
Mr Di Rosa has focused his work on everyday objects and souvenirs for more than 40 years.
In 1990, he embarked on a massive world tour, taking in artistic techniques from people in Benin, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Corsica, Cuba, Ethiopia, Ghana, Israel, Mauritius, Réunion, Mexico, Miami, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Tunisia and Vietnam.
The Centre Pompidou now has a retrospective exhibition dedicated to the artist entitled Hervé Di Rosa – Le passe-mondes (the world-crosser).
Mr Di Rosa has developed what he calls the “modest arts,” and he opened the MIAM (International Museum of Modest Arts) in the French town of Sète, close to Montpellier on the Mediterranean coast .
The idea of artistic modesty makes Di Rosa a perfect fit for Laurent Ferrier, a brand that is on the one hand very luxurious, but on the other likes to hide a lot of its technical wizardry, like tourbillons, on the back of the watch to be viewed in private.
Di Rosa is a long-time friend of the brand but this is their first collaboration.
The watch is a version of LF’s Classic Micro-Rotor watch, with 40mm stainless-steel case and FBN 229.01 automatic movement equipped with natural escapement micro-rotor.
This version has a hand-engraved 18 ct white gold depicting a bas-relief image first portrayed in an artwork created by Di Rosa and friends in Cameroon in 2014.
The 12-armed spider-like character is named ‘Ah! Ah! Ah!’ and is, we are told, the ‘guardian not only of time but also of the modesty of the arts, both menacing and protective’.
Di Rosa spent time with Mr Ferrier collaborating on the watch, and exercise that is at the heart of human nature.
“There is one important thing in life,” Di Rosa said. “It is encounters. We are nothing alone.”
The Laurent Ferrier Classic Micro-Rotor Di Rosa is a limited edition of five pieces. CHF 80,000 laurentferrier.ch