The Most Glamorous Watches in the World?

When one hears the word Fabergé, the immediate thought is of a gilded egg or perhaps a grandly enameled case, along with Russian royalty. But Aurélie Picaud, would like you to think timepieces. And not just ordinary watches, rather creative, gemstone-embellished pieces that could practically change your life.

As director of timepieces for the hallowed house of Fabergé, Picaud was in Houston for a personal appearance at the Galleria boutique where she spotlighted the company’s most recent additions. So respected is she in the world of luxury timepieces, Picaud received Woman of the Year honors at the 2017 Eve’s Watch Award ceremonies in November.

It was in fact Picaud who guided Fabergé in its mission to revisit the firm’s timepiece legacy. “Everyone knows the imperial eggs,” she tells PaperCity. “But Fabergé was always doing watches, clocks and it was all about displaying time in another way.”

In 2013, Fabergé partnered with the so-called “genius watchmaker” Jean-Marc Wiederrecht and his team at Agenhor to create designs exclusively for Fabergé. The concept was, Picaud explains, to “keep the DNA of Fabergé, the craftsmanship and enameling… keeping the tradition of Switzerland and the Swiss mechanical watch but interpreting it really in another way, a new way, very contemporary design, interpreting today what Fabergé did hundreds of years ago.”

What sets these designs apart, she notes, is the mechanical design, the technical movement. More importantly, “Every hour, there is a surprise on the dial.”

For example, in the Lady Compliqueé collection, a peacock fans out its tail every hour. These are indeed as much beautiful jewelry pieces as timepieces.

For her Houston visit, Picaud brought along the stunning, one-of-a-kind Fabergé Lady Libertine II, a magnificent timepiece featuring a central dome adorned with a base of 2.22 carats of satin-finished emeralds and a radiating 18 karat white gold and diamond motif centered with a cabochon emerald. Price tag $245,000.

Picaud added that the emeralds come from mines in Zambia, which are owned by Fabergé’s parent company Gemfields, considered the world’s leading supplier of responsibly sourced colored gemstones.

The collections range from Visionnaire and Altruist for men to Fabergé Flirt for women, priced from $14,000.