Christophe Claret comes up with another limited edition – Layla – a timepiece that seeks to answer the perennial question in the heart of anxious lovers… he loves me…he loves me not…
Romantics have been known to pluck petals off a daisy to discover how their sweetheart feels about them in a game of luck or a game of love. With Layla this classic conundrum comes to life on the dial of the Layla watch. The watch features a clever mechanism – a simple press of the pusher at 2 o’clock brings the watch
to life. With each press, a petal – sometimes a pair of petals, it is impossible to foresee – subtly disappears under the dial in a smooth action, perfectly depicting the delicate undressing of the flower. The eagerly awaited answer appears at random in calligraphic letters in Arabic on the dial at 8 o’clock: “a little” – “a lot” – “passionately” – “madly” – “not at all”.
At each press of the pusher, a distinct, crystalline chime resonates, aurally signaling the pace of the game and here its hammer is adorned with a prong-set ruby. A case band window at 8 o’clock allows clear views of its vertically striking the cathedral gong above. Pressing the reset pusher at 4 o’clock instantly makes all petals reappear around the pistil and turns the ‘sentiment’ display at 4 o’clock to an ellipsis shown by three little dots.
The natural pink mother-of-pearl dial reveals delicately engraved verses penned by the Arab poet, Qays Al Mulawwah. The poem from which these excerpts are taken tells the story of Qays, a young poet and son of an illustrious family of Bedouins, who falls in love with his cousin Layla. In Bedouin culture, feathers generally arrange marriages and the young woman’s family refuses this match. Layla weds another suitor, leaves the region and Qays’ lifeless body is discovered several days later, protecting an ultimate poem dedicated to his love.
On the dial, three emeralds at 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock poetically punctuate the scene. The watch is a limited edition of 20 pieces and is priced at around $282,000.
