ORCHESTRATING PERFECTION
Vacheron Constantin style and heritage director Christian Selmoni is talking about horse pee. Definitely “pee.” I checked (twice) in case I’d misheard, and yes, in between talk of métiers d’art and pièce unique chiming watches dreamed up by Geneva’s oldest watchmaker and given six-figure price tags, our conversation appears to have strayed into the stable yard.
Not without good reason. Many moons ago, Selmoni explains, watchmakers used horse urine, specifically that of mares, to harden the steel gongs found in early minute-repeating watches. They’d heat the steel up to around 1,000 degrees Celsius and then cool it in the salty equine infusion, whereupon a crystallizing process would take place, hardening the outside of the steel without compromising its flexibility.
“We don’t use this technique anymore,” says the 60-year-old, a knowing smile curling quietly across his face. “But what I can say is that if you are a customer of Les Cabinotiers and you would like your minute repeater to be dipped in pee, we are more than happy to accede to your request.”
It’s mid-morning on a sizzling day in Singapore, has allowed himself the luxury of removing his jacket, but not his tie. Despite the heat and the jet lag, Selmoni is doing his best to offer up some temperate reflections on Vacheron Constantin’s latest Les Cabinotiers collection, dubbed La Musique du Temps. Although, as he’s keen to point out, it’s not a collection.
