At Engravers Guild of London, we always go to great length to impress on the ‘purity’ of a diamond-cut engraving.
By this, we mean that an engraving is purely an impression cut into the surface of metal, whether that be a personalised hip flask, engraved pocket watch or custom cufflinks.
There is no burnishing (as there would be with laser engraving) and there is no colour (as there would be with UV printing).
We believe that a clean diamond-cut engraving achieves the best result, and also looks the most visually pleasing.
However, even we at Engravers Guild have to acknowledge when a coloured engraving really hits the mark.
And there is nothing that showcases it better than a new watch we saw this week.
Vacheron Constantin, the famous Swiss watchmaker, earlier unveiled its new 2019 Les Cabinotiers collection ‘La Musique du Temps’.
The range features eight unique models which are all touted as “one of a kind”.
And the way that the brand has made them individual is through… engraving.
This engraving, though, is a little bit special.
Four of the watches depict the four seasons, with carp swimming across the four different dials in scenes associated with spring, summer, autumn and winter.
The engraving for each watch took no less than 60 hours.
But then further detail was added, with glorious seasonal technicolour enamelled on top of the relief designs.
The result is mesmerising. The final watches are works of art, destined for museums and exhibitions around the world.
As a London-based company, we also approve of the nods to our capital city in the watch.
At each hour the watches chime. The sound was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and pays homage to the rich audio history of Northern London.
While we do not offer engravings which are enamelled with colour, we can offer a little bit of London all wrapped up in a little black box and tied with crisp white bow.