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Even the most dedicated watches collectors could be forgiven for not knowing the name Olivier Vaucher. But if you are only little aware of the current mania for Métiers d’ArtThen you will be familiar with the work of your gin atelier. More than 47 years, their art dials have helped change the perception of what a watch can be. Do you feel like a clock with scores of hours of 12 small golden knights on your round table? He did it for Roger Dubuis. Or maybe you are more inclined to have an intertwined dragon around the movement? He created it for Richard Mille.
“I love working with Richard. He came to me saying: ‘I sold this clock of a drawing and now I have to do it,” says Vaucher while we are in his workshop. “We had to install a new large CNC machine equipped with ultrasound to do it.” Now in his 70 years, he is a striking man. Tall and thin, it is blessed with handsome features that can still be described as chisels and hypnotic eyes somewhere between the aquamarine and the turquoise color that shines with enthusiasm.
The sad office blockade in one of the most unpretentious suburbs of Geneva that houses its workshops denies polychrome beauty abundance. Each piece of wall space is covered with representations and designs for some of the most memorable watches of the last decades. It’s like seeing the old friends of school after many years.
A condition of our meeting was that it would observe the discretion of its customers, ranging from fashion houses to centenary watches brands and would include some of the most famous names in luxury and high watches. Brands have specific requirements and different styles for their dials, however, all are made with the same hands. We pass the very illuminated lighting workshops in which numerous pairs of these hands are dedicated to intricate tasks, including the micro sculpted of gold so detailed that it requires that the artisans work with a 10x increase and the paint in miniature enamel that, brushstroke after tiny rock, shrinks the teachers celebrated until they fit the limited space of a clock. Everywhere there are recorders, goldsmiths, enameters and jewelers who carry out their work with ease practiced.
Vaucher acquired his job In the engraving school in La-Chaux-de-Fonds. “We were only three of us in each year, with 12 students in total. I started my own business in 1978,” he says about a time defined by “skeletal movements”, which required an elaborate engraving. “I worked a lot to Audemars PiguetAs at that time they did not have an internal engraver. “With the passage of time, a group of young artisans joined around in his historical workshop near the famous Jet d’Auu de Geneva.” We work in a very idealistic way, “he continues. We share everything and remain open to new ideas.”
For years, this artisanal “commune” became the multidisciplinary workshop that bears his name today. “In 1995 we began to make engravings and dials with animated figures that raise their arms to indicate the hours and minutes. Later, watchmaking houses such as Choir and Piaget We approach us and gradually specialize in the production of dials. “It makes a momentary pause, lost in a memory.
Obviously he is delighted to have a complete order book, but also aware that he must retain the creativity and imagination that make his works so much appreciated. It would be impossible to describe his work as a production line and wants him to stay that way, keeping his artisans motivated and interested instead of repeating himself. “Make a large series of watches kill the job“, Says.
He has to thank his daughter’s marriage for a new creative association. Her husband’s half -brother, Olivier Gaud (39) worked as an executive at Richemont, with periods in Cartier and Vacheron Constantin. “I met with Olivier and his wife Dominique in family gatherings,” says Gaud, “and began to talk about having their own clock where they could show the craziest projects of Atelier. But they really didn’t have time to dedicate it. As soon as I left Richemont in 2021 to start my own brand, OligoI called Olivier to say that I had time to work on the project of his dreams. ”
As compact and commercial as the other Olivier is tall and dreamer, Olivier Gaud can have a business title, but he is much more interested in explaining how a friend, who is a teacher at the watchmaking school, taught him the trade during seven years of unofficial night school. “Basically I am a watch geek,” he says with obvious pride. Of Olivier Senior’s skills, he adds: “In 47 years, one of the best has created Métiers d’Art Ateliers in Europe. He is always open and excited about the new technology. Sometimes it may seem a bit naive when it comes to businesses, but it has incredible intuition. First we talked in June, and in September Olivier had found space for a workshop inside his workshop. ”
The result is Taos: 10 clocks (real watches, not models lines) that are barely large enough to be called brand. At the time of writing, a clock had been sold and an order was made for a custom piece. Vaucher believes that the real value of the project does not lie in sales. “Taos allows us to explore unknown territory and participate in concrete investigations, continue pushing the creative limits for our clients,” he says. Letting artistic Olivier and his wife believe, Executive Olivier obtained the rest of the clock. The case is done in Geneva. The movement comes from la-chaux-de-fonds, and an engraver passes between 80 and 150 hours transforming it into something worth adjusting under a vaucher sphere.
Talking about engraving brings an ironic smile to his face. It seems that the last days have been consumed with discussions between the two oliviers about the depth and the amount of engraving currently in production. Due to the appearance of a slight frustration that passes on the face of the Olivier Executive, the negotiations have not completely gone in their own way. It shrinks fatalistic shoulders. “Part of my work is trying to limit some of the most ambitious ideas,” he says. “And moments like this can be a bit challenging. Fortunately, we have a good relationship.”
“I am likely to roam all kinds of creative roads, but always put me on the right path,” says Olivier Artistic, diplomatically.
Not unpredictable, the dials are notable. A so -called Kaleidoscope is a mosaic of Lapislázuli, turquoise, tsavorite and of recorded nac. Broderie is a dial in which hundreds of small threads of molten enamel are organized to create a strange lace drill. My favorite, Euphorie, is literal and figurative, a fireworks exhibition.
“This is a new technique that we have developed: it is the Paillonné enamel in layers,” explains Gaud, referring to the carefully arranged spots and filaments of gold and silver trapped between layers of transparent red enamel such as prehistoric flies in Amber. “It was a nightmare to reach the desired quality. Every time we fired a layer, the silver and gold paillons behaved differently at different temperatures. Each enamel layer must be fired at a lower temperature than the previous one. And even if we finish a dial, Olivier could reject it if he believes it is pink or too orange. Then, we put the acid in acid to dissipate the love and start again.” “He pauses, before adding it:” We will not do that again. “Looking at the smile that appears on Olivier’s artistic face, I would not be very safe.