American artist, Zaria Forman joins Vacheron Constantin’s circle of ‘One of Not Many’ talents as she has become the new face of Vacheron Constantin’s new campaign and embodies the Overseas collection alongside Cory Richards.
On this occasion Vacheron Constantin organised an exhibition ‘Zaria Forman, an artist, an explorer’ at its Geneva boutique at Place Longemalle, which was a great opportunity to discover the artist, recent pieces from the Overseas collection as well as an important selection of Vacheron Constantin Heritage pieces.
‘One of Not Many’
In 2018 the Maison launched a communication campaign, the ‘One of not Many’. It has brought together personalities whose different forms of art reflect the values dear to Vacheron Constantin. Alongside musician Benjamin Clementine, designer Ora Ito, photographer and explorer Cory Richards and Haute Couture designer Yiqing Yin, artist Zaria Forman now joins the Maison’s circle of talents.
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Zaria Forman in Vacheron Constantin's ‘One of Not Many’ campaign
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Born in 1982 in the state of Massachussets, Zaria Forman is now based in New York and she spreads awareness of climate change through her pastel drawings. Her latest group exhibitions were for example in New Jersey, at Mana Contemporary, ‘Implied Scale: Confronting the Enormity of Climate Change’ in 2021 and this year in New York, titled ‘Chasing Icebergs: Art and a Disappearing Landscape’.
As the Maison shares – ‘A socially committed artist, Zaria Forman is also an uncompromising explorer. Starting in 2016, she has flown several times with NASA’s Operation IceBridge, airborne scientific missions over Antarctica, Greenland and the Canadian Arctic, which have helped to map changes in earth’s ice over the last decade. Zaria Forman has drawn unique material from these various flights over both poles to create majestic works depicting the beauty and fragility of our planet.’
Now she is the new face of the Overseas collection, for which the advertising campaign was created in Iceland. During the shooting, she drew material for a new series of unique works of art – Fellsfjara, Iceland – one commissioned by Vacheron Constantin. This new body of work will explore a special phenomena in compressed glacier ice in great detail, magnifying textures and surfaces in the ice and reflections on a black sand beach.
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Zaria Forman, Fellsfjara, Iceland #3
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Vacheron Constantin Overseas self-winding 35mm
To mark the start of the ‘One of not Many’ campaign created with Zaria Forman, a 35 mm self-winding Overseas was unveiled this September. The novelty is entirely in pink gold, with a tone-on tone golden dial and set with 90 diamonds on the six-sided bezel evoking the Maltese cross. Like the other Overseas watches, the new self-winding model features an interchangeable bracelet and the timepiece comes with two additional straps (a white calf leather strap and a white rubber strap).
The steel, 34.5mm self-winding version with deep blue dial – already debuted at this year’s Watches and Wonders – is a boutique exclusive edition. Both models are powered by the 1088/1 caliber.
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Vacheron Constantin Overseas, pink gold, diamond-set bezel
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Vacheron Constantin – Heritage sport timepieces
The boutique exhibition showcases a few milestones from Vacheron Constantin’s sport watch history. There is a great example of the sporty yet sophisticated Ref. 6782, with center seconds, date and rotating bezel. This reference was launched in the early 1960s and discontinued in the early 1970s. It received the nickname Turnograph or Thunderbird due to its resemblance to the Rolex ref 1625 (the early tool watches of Rolex with rotating bezel went by these names).
The Royal Chronometer model Reference 2215, an extremely interesting precursor – which was produced only from 1975 to 1977 – we saw an example here.
Vacheron Constantin marked its 222nd anniversary in 1977 with the sporty but refined ‘222’, it was fitted with a screwed-down bezel and case-back guaranteeing water-resistance to 120 metres. Jörg Hysek designed it and it was Vacheron Constantin’s response to the raise of quartz and outdoor watches. The model came in steel, gold, and bi-colour versions and in two different sizes 34 and 38mm. (The model has a re-edition since then – please see it here.)
The 333 was also a forerunner to today’s Overseas model. These references have a rounded octagon shaped case but the most distinctive elements are the ‘cuts’ at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock, as an indirect design hint to the Maltese cross.
Presented in 1989, the Phidias collection is a signature example of the 1980s style: yellow gold, integrated bracelet, crisp details – later with chronograph function.
In more recent history, in 1996, the company introduced the highly successful Overseas line, praising the beauty of never-ending exploration. It made a tribute to Amerigo Vespucci with a depiction of his famous three-mast ship. The Overseas second generation was launched in 2004 and the new, more streamlined collection in 2016.
Photo credits: Vacheron Constantin. Loupiosity.com
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