The Parisian shoe designer finds a kindred spirit at Jaeger-LeCoultre
“I have three watches that were given to me and, until recently, that was my experience with watches. Saying that, it is a small object and I’ve always loved small objects, so I was not alien to watches. I’m just not a collector. But I’m not a collector of anything!
When Jaeger-LeCoultre came to me, they explained what they were thinking, and it was very specifically about the Reverso. And I looked at it— I actually have one, one of my three watches that I own, so I knew about it. I looked at it, and there was something in the watch which I liked. So I said, ‘The first thing I need to do is to actually see how it is made, the excellence of it.’ I went to the Vallée de Joux, and I saw how hard people work there. They do every component by hand. The fact that they know precisely what they are talking about to the smallest detail … that was what was convincing to me.
I come from a world of small things; shoes are very small things. People ask me all the time, ‘How can you be creative on such a small scale?’ Watches are even smaller! And it’s funny—people don’t understand that it has nothing to do with size. It’s a micro-puzzle, not a macro-puzzle.
The challenging part was to understand that timing—for a watch of course, but in general, for design—is important. Sometimes the smallest element that I would try to change would make a wave, would cause a tsunami. So my challenge was to do things that would make a difference, but which would not take [Jaeger] nine years, ten years [to execute]. Every single thing they do is really weighed; every single detail is important and makes a huge difference in a technical way.
[This design for Jaeger] really comes from my work. The Reverso is a beautiful design, but there is something about this 1920 Deco rectangle which is quite masculine. My work is actually more on the side of femininity, so I wanted to bring some roundness to the watch … circles and waves. … The bracelet is transparent. I thought you could just have the dial on your wrist, almost landing, as a piece of jewelry.
I never take no for an answer, so you have to explain to me why it’s impossible. It was always a back-and-forth, trying to explore every single question and design. And I know, designing myself, I know sometimes a drawing looks nice, but when it comes to a three-dimensional thing it just doesn’t work. So I really had the same process … And [it was so nice] to see that I was not the only one obsessed with details.” —as told to Hyla Bauer