Notre Dame De Paris’ On The Watch
On the evening of April 15, 2019, the Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire. This Gothic church was built in 1163, during the Southern Song Dynasty in China. Completed in 1345, Zhu Yuanzhang was still a monk that year. It is said that the cause of the fire may be the scaffolding of the restoration project. With the efforts of 500 firefighters, the two bell towers and the front building of Notre Dame were rescued, but two-thirds of the roof was damaged by the fire. It is the iconic spire that has collapsed. It was previously reported that it would take 8-10 years to repair the Notre Dame Cathedral that was affected by the fire. Later, French President Macron said that the cathedral would be restored in 5 years. Although the repair time has been shortened, for at least 5 years, everyone has no way to see the complete Notre Dame Cathedral. However, as a historic landmark in France, before the fire, the watch brand had already made relevant models. Through these watches, we can still learn everything about Notre Dame. The first watch was the Quasimodo GV108 released by Swatch in the autumn and winter of 1994, designed by Andrea Arrigoni. In addition to the picture of Notre Dame printed on the strap, the most striking thing about this watch is the gorgeous pattern on the dial. This pattern is derived from the ‘Cathedralglass’ church glass in Notre Dame. The European glass technology of the twelfth and third centuries could not produce pure and transparent large glass, but only various variegated glass with small area, low transparency and dark color. If this kind of glass is directly installed on the window, it will certainly look mottled and very messy. Inspired by the glass mosaics of the Byzantine church, ingenious craftsmen used stained glass to inlay pictures throughout the window. The GV108 of this Swatch is not expensive, you can find it at around RMB 1,000. The VanCleef & Arpels brand was founded in Paris in 1906. Compared to jewelry, their watches are less well-known. But in recent years, with the excellent design and aesthetics, it has captured the hearts of many girls. One of the most memorable styles is the ‘lover’s bridge’. This watch does not have the common hour and minute hands. It crosses a bridge on its dial, with a male, a female and two puppets on the bridge. The girls represent the hour hand and the boys represent the minute hand. They walk towards each other and eventually embrace each other at the bridge at 12 o’clock, which is romantic! The most magical thing is that boys have to walk 12 times to be with the female lead, and the female lead only walks once … In addition to this famous ‘lover bridge’, Van Cleef & There are also many similar works by Crepubo, such as this ‘Kite Girl’. The dial uses filigree enamel and mother-of-pearl carving to draw Notre Dame Cathedral and the Seine flowing through it as a background, and then a girl stands on the Eiffel Tower and flies a kite. At this time, the girl puppet represents the hour hand, and the kite represents the minute hand, which is used to indicate the time. Watches are beautiful and the price is high. The official domestic price is 3.27 million. In addition to the Patek Philippe’s new products released each year on the brand’s official website, in fact, there are some rare ‘art treasures’ models. They differ from regular commercial versions in that they add more artistic flavors, such as the use of enamel, fine wood inlay, gold carving and other processes. In 2014, Patek Philippe produced a Ref.5077P with Notre Dame in the background. This watch uses the micro-painted enamel process to paint the stone monsters of Notre Dame and the top floor. Different from ordinary micro-painted enamel, this dial pattern is more three-dimensional and realistic. In addition to testing the enamel craftsman’s painting site, it also requires multi-layer firing, from light to thick, to increase the sense of layering. The Notre Dame fire was undoubtedly a huge loss. To rebuild Notre Dame, all circles in France now donate more than 700 million euros. Among them, the French billionaire and the LVMH Group Chairman Bernard Arnault family and their LVMH Group have stated that they will donate 200 million euros to support the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral. The LVMH Group owns three watch brands: TAG Heuer, Zenith and Hublot. At the same time, Francois Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of Kering Group of France, said that it would donate 100 million euros through the family Artemis holding company. And they have GP Girard Perregaux, JEANRICHARD, Ulysse Nardin …