Igot to know Vianney in 2006, I wrote and photographed Vianney and Dufour for a book, which was later bought and presented in parts over both the web, TV and many magazines especially in Europe and Japan. Because I wrote like a mad person, true.
But here is a story:
Those days, the watches Vianney had planned as a series had completed, plans and roughs for the Cabestan was ready. Vianney was very excited about the Cabestan. So excited, that he followed me back to Singapore, to tour Thailand and Malaysia with TheHourGlass. But disaster struck.
A falling out, led to Cabestan being side lined to oblivion, not before I had one though.... but it has plenty to do with the Janvier.
I studied Vianney as a patient, and a subject for horology quite intensely. In my writtings, I had presented him as an artist much more than a watchmaker. And, if anyone wished to approach art from watchmaking, the man who understood how to express fonts, dials, colors, detailing of parts (the crown for example), was Vianney. If you spend time with him , you will understand this easily.
However, to Vianney, he also had a deep desire to make and create a complex piece which would express pure love for the elegance of combining art and technical solutions (maths). This desire was great.
The Janvier was already seeded in his soul, and he didn't know it. He was obsessed with the loss of the Cabestan...a child which he was a parent.
So..it was much later, after a hiatus of time away from the industry....that the Janvier was born, it was a rebirth of the watchmaker Vianney, not the artist...of which he would always be.
As Vianney and my family spent much time on the farms around St Croix...we really spent time thinking about legacies.
The Antiqua and the Janvier were the watches that both Stephen Forsey and later Robert Greubel suggested to me at the GPHG some years back, that Vianney should have a place in history....
You will notice the heavy similarity of the Janvier to the most basic of Vianney's creations...the Classic. This was the language of rebirth...from the simple to the most complex, but with no change in the aesthetic code.
The watch you have now, the Deep Space, defines the new era of his life, and like all artist of worth, Vianney will be original and indeed, practice business without much thought of monetary gain.
The Deep Space is going to be a huge success, and it will revive the demand for the Antiqua and the Classic.
You are so lucky!!!
This message has been edited by bernard cheong on 2014-08-07 02:55:54