Yellow Macaw, Scarlet Macaw

XRby Gabriel Colliard is the third art watch to be born from a collaboration with an artisan of excellence.

From the very start of this adventure, our vision has been to give these artisans an opportunity to express their artistic sense on a watch dial through their unique know-how.

Geneva enamel artist Gabriel Colliard named his dial masterpiece “yellow macaw, scarlet macaw”. This miniature painting on Grand Feu enamel was realised using the renown Geneva technique.

For an enamel expert like Gabriel, more than 125 hours were necessary to realise this outstanding and colourful piece.

Once mixed with essential oil, enamel powder forms an oily paste that will be applied with a brush on a white opaque enamel base.

The colouring process is done layer by layer and punctuated by a series of firings (of 800 to 900 degrees), 20 in total for this piece.

The particularity of the Grand Feu enamel “Geneva technique” is that a layer of transparent enamel - called "fondant" - is added on the surface of the dial to embellish and to protect the miniature painting. This layer is then polished with diamond paste to obtain a smooth, even surface.

Gabriel Colliard has developed a particular complementary technique to the Geneva technique, that consists in creating contrasts by getting both matt and polished effects on the surface of the piece: he uses a diamond tip to take off parts of the polished layer to reveal matt areas on the painting (the foliage in this case).

Macaws, which live in the tropical forests of Central and South America, had an emblematic meaning linked to fire, to the sun and to energy in the Mayan civilization. So many symbols that also evoke promise and hope.