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Hampton 10741
Automatic Watch – 48 x 31 mm
Baume & Mercier proudly pays tribute to modern art master Pierre Soulages with the "Hampton Polyptyque Edition - Musée Soulages 10th Anniversary", an original creation inspired by his work. Limited to 328 pieces, this timepiece commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Soulages Museum, a Maison’s partner since 2021. The black dial miniaturizes the masterpiece "Peinture 324 x 362 cm, 1986, Polyptyque I" offering a captivating interpretation of large-scale painting.
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Description
This unique creation, limited to 328 pieces, draws inspiration from Soulages' monumental work, "Peinture 324 x 362 cm, 1986," specifically Polyptyque I. Displayed at the Soulages Museum, this masterpiece composed of four panels measuring 81 x 362 cm each has inspired the dial of this exclusive watch. In celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Soulages Museum, a valued partner of Baume & Mercier since 2021, these Hampton edition encapsulates the captivating intersection of art and watchmaking. The dial's miniaturization offers a fascinating interpretation of large-scale painting, exhibiting an exceptional blend of technical prowess and aesthetic complexity. The addition of two golden dots at the end of the hands to express the request of Pierre Soulages to marry the black and the gold and have two gold pearls to express the time. The creation of a vegan strap mixing cellulose and apple leather to echo the request of the Musee and Pierre Soulages to be more in tune with current time and societal challenges The play of contrasting blacks, from matte to semi-matte, shine, and diffuse layers, harmoniously captures the essence of Soulages' artistic legacy. This wearable masterpiece not only pays homage to one of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries but also elegantly translates the strength and allure of black into a timeless work of art.
Baume & Mercier proudly pays tribute to modern art master Pierre Soulages with the "Hampton Polyptyque Edition - Musée Soulages 10th Anniversary", an original creation inspired by his work. Limited to 328 pieces, this timepiece commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Soulages Museum, a Maison’s partner since 2021. The black dial miniaturizes the masterpiece "Peinture 324 x 362 cm, 1986, Polyptyque I" offering a captivating interpretation of large-scale painting.
This unique creation, limited to 328 pieces, draws inspiration from Soulages' monumental work, "Peinture 324 x 362 cm, 1986," specifically Polyptyque I. Displayed at the Soulages Museum, this masterpiece composed of four panels measuring 81 x 362 cm each has inspired the dial of this exclusive watch. In celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Soulages Museum, a valued partner of Baume & Mercier since 2021, these Hampton edition encapsulates the captivating intersection of art and watchmaking. The dial's miniaturization offers a fascinating interpretation of large-scale painting, exhibiting an exceptional blend of technical prowess and aesthetic complexity. The addition of two golden dots at the end of the hands to express the request of Pierre Soulages to marry the black and the gold and have two gold pearls to express the time. The creation of a vegan strap mixing cellulose and apple leather to echo the request of the Musee and Pierre Soulages to be more in tune with current time and societal challenges The play of contrasting blacks, from matte to semi-matte, shine, and diffuse layers, harmoniously captures the essence of Soulages' artistic legacy. This wearable masterpiece not only pays homage to one of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries but also elegantly translates the strength and allure of black into a timeless work of art.
Features
- Swiss Made
- Automatic, self-winding watch
- Power reserve: 42 hour(s)
- Water resistance: 50
- Sapphire crystal case back
Movement
- Automatic, self-winding
- 28800.0vph/4.0hz
- 21
Case
- Rectangular
- Width: 31.0 mm x Length: 48.1 mm
- 10.05 mm
- Steel-DLC, Microbillé
- Sapphire crystal case back, With screw
Dial
- Black, Opaline, None
- Doré 5N, Special
Strap
- Black
- Ardillon buckle, Steel, Microbillé finishes
Others
Compatible Straps
From painting techniques to watchmaking technology
Baume & Mercier is proud and honored to pay tribute to one of the great masters of modern art. The Maison takes inspiration from his work as a whole to produce a unique timepiece, an original creation the Hampton Hommage à Pierre Soulages. In the exciting, innovative interaction between art and watchmaking, technical achievement is the keystone of the Hampton “Hommage à Pierre Soulages.” A watch dial miniaturization is a fascinating interpretation of a large-scale painting. Shrinking meters down into millimeters is a thrilling transformation.
Fritz PITZ, Pierre Soulages dans son atelier Paris, 1999.
Outrenoir, a source of inspiration
In January 1979, the major abstract artist Pierre Soulages inaugurated a series of works at his Parisian workshop which he called NoirLumière. In 1989, the series became known as Outrenoir. The surface of each painting is coated with black paint in various states, textured into low relief with tools and brushes. Each Outrenoir painting plays on with the light that reveals its appearance to the viewer, particularly as the person moves. “When the light is more intensely reflected, the black appears less black, and its surface effects become more noticeable, more active,” asserted Soulages in 2007. Soulages’ black successively appears glossy or matte.
The Hampton Collection, a territory for artistic expression
Baume & Mercier chose the Hampton model for its transposition of an Outrenoir work into a timepiece. The iconic Hampton asserts a rectangular dial and case evoking the proportions of a canvas. Since its launch in 1994, the Hampton has represented the ultimate non-round watch. It is distinctive for its design, inherited from one of the House’s models dating from the 1960s that was in turn inspired by the Art Deco of the 1920s. The aesthetic approach to clean, curved lines and perfect proportion demonstrates the artistic sense that is so important to the House. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the model has taken the Greek letter Phi – a reference to the golden ratio – as its emblem. The formal minimalism and understatement of the Hampton “Hommage à Pierre Soulages” helps to showcase this tribute to Pierre Soulages’ artwork, while the restraint of the refined timepiece echoes the purity that characterizes his paintings.
Salle Outrenoir © RCR - musee Soulages Rodez. Photo CH
From dark to light
Beginning in 1979, Pierre Soulages painted his canvases entirely in black. More precisely, he layered different textures of black, applying them with various tools and brushes to reveal shiny, matte, powdery, dull, slick, striated, polished, and even sharp-edged effects. He brought attention to the quality of the light reflected off the black surface, creating effects by shaping the texture of the paint, cutting into the black texture of acrylic to alternate matte and shine, texture and smoothness, in low-relief.
The Noir-Lumière series was named Outrenoir in 1989. The painting that inspired the dial of this watch is part of that series. Peinture 324 x 362 cm, 1986, Polyptyque I is an oil on canvas measuring 324 x 362 cm, 1986, Polyptych I: through subtlety, the release of detail, contrast.
Polyptychs are works made up of several panels, which is the case for the great majority of Outrenoirs. This format gave Pierre Soulages the opportunity to bring discontinuity to the surface through contrasting textures, overlapping horizontal and vertical strokes to be revealed by the light.
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Human relations run through this cultural partnership, adding to its artistic, technical, and watchmaking dimensions. We connect through the mechanics of time, as if to overcome it.
Benoît Decron, Director of Musée Soulages Rodez – EPCC, Chief Curator of Heritage
© RCR – musee Soulages Rodez - photothèque Rodez agglomeration - photo A. Meravilles
Musée Soulages in Rodez possesses a collection of the master’s works like none other. For Baume & Mercier, collaborating with Musée Soulages is a way to acknowledge how important art really is to the brand. This is more than a polite acknowledgment: it is a way of showing thanks for fulfilling our souls and the passage of time, inspiring us and thrilling us.
Through this partnership, Baume & Mercier will contribute to assisting Musée Soulages in enriching the collections presented there. The association Les Amis du Musée Soulages will guide collectors of the watch in their discovery of Musée Soulages.