RJ-Romain Jerome has created a new timepiece that takes the Mexican tradition of Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, as its inspiration.
The dial of the watch, which is otherwise wholly black in palatte, is decorated with a brightly coloured skull mask in homage to the popular sugar skulls, or calaveras, given out as tokens of good luck during the festival. The mask is a carefully created hand-crafted applique adorned with a champlevé decoration, cold enamelled in different colours. The appliqué has been decorated in seven colours to represent the seven stages the Mexican people believe that the soul of the dead must pass through before being able to rest in peace.
To maximise the colours of the sugar skull design the case of the watch has been made of black PVD-coated steel with the bezel and lugs made of black ceramic. The black mirror-polished dial features an engraving of the brand’s emblematic X shape, along with the applied RJ logo. The watch is fitted with a black Hornback alligator strap.
Out of step with RJ-Romain Jerome traditions, the watch does not contain any unusual materials such as the DNA of the Statue of Liberty, Apollo 11 or Titanic as used in previous models. The watch seems more aligned to the recent Art-DNA watch designed in collaboartion with artist John M Armleder, but to add a little magic the brand does, however, claim to have mastered death with this watch.
A statement from the brand read: “This way of perceiving death, tinged with light-hearted irony, is unique to the Mexican culture to which RJ-Romain Jerome is paying tribute. With this timepiece in homage to the Día de los Muertos, the watchmaking maison can also claim to have tamed death and thus made it a playmate.”
