Patek Philippe

As mentioned in a previous thread  www.watchprosite.com   , yours truly (the self proclaimed Enamel Slave/Addict), had a wonderful (virtual) GTG with my/our enamel heroine.  Currently she is the best known enamel specialist for the horological world.  She is an expert in all three major techniques, miniature painting, cloisonne and champleve !  

As a HUGE fan of Anita's work, I was very glad to have a proper GTG with her after having met her a few years ago when she signed the certificate of the Rousseau Lion.  Having the opportunity to discuss in-depth with Anita to understand her background and her enamel journey was truly a privilege !  Furthermore, I understood more about enameling in general and learned information about her work with Patek and other brands.  I thank Ms Porchet for giving me the honor to share her experiences and  story with you. 

Her daughter, also a part-time enameler, was kind enough to translate between Anita and I as my French is very very rusty.

 For part 1 of 2, I would like to first share some interesting tidbits and information about techniques.  

• As mentioned in previous posts, Anita & team produced the 5131G and 5131P dials, hence I am now naming my 5131P as the Ice Queen 👸 instead of King 🤴 
• All the dials for 5131P series were made in her atelier
• I would think that all 5131G dials were also made by her because, after having seen and inspected quite a few over the years, I found that they all carry similar color patterns and gradations
• 5131G dials do contain a "chrome" and non-chrome version (both made by her), please see previous posts on this topic  www.watchprosite.com
• When working on the dials for 5131G and 5131P, each member would focusing on a different part of the process, such as working on base layer, using gold wire to outline the continents, and putting on enamel paste and firing in the kiln, and end polishing 
• each 5131 dial required several days to make and each piece is slightly different, hence unique
• her work shop is comprised 3 to 4 people depending on the amount of work she has as certain members work part time 
• Each year her atelier can produce around 80 to 100 dials, depending on the complexity require
• You can imagine that it was NOT a light work load for her atelier to be produce both the 5131G and P as they would likely have taken a few/several years   
• Of all the dials produced with signatures, around 5% to 10% is signed by A Porchet (dials made by the Master herself from start to finish), with the rest signed with "AP" (dials made by Anita and her team members with Anita supervising the process from start to finish)
• Contrary to my original thinking, Anita did not ask to put her signature on the dials
• As she became more famous, Patek and other brands would ask her to sign the dial 
• Therefore if you have a dial signed "AP", you own a special piece
• If you own a dial signed "A Porchet", you have an extreme rarity ! 

 

FYI, For watch dials, there are three prominent enameling methods, miniature painting, cloisonné (gold wires to create partitions to be filled with enamel for a motif) and champlevé (motif is carved into the dial then filled with enamel) that are applied in watches.  Amazingly, Ms Porchet can master all three (and more such as paillonne), and this mastery is definitely very special.  

Interesting fact is that, in terms of technique, process and timing, miniature painting is very different than cloisonné and champlevé.  The colors for miniature painting are opaque as very fine enamel (i.e. glass) powder is mixed with oil, and after mixing very thin layers are applied to the dial before baking in the kiln.  For cloisonné and champlevé, the colors can be opaque or transparent as larger enamel pieces are grounded and then mixed with water, the product of which is then put on cloisonné and champlevé dials before firing.  Timing in the kiln, related temperature and how the enamel behaves in terms of color development are very different between the techniques.  Hence, lots of practice, experience and patience are required over many years in order to gain the knowledge, dexterity and skills required to become an enamel master.  

 

Important to note that historically enamelers tended to specialize only on one technique, such as miniature painting but not cloisonné and not champlevé.  Even within painting, one would focus on mastering on one category, such as flowers, portraits or sceneries.  For cloisonne, there used to be specialization for preparing the base layer (white in color), using gold wires to create the motif, applying enamel paste on the cloisonné and firing the dial in the kiln to get the intended colors and gradations, and putting on and polishing the protection layer.

 

Realizing the historical specializations, I then understood how astounding it is that Anita can master the different techniques and also is highly capable of the sub-categories of each !  Her skill set is truly broad and deep as she is an all-rounded VIRTUOSO !  

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