To celebrate the complexity and rarity of Grande Sonnerie watches, quality fake Audemars Piguet has collaborated with renowned Swiss enameler artisan Anita Porchet on a trilogy of “Grand Feu” paillonnée enamel dials. Anita created a trilogy of enamel dials decorated with paillonns —antique gold spangles— over a century old, seamlessly blending ancestral savoir-faire and contemporary design.
Anita Porchet’s artistic work and know-how have been praised by some of the most respected Haute Horlogerie manufacturers in Switzerland, her refined enamel dials adding an artistic touch to the complicated timepieces they adorn. For the remaining two pieces, clients have the possibility of requesting a personalized enamel dial crafted by Anita Porchet’s atelier. Housed in a white gold case measuring 41 mm in diameter, the new CODE 11.59 Grande Sonnerie Carillon Supersonnerie is yet another new leaf in the saga for this newish collection by AP.
Each “Grand Feu” enamel dial is unique due to the organic nature of its materials, as well as the hand manufacturing technique and distinctive cooking time. A thin layer of glass sand mixed with water is applied by hand on the gold dial, before being heated at more than 800°C in a dedicated oven. The procedure is repeated multiple times to achieve remarkable transparency, depth and light. Each cooking session necessitates different temperatures and times; a perilous procedure requiring extensive knowledge of color alchemy. Then, each paillonn —spangle— was meticulously cut and curved in thin gold leaves with antique tools and techniques—a craft no longer perpetuated today. The enameler has carefully incorporated each spangle by hand onto the dial’s enameled plate before fusion in the oven. The dial is then covered with a thin layer of transparent enamel for a mirror polish finishing.
By revisiting this antique paillonnée enamel decoration in the contemporary context of the best replica Audemars Piguet CODE 11.59, Anita Porchet echoes the interweaving of traditional savoir-faire and forward thinking at the heart of the Manufacture’s craftsmanship. For Anita Porchet, as for Audemars Piguet’s finishing experts, perfection is in the details and the tiniest nuances are often invisible to the eye.