In 2017, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) awarded the Special Jury Prize to Suzanne Rohr and Anita Porchet for their lifetime achievements in the art of enamelling. The then president of GPHG, Aurel Bac, highlighted in his speech how the artists’ extraordinary dedication to horological artistry is creating a significant legacy in high-end watchmaking. The award signalled the rise of dial artwork among collectors.
Manufacturers followed suit and since, there has been a renewed interest in artisan crafts. Patek Philippe leads the way with its annual Rare Handcrafts Exhibition and Watch Art Grand Exhibition, the latter of which will be held in Milan later this year. Meanwhile, Vacheron Constantin’s Metiers d’Art series has close links to the Louvre, in Paris, and even Rolex returned to artisan enamelling with its Day-Date ‘Jigsaw’ Ref. 128235.
Independents such as Kari Voutilainen, Krayon and Raúl Pagès have also produced limited editions featuring original dial artwork.
Suzanne Rohr and Anita Porchet receive their lifetime achievement award for the art of enamelling at the GPHG ceremony in 2017.
There’s also a wide variety of enamel techniques available to artisans to help develop unique iterations. One of the oldest and most widely used in the industry is called cloisonné. First applied to pocket watches in the second half of the 19th-century, it flourished in wristwatches in the 1940s and 1950s because of post-war economic recovery, cultural optimism and a strategic shift by Swiss manufacturers toward artistic work. With much improved disposable income, the demand for luxury objects that emphasised aesthetics over utility rose significantly. On the other hand, increased mechanisation in watch production elevated the value of handcrafts.
With a significant market share, the brands mentioned above quickly adopted cloisonné enamel dials to position wristwatches as miniature works of art. A popular motif was world-map imagery (for travel complications) that symbolised globalism and the new swifter means of transport.
An artisan works on applying the enamel to the wire design as part of the cloisonné enamelling. © Patek Philippe.
Cloisonné enamelling is a particularly intricate and laborious way to manufacture a dial. On the flip side, the artwork, thanks to the longevity this technique offers, will last for generations. The process begins with a metal disk base – typically gold – upon which thin gold wires (cloisons) are bent by hand and affixed to the surface to outline a design. These tiny compartments are then filled with powdered vitreous enamel mixed with water. Next the dial is fired in a kiln at extremely high temperatures, fusing the enamel into glass and the process is repeated many times until the enamel contracts. The last step is to ground and polish the surface smooth, which sometimes requires additional firings for colour depth. It’s a lengthy process with a high failure rate, which is the main reason cloisonné enamel dials are typically produced by luxury brands with big budgets.
Auction prices for unique or extremely rare vintage watches with this kind of dial have seen a dramatic increase in recent years, mainly due to collectors appreciating the rarity factor. In fact, if measured by sq cm, they now represent some of the most expensive artworks on the planet.
The Patek Philippe World Time Ref. 2523 (Eurasia cloisonné), for example, sold for CHF7,048,000 at Phillips, Geneva, in May 2021; in the same month, the Patek Philippe Ref. 1415 (Eastern-Hemisphere cloisonné) fetched approx CHF206,976 at Christie’s in Hong Kong; and a Rolex Ref. 6102 ‘La Caravelle’ sold at Phillips in May 2024 for CHF1,270,000.
For contrast, a non-enamelled Patek Philippe World Time Ref. 2523 with guilloché dial sold for CHF1,754,000 at Phillips, Geneva, in May 2024. An approximate difference in price between finishes of CHF5,300,000.
L – R: Examples of highly artistic cloisonné dials: Vacheron Constantin, depicting a mirrored seahorse motif; Patek Philippe World Time Ref. 5131 showing the North Pole © Sotheby’s; Rolex Ref. 6100 with an elaborated dragon (gold dial by Stern Frères) © Christie’s;
Patek Philippe World Time Ref. 1415 featuring the eastern hemisphere © Christie’s.
The question is: do we have enough evidence to state that enamelled dials add significant value to watches and, perhaps more importantly, will those values hold?
As a way to measure the value of cloisonné enamel dials across a number of houses and time periods, auction prices were collected on a specific set of watches that had both ordinary and cloisonné dials. The information collected, from 2015 to 2025, centred on price and currency, year and location of sale, case metal, bracelet or strap, available box and papers, and year of manufacture.
The specific watches tracked include the Patek Philippe World Time models Ref. 1415 HU, Ref. 2523 and Ref. 5130/5131, which include metal and enamelled dials; Vacheron Constantin yellow gold wristwatches with cloisonné enamel dials from the 1950s and its Métiers d’Art 1996 ‘Birds of America’ series, (measured alongside standard metal dials in dress collections); and Rolex Ref. 8382 and 8651 from the 1950s (against regular versions containing the same movement from the same time period).
Figure 1 shows that for very rare dials, such as the Patek Philippe 1415HU Eurasia and the Rolex Ref. 8382 ‘Dragon’, the premium is substantial – around 250 percent, when taking all other previously mentioned factors into account. Overall, because of their rarity and the base price of the equivalent non-enamel dialled watch, the Rolex delivers the largest premium.
Across the enamel-dial watches studied in this analysis, the average premium over time remained fairly consistent. Collectors seem to be ready to pay substantially more for them, at an average of around 80 percent in comparison to the non-enamelled iterations, but you also need to add the rarity of the artwork itself (only two Patek Ref. 1415HU Eurasia models are believed to exist and five Rolex Dragons) to reach stratospheric increases.
Beauty is most definitely in the eyes of the collectors – and while they continue to reward artists who produce the most delicate, intricate work, investment in cloisonné enamelling looks set to meet demand. After all, true art is timeless.
Author: Andrew Hildreth
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