|Objects| Clockwise from
|Objects| Clockwise from top left: Dolce & Gabbana‘s Venice-inspired Marco Polo watch, dolcegabbana.com; the Gem Dior, dior. com; Van Cleef & Arpels’ secret watch, Perlée, vancleefarpels.com opens up various wearing options: it can be fixed on a bracelet or left dangling and dancing around the wrist. It can also be completely removed and linked to a leather cord to be worn around the neck as an uber-cool accessory. Sotheby’s head of jewellery, Olivier Wagner, recounts how the popularity of the pendant watch began in the 1920s as women’s role in the labour force grew in importance after the First World War: “They needed their own watches to manage their own time, so they began to attach pocket watches onto necklaces or brooches, adapting a popular item to their own requirements and styles.” In 1920, Vogue declared that “a pendant watch was the indispensable accessory of an elegant woman”. This still rings true a century later. The return of the pendant watch in our present day was predicted by Piaget in 1971 when the house introduced the visionary 21st Century Collection. It showcased a sautoir watch that is now part of Piaget’s private collection and was one of the highlights at Homo Faber, an exhibition of rare craftsmanship organised in Venice by the Michelangelo Foundation last April. Piaget’s 1969 pendant watch is an opulent three-stranded twisted chain interspersed with sculpted lapis lazuli details. The time is read on an organically shaped trapeze dial embellished with a dangling tassel of golden chains and lapis lazuli beads. “At Bulgari, we love playing with objects, to approach them differently, create new ways of PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE WATCHMAKERS 30 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
Pendant watches can be eye-catching and more unusual accessory alternatives — Olivier Wagner, Sotheby’s wearing jewellery and watches,” says product creation executive director Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani. With an imposing pendant secret watch with a hefty flat anchor chain, he fused two classic Bulgari styles: Monete, a collection featuring ancient coins, and Octo, comprising octagonal-shaped watches. The face of the ancient coin, usually featuring the sobering portraits of Roman emperors, is on the front of the secret watch. Once opened, one sees the back of the coin and the time on the skeletonised dial. Other houses have also put a swinging spin on their classics. Van Cleef & Arpels reimagined its icons – the four-leafed Alhambra, bubbled Perlée and Ludo – into secret pendant watches that feature deliciously coloured gemstones such as lapis lazuli, turquoise and carnelian. The time is displayed upside-down for the wearer’s comfort, just like the fob watches worn by nurses. For its first two sautoir-style watches, Dior’s creative director of jewellery, Victoire de Castellane, chose a thread-thin link bar chain from which the signature asymmetrical, octagonal, diamond-studded Gem Dior dial dangles. One face is adorned with vibrant malachite, the other with velvety-soft aragonite. “Many contemporary jewellery houses are looking for new ways of expressing their unique style and creativity, and pendant watches can be eyecatching and more unusual accessory alternatives,” says Wagner. Certainly eye-catching is the sumptuous manual mechanical watch pendant Marco Polo dreamed up by Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who have made elegant extravagance a trademark. Framed by a hand-engraved golden rectangular case, a nephrite disc displaying the time with golden hands is supported by a miniature golden lion – a nod to the symbol of Venice, which inspired the work. A total of 195 fancy pink diamonds are set around the dial and in the inside part of the frame, held by a richly ornate chain. No doubt, these stylish pendant watches send a clear message: time is precious – and there are so many elegant ways to keep it. A vintage Piaget watch from 1971, featuring yellow gold and lapis lazuli, piaget.com CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 31
