Who's the fairest of all from Chinese antiquity?
Diao Chan.
Swiss watchmaker Blancpain answers through the latest Métiers d'Art collection, which pays tribute to four great beauties, who lived in different eras but influenced rulers of that time, as well as the country's history.
These legendary oriental ladies are portrayed on miniature paintings, on the dials of 42mm red gold watches equipped with a hand-wound movement.
The Métiers d'Art series allows the long-established brand to showcase ancestral skills such as champlevé enamel, engraving, shakudo, marquetry and enamel painting.
Grand feu champlevé enamel is applied on the first watch, to illustrate a woman washing her garments on the bank of a stream. The Chinese beauty is Xi Shi, who lived during the Spring and Autumn period (722-481 BC). Translucent enamel imitates the transparency of water, and by playing on the slant of the watch and light effects, the carp engraved on the dial appear as if under the water.
The second model salutes Wang Zhaojun, a harem member of Emperor Yuan, during the Western Han dynasty (206 BC-9 AD). With her consent, she was given to the ruler of the Xiongnu, and her departure is depicted on the dial with wood marquetry rendering a mountainous landscape.
An enamel painting subjected to multiple firings on the third watch shows Yang Guifei, a concubine of Emperor Xuanzhong from the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD).
The fourth timepiece features Diao Chan, a fictitious character from the novel Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, which retraces key events from the end of the Eastern Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD).
Her radiant beauty is illustrated against a dark dial, whose base is a gold and copper alloy called shakudo, immersed in a special bath, in order to produce the patina reminiscent of dusk.
The beauty of watchmaking is further displayed on the case back of each watch, which reveals meticulous decoration and finishes of the movement.
