The Manufacture pulls out all the stops for its homage to the grand master of ukiyo-e art
There are reproductions, and then there are reproductions by Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Métiers Rares atelier, the widely recognised experts in the crafts of miniature painting, guillochage and Grand Feu enamelling.
If you were in any doubt about their skill, take a look at these exquisite miniature-painted enamel renditions of works by Katsushika Hokusai, Japan’s most celebrated 19th-century artist: The Waterfall at Ono on the Kisokaido Road (Kisokaidō Ono no bakufu) and The Waterfall Where Yoshitsune Washed his Horse at Yoshino in Yamato Province (Washū Yoshino Yoshitsune uma arai no taki).
To capture Hokusai’s innovative composition technique and use of colour, the miniature paintings on the casebacks were executed using a variety of methods—most meticulous and time-consuming—such as the Geneva technique, involving at least 14 layers of enamel, each fired at 800°C before the next can be applied, over a period of 80 hours.
Apart from reproducing Hokusai’s original colours (including the graduated bokashi effect) in an entirely different medium, the enameller faced the challenge of precisely reproducing every detail with pinpoint accuracy, on a scale approximately one-tenth of the original.
This dedication is exemplified by the cartouches near the top of each frame, in which the original captions have been hand-written on a microscopic scale yet remain perfectly accurate and legible.
By way of contrast, the simplicity of the watches’ front dials—with the faceted appliqué hour-markers, Dauphine hands and chemin-de-fer minutes track characteristic of all Reverso Tribute timepieces—is the perfect foil for the intricacy of the miniature paintings.
That said, the background of both dials has been guillochéd by hand: the pattern on The Waterfall at Ono piece is a classical barleycorn design, requiring three to four hours of painstakingly accurate work, while The Waterfall at Yoshino features an intricate lozenge pattern that takes one week to complete.
The two works seen here are from a series of eight ukiyo-e paintings titled A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri) made by Hokusai after he spent two years travelling around Japan’s main island, Honshu, from 1831 to 1833.
The first Reverso Tribute models paying homage to the series depicted the waterfalls at Kirifuri and Amida and were released in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Needless to say, we eagerly await the next instalment because Jaeger-LeCoultre’s master artisans will surely outdo themselves once more.
