The high
Dolce & Gabbana’s
watches and jewellery is the height
of good taste, says Peter HowarthS
ome things just sound better in Italian. Alta Orologeria
and Alta Gioielleria have a romantic ring and, in the case
of Dolce & Gabbana, the romance and lyricism are utterly
appropriate: the duo’s new venture in watchmaking and jewellery
is all about rarity, craftsmanship and decorative expression.
“Alta” means “high ” in the sense of elevated, an accurate
description in more ways than one. A few years ago, the designers
decided that they would buck the trend of most fashion companies,
who diversified their business by trading down with cheaper
difusion lines: instead, they moved things up a gear and started
to make exquisite, bespoke pieces, worthy of any high jewellery
collection and employing the skills normally associated
with haute couture.
They launched Alta Moda for women
in 2012 and Alta Sartoria for men in 2014,
and attracted a new clientele that liked the
southern Italian aesthetic of the label but
wanted it expressed in a more rarefied way.
The realisation that this customer – global,
successful, a connoisseur – is keen for more
has led them to explore the very top end of
watchmaking and jewellery.
Where the watches are concerned, the
emphasis is on sophisticated metalworkingEnamelled
red rose
bracelet-
timepiece,
POAQilin
wristwatch
with 18kt
gold case,
POA18kt gold tomatoes
necklace with
emeralds, garnets,
and pearls, POAMonreale
wristwatch
with flying
tourbillon, POAin the tradition of Italian goldsmiths, combined with
Swiss-made mechanical calibres designed for these
pieces – with striking results.
Take the Qilin, for example, a wristwatch that
has a self-winding movement (as do all the watches
in this collection) and was designed to look like a
miniature ornamental carriage clock on the wrist.
Or the Monreale, named after the Sicilian town and
inspired by Byzantine gold mosaics, which is a minute
repeater with a flying tourbillon construction to
resist gravitational pull.
In many ways, these watches function as pieces of jewellery, and
indeed one piece in the Alta Gioielleria collection is an enamelled
red rose bracelet that also houses a discreet timepiece in the centre
of the flower, with a pavé dial of four rubies and 194 diamonds.
Other jewellery pieces are also inspired by the natural world: a
necklace of tomatoes (made from enamel by hand) is an evocation
of the Mediterranean origins of the brand.
Collectors should also look out for a pair of earrings based on
split-open enamelled gold figs, revealing a ruby pavé interior and
featuring South Sea pearls embellished with coral roses from
Sciacca, Sicily. These roses are genuinely rare as the reefs that
produced them were farmed to extinction between 1875 and 1887.
dolcegabbana.comThe duo’s venture
in watchmaking and
jewellery is all about
rarity, craftsmanship
and decorative
expressionEnamelled
gold fig
earrings, POAhttp://www.boatinternational.com | April 2018