The Magnificent Seven: Mixed Media Watches That Embody Artistic Expression

In the modern world, the arts are classified into seven categories: painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, music, theater, and film. There can be crossover; for example, drama is literature with acting, and songs are music with lyrics, and there are a million movies about all the above art forms.

Watches are also artistic. Sometimes the dial acts as a canvas for talented artisans. Other times, they operate as small kinetic sculptures or tiny architectural houses. And they are almost always a way for the wearer to express themselves.

To explore our theory, here are recent releases that celebrate the seven arts.

Last week, Hermès opened its first Nashville boutique. To celebrate the spirit of Music City, the brand’s latest opus – the Arceau On Air! – depicts a collection of guitars.

Based on a design by artist Carine Brancowitz, the Arceau On Air! pushes the musical theme even further by painting the miniature scene onto a sapphire dial with pad-printed grooves that evoke the texture of a vinyl record.
 

The classic Arceau display also gets a new arrangement, with its signature Arabic numerals stripped away, leaving the instruments to take center stage. Moreover, the 38mm white gold, time-only watch cleverly utilizes steel hands as metaphorical plectrums. These “picks” appear to strum the guitars’ strings before gliding along the grooves of the record.

As for rhythm, the Arceau On Air! is powered by the Manufacture Hermès H1912 movement. This 3.7mm-thick automatic calibre offers 50 hours of power reserve and beats at 28,800 vph.
 

Priced at $69,800, the Arceau On Air! is a very limited edition with just two versions available on either a matte Bleu Abysse or Rouge H alligator strap crafted in the Hermès Horloger workshops. Moreover, each version is limited to only two pieces.

The Kojiki, Japan’s oldest extant book, was published in 712 AD and contains some of the earliest references to the warrior-poets who would later be known as the samurai, as well as many passages extolling the use and admiration of the sword. Chopard’s latest collection of three exclusive L.U.C Quattro Spirit jumping-hour watches takes a page from these epic stories.
 

And while the cases are forged from ethical gold rather than steel, these creations feature symbols of Japanese culture embedded into their Grand Feu enamel dials, with the dial of the L.U.C Quattro Spirit Enso adorned with a circular swoop, drawn in a single stroke as an act of meditation and mindfulness; the dial of the L.U.C Quattro Spirit Samurai Last Stand represents the tattered battle fan, a powerful symbol from Japanese military history; finally, the L.U.C Quattro Spirit Meditating Daruma draws its inspiration from an iconic ink painting by Konoe Nobutada (1565–1614) that depicts a legendary monk named Daruma.
 

This mini-collection is driven by Chopard’s Co-President Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s personal relationship with Japan and by that country’s ability to elevate everyday objects and rituals into a sincere, deeply human form of poetry. In the case of this trio of L.U.C Quattro Spirit models, that reverence is symbolized by the Poinçon de Genève hallmark each has received.
 

Inside each 18-Karat ethical white or rose gold 40mm case, you will find the four barrels that drive the exclusive Chopard Quattro L.U.C Calibre 98.06-L, which offers an eight-day power reserve. Each edition is limited to eight timepieces and priced at $68,700.

In all art, the medium is often the message. Artists like Jackson Pollock and Yves Klein proved that you don’t need a paintbrush to cover a canvas, while others, such as Chris Ofili, demonstrated that you don’t even require paint to make a painting. Similarly, the new Antarctique Plique-à-Jour from Czapek uses enamel and light to create a picture of icy calm.
 

In honor of the 10^th anniversary of the Maison’s relaunch, Czapek has taken its standard 40.5mm steel Antarctique sports watch and added a plique-a-Jour dial. This intricate and delicate technique uses a metal framework to suspend transparent enamel sections, creating a transparent effect not unlike a little stained-glass window.

And we think, in many ways, the contemplative nature of assembling these dials (made in collaboration with MD’Art and Bagues-Masriera) is a form of performance art, especially since, to heighten the gradient glow of the technique, Czapek has opted for the skeletonized version of the brand’s in-house movement, the calibre SXH7.
 

The specifications of this movement provide another window into Czapek’s artistic statement. It has a 4Hz frequency, a 60-hour power reserve, and a recycled platinum micro-rotor. The whole contraption is decorated with open ratchets, sandblasted rhodium-plated bridges, beveling, straight-grained sides, hand chamfering, and a total of 18 inward angles.
 

The Czapek Antarctique Plique-à-Jour comes with an integrated stainless-steel bracelet and additional rubber strap, is limited to just 10 pieces, and is priced at $76,100.

The most important works of architecture are defined by decorative details just as much as structure. Likewise, Glashütte Original’s three new Senator Meissen Limited Editions, featuring exquisite porcelain dials, show how craft completes a silhouette.

These time-only limited editions mark two special anniversaries of Saxon craft – 180 years of watchmaking in the town of Glashütte and 315 years of Meissen porcelain. Like most edifices, these limited editions are built to last for generations. But the decorations are also inspired by generations of artworks that came before them.
 

In total, there are three versions of the Senator Meissen Limited Editions, each hand-painted. The first two feature a “Mystic Maison” motif, consisting of a delicate grey foliate pattern on either a white porcelain or celadon green porcelain background. These two pieces are references to historic East-Asian ceramics.

The third Senator Meissen Limited Edition, called the “Collage,” is a reinterpretation of a playful flower-and-animal design from Meissen’s iconic “Dekorwelten” crater vase.
 

Beneath the elegant display beats the Calibre 36-16, which features bidirectional automatic winding, a silicon balance spring for enhanced magnetic and thermal stability, stop-seconds, and a generous 100-hour power reserve at an operating frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour.

The movement finishing features a stripe-finished three-quarter plate, a hand-engraved balance cock, polished bevels, and blued screws, with a skeletonized rotor bearing the double-G and a 21-carat gold mass.
 

These elements are all housed in a polished 40mm 18k red-gold case with a domed, anti-reflective sapphire crystal on the front and another sapphire crystal on the display caseback.

The Glashütte Original Senator Meissen collection is priced at $30,300 for the Mystic Maison in either white or celadon and $36,400 for the Collage.

With Montblanc’s legendary ties to writing instruments, you probably thought we’d associate the new 44.8mm Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon Château de Versailles with literature. But this timepiece is so opulent that it deserves to be on stage rather than the page.

In fact, this limited-edition tourbillon is a dramatization of the legendary Yew Tree Ball (Le Bal des Ifs) – a masquerade ball held in 1745 by King Louis XV. The event was held in the gilded Hall of Mirrors (Galerie des Glaces) at the Palace of Versailles and attended by some 1,500 elaborately costumed guests.
 

The 18-karat yellow gold Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon Château de Versailles itself is costumed with marquetry, manual engraving, and champlevé enamel, with cutting-edge 3D modeling and laser etching. The white gold dial features a black enamel coating and gold paillons that create the illusion of candlelight reflecting off Versailles’ mirrored chandeliers (which were basically the 18^th-century equivalent of a disco ball). The white champlevé enamel sub-dial and blue enamel Roman numerals also recall pocket watches of the era.
 

Despite its over-the-top appearance, its movement, the MB M16.68 manual-winding calibre, is quite refined. Here are the specs: It has an 18,800 vph (2.5Hz) frequency, a 50-hour power reserve, 218 components, 19 jewels, and a patented one-minute Suspended Exo Tourbillon.

Finally, to further set the scene for this over-the-top watch, Montblanc has commissioned a special presentation box from Elie Bleu, the renowned Parisian maker of fine cabinetry, that doubles as a Reuge music box, playing a score originally performed at Versailles during weddings.
 

When the music box is activated, the timepiece languidly dances across a miniature oak parquet floor, encircled by marble arches. Limited to eight pieces, the price for the Montblanc Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon Château de Versailles is available upon request.

Hollywood and Switzerland love a good remake. Perhaps that is why Patek Philippe recently revisited its Art Deco-inspired Gondolo Serata model, releasing a sequel featuring a whimsical zebra surrounded by sparkling spessartites.

The Gondolo Serata debuted in 2006 with a diamond-set white gold bezel framing a guilloché mother-of-pearl dial. Since then, there have been different sizes and materials. However, the important takeaway is that the various Gondolo Serata models are period pieces with cases that are a modern interpretation of Art Deco design and a callback to one of the Manufacture’s golden eras.
 

This latest edition, the Zebra, is also an expansion of the Patek Universe, showcasing an original zebra motif inspired by the Reference 5738/50G-023 Golden Ellipse wristwatch in cloisonné enamel, from the 2022 Rare Handcrafts collection.

Just as the movies use technological tricks to create fantastic visuals, the Manufacture has applied an innovative and refined technique: a sapphire crystal dial, engraved and black-varnished on both sides, to bring the zebra motif to life. This special effect is completed with black metallization and white varnish on the underside of the sapphire crystal dial, adding extra depth.
 

To keep the zebra the focus, the time is communicated by only two applied Breguet-style numerals at 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock and indicated by rose gold leaf-shaped hands. The simple framing device is a 28.6x 40.85mm case set with 94 brilliant-cut spessartite gemstones. The quartz caliber E15 provides the running time.

The Patek Philippe Gondolo Serata Zebra is a non-limited edition and is priced at $51,641.

While Hublot and artist Daniel Arsham have collaborated on many designs (notably the Droplet pocket watch released in 2024), the new MP-17 Meca-10 Arsham Splash Titanium Sapphire represents a bold new direction for the partnership.

This edition takes titanium and sapphire – both materials that are very difficult to work with – and makes them feel almost liquid. Some wags are even calling the amorphous shape the Hublot Crash.
 

This fluid timepiece is made possible by the brand’s new downsized Meca-10 caliber introduced at the beginning of the year. As a result, the sandblasted titanium case measures 42mm in diameter. At the same time, it stands at 15.35mm in case height. This allows the wearer to gaze deep down into the uniquely shaped, openwork dial.

Arsham’s work also deals with deconstruction, and on this MP-17 Meca-10, that story is expressed through a laser-textured frosted sapphire bezel. Meanwhile, an integrated black rubber strap provides a flying saucer effect.
 

The Hublot MP-17 Meca-10 Arsham Splash Titanium Sapphire is limited to 99 pieces, priced at $69,000, and is available at Hublot Boutiques.