Fabergé Maki-E Tiger Limited Edition Watch

Crafted from 18k gold, these creations feature a craft technique that has never been featured in Fabergé watches before: the ancient Japanese art of Kaga-Maki-e. The limited-edition collection features three hand-decorated watch dials, depicting a tiger, a lion and an eagle. These powerful animals have been applied to each dial by a female Maki-e artisan in Japan, each one taking two to three months to be meticulously hand-painted.

Maki-e is an ancient, yet sophisticated, lacquer technique, which originated in Japan and literally translates as ‘sprinkled picture’. Images are created by hand-painting striking designs in lacquer with a fine brush, then sprinkling layers of gold or silver dust over the lacquer while it is still wet. Only a small number of artisans in Japan are capable of carrying out this rare technique.

The lacquers used are formed from natural resin from the ‘Japanese lacquer tree’, Rhus verniciflua. Environmentally friendly, these are the same lacquers that were used as glue over 13,000 years ago. Maki-e has evolved over a long period of time, with evidence of the technique found at the Shosohin, an Imperial Treasury built in the 8th century.

These creations represent the perfect marriage of art and watchmaking and feature a Vaucher Manufacture self-winding movement. Designed, manufactured and assembled in traditional fashion, the calibres make use of an oscillating weight decorated in the Fabergé style. To highlight the precious and rare character of this movement, it is produced in 22k gold, which also brings more accuracy to the movement due to its weight.

Through its carefully considered design from the intricate, traditional motif on the dial, to the tactile pleasure derived from winding its unique crown, the Fabergé Altruist is an elegant, three-handed 41mm watch resolutely modern in its construction. The collection is wound and adjusted by a Fabergé crown with a pivoting finger-grip, which swings out to offer a winding experience and offers a playful, kinetic element.