Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Animal Kingdom

Six artists, six rare crafts and six extraordinary interpretations of the animal world, brought together on the dial of a mechanical watch.

Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Animal Kingdom is a series of six concept watches created through the Maison’s One of Not Many Crafts Programme, an initiative dedicated to exploring new approaches to horological craftsmanship while preserving the importance of human savoir-faire.

Rather than relying exclusively on the traditional artistic crafts associated with watchmaking, Vacheron Constantin invited six artisans whose practices exist outside conventional horological Métiers d’Art and challenged them to translate their disciplines onto the miniature scale of a watch dial.

The result is a collection built around six very different crafts: featherwork, glass sculpting, micro-origami, gold embroidery, paper sculpting and wood marquetry. Each technique is used to depict an animal, transforming the dial into a miniature work of art.

The six creations are united not only by their subject matter, but also by the technical challenge behind them. Each watch features a 42 mm case, while the space between the dial and the protective sapphire crystal is limited to no more than 4 mm. For artists accustomed to working on much larger surfaces, this meant completely rethinking their techniques, tools and even their gestures.

One Of Not Many Crafts Programme

The preservation and continuation of creative craftsmanship has been part of Vacheron Constantin’s identity since the Maison was founded in 1755. Over the centuries, this has included traditional horological disciplines such as guilloché, engraving, enamelling and gem-setting.

The One of Not Many Crafts Programme takes this heritage into new territory. Instead of limiting Métiers d’Art to established watchmaking disciplines, the programme seeks out artisans working in other fields and encourages them to explore how their expertise can be applied to a fully functional timepiece.

For the Animal Kingdom project, this approach created a dialogue between the six independent artists and Vacheron Constantin’s own specialists. Both sides had to confront technical and creative problems that were unfamiliar to them, resulting in new tools, techniques and working methods.

The Maison describes the initiative as a form of creative incubation: by bringing crafts rarely associated with horology onto the watch dial, it expands the creative vocabulary of Métiers d’Art while ensuring that traditional savoir-faire continues to evolve.

A Mechanical Canvas For Six Artists

The movement uses an unconventional display system in which the hours, minutes, day of the week and date are shown through four apertures positioned at the four extremities of the dial. Rather than filling the centre with conventional hands and indexes, the architecture leaves the dial remarkably open.

This effectively transforms the surface into a canvas for artistic expression.

The automatic calibre measures 31 mm in diameter and 6.05 mm thick, operates at 4 Hz and provides approximately 40 hours of power reserve. It contains 237 components and 27 jewels.

The movement also features a specially designed 22K gold oscillating weight, hand-engraved with motifs inspired by the tools of master artisans as a tribute to craftsmanship. Each watch is paired with a dedicated calfskin strap whose embossed decoration echoes the artistic language of its dial.

Feathersnake — Julien Vermeulen

The first creation is Feathersnake, developed with French featherwork artist Julien Vermeulen.

Vermeulen discovered featherwork during a formative period at the atelier of French couturier Jean-Paul Gaultier, where he came to understand that feathers could become much more than simple ornament. He trained in applied arts at the Lycée Octave Feuillet in France and founded his own workshop in 2014 with the ambition of reviving and reinventing a craft he considered to be fading.

For Vacheron Constantin, Vermeulen created an imaginary serpent coiling across a fantastical landscape.

The serpent rises approximately 3 mm above the dial and achieves its volume through a specially developed metal appliqué that supports the feathers. More than 200 tiny pieces, derived from seven rare Lophophore feathers, form the snake. Their natural blue-green iridescence creates shifting reflections reminiscent of living scales, while goose feathers are used for the surrounding foliage and background.

The preparation of the feathers was itself an exercise in precision. Their central quills had to be removed because they would have created excessive thickness, while the delicate barbs had to remain intact. The feathers were then mounted onto silk paper, allowing them to be cut with extreme precision before being transferred to the metal structure.

Existing tools were simply too large for the task. Vermeulen created a custom micro-scalpel from a reshaped needle and modified a sewing needle to apply microscopic dots of glue.

The complete work required approximately 250 hours, including research and prototyping, with the precision involved described as comparable to surgery.

The artist himself explains that the smallest feather elements measured only a few tenths of a millimetre. At certain stages, even breathing too heavily could disturb the pieces, while the increasing curvature around the serpent’s head and eye introduced another level of difficulty. He could not work for more than four hours per day because of the concentration required.

The serpent’s eye is made from 18K gold and enamel, providing a single point of stillness within the otherwise dynamic composition.

The green calfskin strap carries an embossed leaf motif inspired by the vegetation on the dial and is secured by an 18K white-gold buckle.

Technical Specifications

Glassoctopus — Simone Crestani

The second creation, Glassoctopus, brings the work of Italian glass artist Simone Crestani into watchmaking.

Crestani began working with glass at a young age and has built his practice around transparent glass sculpture. His work explores the contrast between the material’s apparent fragility and its strength, while drawing particular inspiration from vegetal and marine worlds.

For this project, Crestani created a transparent octopus that appears to float above a dark-blue, hand-guilloché gold dial.

The creature rises only 3.5 mm above the dial, requiring a completely new approach to glass sculpting. Instead of creating a conventional three-dimensional sculpture, the technique developed for the project translates a complex form into a delicate 2.5D sculpture.

Tiny glass rods are melted and shaped using tungsten tools, with the octopus constructed piece by piece. Each tentacle and individual sucker has to be built progressively because reheating extremely fine glass threads would cause them to collapse through surface tension. Special tungsten tools allow details such as the face and suckers to be impressed into the glass without melting entire sections of the sculpture.

Transparency created another major difficulty. Every thickness, overlap and refraction had to be considered because glass can magnify and distort what lies behind it. Optical illusions were therefore developed to suggest overlapping tentacles without creating unwanted visual distortions.

The architecture of the watch added another constraint. Two sections of the tentacles pass just above the four apertures displaying the hours, minutes, day and date. Those windows rise only 0.2 mm above the dial, meaning their precise position influenced the final design of the octopus.

The development lasted more than a year, beginning with prototypes in spring 2025. Each prototype required at least three days of work, with four slightly different octopuses ultimately produced before the final version was selected.

For Crestani, the project represented a significant turning point. After twenty-five years working with glass, it forced him to develop a technique he had never previously used and demonstrated that working at such a small scale could be as demanding as creating monumental glass sculptures.

The watch is completed with a blue calfskin strap embossed with an octopus tentacle motif.

Technical Specifications

Oraygami — Anya Midori

With Oraygami, German-based artist Anya Midori brings micro-origami to the wrist.

Midori discovered micro-origami less than a decade ago and has developed a highly precise approach to the discipline. For her, folding is a meditative practice that requires intense concentration, with the same attention given to the hidden underside of a fold as to the visible surface.

Her creation features a group of miniature manta rays suspended above a deep-blue, hand-guilloché dial.

Each ray measures between 5 and 10 mm and is folded from specially dyed Japanese paper before being mounted on fine brass stems at different heights. This gives the impression that the creatures are floating through an underwater environment.

The dial combines the blue hand-guilloché gold base with a moiré effect on the crystal, evoking the changing distortions of light beneath the surface of the ocean. Even the four time and date indications are discreetly integrated into the composition.

The technical process behind the apparently effortless scene is considerably more complex.

Traditional origami frequently relies on existing folding sequences that can be adapted to new forms. For this project, however, Midori had to invent an entirely new sequence from scratch. She studied photographs and videos of real manta rays to understand their proportions, tails and movements before translating those observations into folds.

The rays were folded using only fingers, fingernails and the tip of a toothpick, without magnifying glasses. The paper measured just 9 to 12 mm before folding and approximately 6 to 8 mm once completed.

The paper weighed only 20 grams, roughly one quarter the thickness of standard copier paper, meaning that virtually every intervention changed its physical behaviour. The paper therefore had to be specially dyed to obtain the required blue. The dyeing process made it slightly thicker and stiffer, while added cellulose provided enough malleability to create softer, more organic forms.

The development process lasted more than two years, from the first conversations in summer 2024 until completion in 2026. Early manta rays could require up to six hours each to fold.

For Midori, the project was particularly significant because it was the first time she had participated from the very beginning of the creative process rather than simply executing an existing concept.

A blue calfskin strap with an embossed wave motif extends the underwater theme beyond the dial.

Technical Specifications

Tigerbroidery — Laura Baverstock

Tigerbroidery introduces one of the rarest crafts in watchmaking to the collection: gold embroidery.

The artist behind it is Laura Baverstock, a graduate of the Royal School of Needlework in the United Kingdom and a member of the Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers. Her work adapts traditional stitching techniques to contemporary designs, with bold silhouettes and an extraordinary level of attention to detail. She is particularly inspired by illustration and the natural world, and her work has appeared in film costumes and creations for renowned fashion houses.

For Tigerbroidery, Baverstock created a tiger prowling through an imaginary jungle.

The animal is embroidered using 9-karat yellow and white gold wires, while specially developed ceramic-coated black wires create its stripes. The surrounding vegetation is embroidered onto green silk using multiple shades of Japanese silk thread and textured weaving techniques.

The choice of 9-karat gold represented a major technical challenge. Higher gold content changes the flexibility and behaviour of the material, meaning that entirely new miniature tools had to be developed to twist and coil the gold into workable embroidery wires. Bespoke needles as fine as 0.25 mm were also created.

The tiger’s body is composed of individually hand-cut fragments of gold wire, each measuring less than one millimetre. Even the eyes required ten different shades of silk to achieve sufficient depth and expression.

A specialist slate frame was developed to maintain perfect tension in the silk because even the smallest movement could distort the composition.

The watch itself dictated much of the artistic process. The embroidery had to accommodate the four fan-shaped apertures displaying the indications, while also remaining beneath the curved sapphire crystal. At its thickest point, the embroidery could not exceed approximately 3 to 4 mm, around half the thickness previously used in miniature goldwork embroidery.

A bespoke perforated titanium dial plate was developed so the embroidery could be stitched directly onto the watch structure without affecting the movement. The complete dial required approximately 210 hours of work.

Baverstock normally depicts animal faces, so being challenged to create an entire tiger and portray it in motion required extensive research using wildlife imagery and documentary footage.

For her, the project represented a major step forward in her practice, pushing embroidery into a new artistic and technical territory.

The green calfskin strap features an embossed vegetal motif echoing the jungle landscape.

Technical Specifications

Papercroc — Marianne Guély

French artist Marianne Guély brings paper sculpture to the collection with Papercroc.

Guély, based in Paris, is known for sculptures, monumental installations and minute designs made from paper. Originally trained in industrial design, she established her studio to explore the possibilities of the material through techniques including embossing, folding, laser cutting and layering. Her work uses light and shadow to give white paper a sculptural presence while challenging the conventional idea that paper is inherently fragile.

Papercroc presents an all-white crocodile moving through vegetation that appears to be covered in snow. At first glance, the scene could almost be mistaken for ice sculpture. In reality, the entire composition is made from white cotton paper.

Two different paper weights are used: 250- and 300-gram sheets. Through embossing, laser cutting and hand assembly, Guély creates a layered composition measuring only approximately 3 mm in height.

The relief is carefully calibrated. The crocodile must have enough volume to appear alive and sculptural, but not enough to interfere with the technical constraints of the watch. The surrounding foliage also had to remain recognisable despite being reduced to a microscopic scale.

Custom brass matrices engraved with the crocodile’s scales and foliage were heated to between 60 and 70°C before being pressed onto the paper under intense pressure.

The choice of paper was equally important. After extensive testing, an acid-free white cotton paper was selected for its grain, weight and velvety texture, as well as its ability to withstand the embossing process without tearing or warping.

Natural-fibre paper also brought its own problems, particularly its tendency to fray. Guély overcame this through careful layering and the precise superposition of elements, using variations in size and position to create subtle shadows.

The four apertures displaying the time and date were incorporated into the composition from the beginning, with the crocodile appearing to nestle naturally between them.

For Guély, the project represented the fulfilment of a long-held ambition. She had always been fascinated by watchmaking and wanted to explore the possibility of bringing paper into haute horlogerie.

The grey calfskin strap carries embossed foliage motifs that continue the visual language of the dial.

Technical Specifications

Woodenwings — Anna Le Corno

The final creation is Woodenwings, developed with artist Anna Le Corno.

Originally trained in architecture, Le Corno continued her studies at the École Boulle in Paris, specialising in woodwork. Her practice encompasses contemporary furniture, sculptural works and decorative objects, combining the ancient art of wood marquetry with a modern approach. Her work has been recognised with the Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris in the Emerging Talent category.

For Vacheron Constantin, Le Corno created a fierce falcon using 12 different wood species, each selected for its grain, texture, colour and structural properties.

The woods include figured birch, spalted horse chestnut, lacewood sycamore, ziricote, yellow pearwood, tulipwood, ash, birch, madrone burl, smoked eucalyptus, smoked oak and plane tree.

The falcon is hand-sculpted and carved to reveal the details of its plumage and create a strong sense of movement. Behind it, concentric circular motifs create an abstract background that also serves as an exploration of the visual and tactile richness of wood.

Three different marquetry techniques are combined.

The background uses circular marquetry adapted from furniture work. The falcon’s body uses sculpted layered marquetry, an evolution of traditional flat marquetry in which multiple veneers are assembled into a layered structure before being sculpted by hand.

The wings employ a third technique developed specifically for the project: “feather-by-feather” assembly.

At this scale, conventional woodworking tools were unusable. Le Corno instead worked with surgical-style scalpels, microscopic carbide bits from Japan and the United States and custom-made sanding instruments. Much of the work was carried out under binocular magnification.

The entire composition rises only around 3 mm above the dial. The wing is cantilevered over the dial base, with its feather tips positioned almost at the limit of contact with the sapphire crystal.

Material selection was therefore dictated not only by colour but by structural behaviour. Some woods became too fragile and fibrous to produce sufficiently precise details at this scale.

Le Corno explains that her normal work involves large furniture pieces and sculptural objects, where the natural grain of the wood can be appreciated across much larger surfaces. This project forced her to rethink both her tools and techniques while learning to work under binocular magnification.

The final result is paired with a blue calfskin strap carrying an embossed striped motif.

Technical Specifications

A Longstanding Fascination With Nature

The animal kingdom was not chosen randomly for the project.

For Vacheron Constantin, nature and fauna have long been sources of inspiration, not simply decorative subjects. The Maison describes the natural world as a way of encouraging observation, curiosity and reinvention.

That relationship can be traced back through several historical creations.

A pocket watch dating from 1826, reference 10200, features a black enamel serpent within a relief-decorated 18K yellow-gold case, accompanied by turquoise and amethyst elements.

A 1910 jewelled scarab pendant watch, reference 10556, uses green and black enamel wings set with diamonds and rubies. When the wings are spread, they reveal the small dial hidden underneath, while the case reproduces the insect’s morphology in detail.

A 1923 pocket watch, reference 10222, features a bird rendered in Chinese lacquer, reflecting the Maison’s collaboration with the Verger Frères tradition and its interest in Asian decorative arts.

The animal theme continued in the modern era. In 1996, reference 11022 depicted a snowy egret using champlevé and miniature enamelling techniques, in a series inspired by John James Audubon’s Birds of America.

The Métiers d’Art Univers Infinis collection of 2011 brought together engraving, guilloché, enamelling and gem-setting in a contemporary interpretation of nature, while the Les Cabinotiers Tourbillon Joaillerie – Hippocampe of 2022 depicted a seahorse using guilloché, engraving, cloisonné enamel and gem-setting.

The Animal Kingdom project therefore continues an established relationship with fauna, but approaches it through six crafts that sit outside the traditional vocabulary of watchmaking.

Six Artists, Six Crafts, One Vision

The real achievement of the Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Animal Kingdom lies in the dialogue between artistic disciplines and mechanical watchmaking.

Julien Vermeulen had to transform rare feathers into a serpent only millimetres high. Simone Crestani had to rethink twenty-five years of glassmaking experience to sculpt an octopus in a microscopic format. Anya Midori created an entirely new origami sequence for manta rays smaller than a few centimetres. Laura Baverstock transformed gold wires into a moving tiger through embroidery. Marianne Guély demonstrated the sculptural potential of paper, while Anna Le Corno reduced the expressive possibilities of wood marquetry to a three-dimensional falcon.

None of these disciplines was simply miniaturised. Each had to evolve.

The watches became laboratories in which materials, tools and techniques were tested against the unforgiving constraints of haute horlogerie. At the same time, the Calibre 2460 G4 provided an unusual mechanical canvas, allowing the artistic compositions to occupy the centre of the dial without being obscured by conventional indications.

This is ultimately the purpose of the One of Not Many Crafts Programme: to preserve the knowledge of traditional craftsmanship while opening the door to new forms of artistic expression.

The six resulting watches demonstrate that the future of Métiers d’Art does not necessarily lie in repeating what has already been mastered. Sometimes, it lies in inviting an entirely different discipline into the world of watchmaking and discovering what happens when the two meet.

In the Animal Kingdom, feathers, glass, paper, gold thread and wood all become part of a functioning mechanical watch — proving that, at this level of craftsmanship, the boundary between horology and art can become remarkably thin.

For more information, please visit the official Vacheron Consatantin website.

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