The Dior Timepiece Orchestra
Photo by Lynda Castonguay
It has not been easy even for an ink-slinger like myself to put into words my enchanted experience of previewing Christian Dior’s latest timepiece collection. But this is my earnest attempt at describing my candid close up with a brand and brand representative with whom I never thought I would share a room.
On one sunny Toronto afternoon, I made my way up to the famed Yorkville intersection of Bay and Bloor. My destination: leading jeweler Birks & Mayors. My appointment: 4:00 pm. My actual time of arrival: a keen half hour ahead of schedule. It is said that if you’re early, you’re on time and if you’re on time, you’re late. I went by this very logic.
I swung open the doors to Birks & Mayors and the unattainable world of Cartier and Van Cleef diamonds hit me like a ton of....well, diamonds. Polished rows of precious stones and jewels dazzled with all their might from every which way. With a crisp beverage in hand and french macarons within reach, I had all the makings for story time. Bright eyed and bushy tailed sitting on the lovely white couches waiting for my date with Dior, Caroline, their Marketing and Communications Manager of the Americas, successfully kept that feeling alive. The clock struck four and it was as if the lights dimmed, the curtains opened, and the fairytale began. In her infinite grace and wholly hypnotizing french accent, Caroline told us the story of Christian Dior and his take on time.
Photo courtesy of Dior
Season six of Sex and The City sees Carrie Bradshaw in Paris with her Russian boyfriend. On a rainy day, she steps into the Dior store, slips and flies forward onto the ground. She then proceeds to buy beyond her means to numb her embarrassment. Little do most of us know that that location was chosen by Christian himself. That store was Dior’s inception. It was the beginning to Dior’s no end. After that, everything and nothing mattered because with a last name made of such divine parts as Dieu (God) and Or (Gold), his ascent from humble beginnings to a status so few share was celestially unstoppable.
Dior boutique at Avenue Montaigne, Paris (Photo © Geraldine Dormoy)
Caroline spoke highly of this man who loved design, colour and craftsmanship and how today’s Dior without its founder is imbued with this essence. In spirit, Mr. Dior is still at the helm of the company as they make sure to know and learn him and bring him into the present tense to create what he would have himself. Throughout his career, Christian Dior established quite loudly his love and fascination for grandeur and luxury and it is those passions that have transcended time and have lead us to today’s timepiece collection.
The technical information was a bit dizzying as I know nothing really about the constructs of a watch, so I relied on what I know best - my sight. And what I saw were boundary pushing and visually stunning timepieces constructed with surgical precision by craftsmen with sleight of hand and the patience of saints using from the vast Dior garden of sapphires, gold, diamonds, jade, garnets, emeralds, rubies, ceramics, and mother-of-pearl, the world’s most precious stones and jewels, cut with precision, shaped with care, and hand laid with purpose.
Here’s a glimpse:
CHIFFRE ROUGE
First up, the James Bond of timepieces, Chiffre Rouge C03, a men’s limited edition watch “embodying the male universe of the House of Dior”. Exclusive to one hundred lucky buyers, the Chiffre Rouge C03 is aesthetically made of a brushed steel and antireflective sapphire crystal glass case, a stainless steel prong buckle engraved “DIOR HOMME”, a semi-matte black alligator strap, and a moon phase indicator on the dial. This piece combines masculinity and simplicity and evokes the rawness (and sexiness) of both.
Photo courtesy of Dior
MINI D DE DIOR
Mini in size but not in design, this little gem of a watch came to be in 2003 when Dior had Victoire de Castellane design its first timepiece. With ten plus years as Chanel’s costume jewelry designer before becoming Dior’s fine jewelry creator, Castellane was equipped with great fashion foresight to anticipate the “boyfriend watch” craze and created the first Mini D de Dior around the notion of women of the 70’s cutely borrowing their mans’ watch.
The smaller 19mm diameter of the Mini D has a diamond-set bezel and crown, a black mother-of-pearl dial, polished Dauphine hands, and a patent leather strap in trendy pops of fluorescent orange, yellow, and pink - the perfect something to electrify any ensemble !
The first ever Mini D displayed more virility and had stronger hints of manfulness. These versions are more effeminate and tender and in my visual opinion, will likely be a retail success. The hot orange, yellow and pink are proving to be quite the hot commodities ! See what I just did there ?
Photo courtesy of Dior
Photo courtesy of Dior
DIOR VIII
One of my favourite pieces is the DIOR VIII in Pink Gold and Ceramic. It is pieced together with a black high-tech ceramic case, pink gold diamond set bezel, pink gold crown, pink gold and transparent sapphire crystal case back and hand-applied diamond shaped hour markers. So basically, pink gold, pink gold, and more pink gold !
I call this timepiece the black widow. The pyramidal bracelet in black ceramic exudes this quiet fierceness but the many elements of pink gold soften it, creating a perfect balance. Its elements are a full representation of what is within every woman - strength and fragility.
Photo courtesy of Dior
GRAND BAL
Just when you think a watch is a watch and not much more can be done, Dior turns the timepiece industry upside down - quite literally. The oscillating weight typically on the under belly of a watch now debuts on the dial in Dior Inverse from the Grand Bal collection. Dior further pushed the envelope in 2013 by adorning the oscillating weight with fawn and rooster feathers, a tricky idea from which arose months of research, but then one grand result !
Photo courtesy of Dior
This timepiece was inspired by ball gowns and the longing to recreate the captivating swirl of a gown in movement. It truly showcased the Parisian atelier’s creativity and the Swiss manufacturers’ know-how. With every movement of the wrist, the oscillating weight romantically sways with you; a showcase that every action does indeed have a reaction. And maybe, just maybe, a faint message that every day should be lived as if it was a night at the ball.
Christian Dior’s legacy is many things, but it is overall a tale of enduring time. Time is made up of moments and it is those moments accrued that make us who we are and are what made Dior what it is today. Dior recognizes and appreciates the fragility in this and these timepieces are their offerings to us of the immeasurable beauty we each witness in the seconds, minutes, and hours of our lives.
Some numerologists believe that when a clock strikes 11:11, the gateway between our physical and spiritual world opens up and in that moment we should reflect and think deeper. With a Dior timepiece, however, every time sequence opens us up to that other world and to our dear Christian. At every change of the big and small hands on a Dior timepiece, he is signaling that time is a beautiful privilege and reminds us to be appreciative of that beauty and of what time really means - “Time is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need, the time you need to have the time of your life. ” - Norton Juster.
Photo courtesy of Dior
Photo courtesy of Dior
Photo courtesy of Dior
Photo courtesy of Dior
Photo courtesy of Dior
Photo courtesy of Dior
Photo courtesy of Dior
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