CUPID AMONG THE STARS
For its 25th ode to love, the Swiss watchmaker has endowed its most refined watch with a delicately flamboyant poetic aura, whose carmine accents on immaculate mother-of-pearl are accompanied by ribbons of diamonds.
For a quarter of a century now, Blancpain has regularly allocated a portion of its creativity to the mission of Cupid, the god of love according to Roman mythology, who has become the contemporary allegory of this grandiose sentiment, often depicted in the guise of a child equipped with wings, a bow and a well-stocked quiver. From this famous cherub, the watch brand borrows one of the incandescent arrows for its new mechanical ode dedicated to the most powerful of emotions, usually celebrated on February 14th: Ladybird Colors Saint Valentin.
Limited to just 14 pieces, this watch is draped in precious materials with carmine accents here and there. Its 34.9mm-diameter, 10mm-thick white gold case features ribbons of loose brilliants along the bezel and lugs, while the fluted crown houses a rose-cut diamond. The sparkling stones bounce off the dial’s immaculate mother-of-pearl disk, echoing the two sparkling circles that unfurl from bottom to top like a ripple on the surface of water. After several coats of red paint to gain a varnished and tridimensional look, the Roman numerals of varying lengths are flanked by a trio of hands, two openworked leaf-style hands and a second hand piercing a vermilion heart and finished with a sculpted fin. The moon phase, protected by an iridescent cloud in a fan-shaped aperture at 6 o’clock, exposes a star with feminine physical characteristics, flanked by two golden hearts, against a navy sky. The smooth running of these temporal functions is guaranteed by caliber 1153L, an automatic movement that delivers a formidable 100-hour power reserve when fully wound.
