TRILOGIE LE CORBUSIER

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TRILOGIE
LE CORBUSIER
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The
Le Corbusier
Trilogy
“You employ stone, wood and concrete, and with these materials you build
houses and palaces : That is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you
touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say : ‘This is beautiful.’ That is
architecture. Art enters in.” Vers une architecture, Le Corbusier, ed. G. Crès, 1923
High in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland, a few kilometers east of France, is
perched the small town of La Chaux-de-Fonds — for centuries the wellspring of an
almost divine congruence of genius.
Among those born here : Le Corbusier (born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), one of
the greatest names in modern architecture and design; pioneering automaker
Louis Chevrolet; and poet/novelist Blaise Cendrars.
The aesthetic movement L’Art nouveau was refined in La Chaux-de-Fonds — as the
old village gave way to a modern city beginning of the 20th century, a regional
Art nouveau variant, the “Style Sapin”, emerged here, exclusive to the burgeoning
industrial watchmaking centre. And the grace of its architecture and ingenuity of
its urban plan have led to its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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The genius inherent to La Chaux-de-Fonds is today best exemplified by the
watchmakers of Girard-Perregaux, who - in cooperation with Foundation
Le Corbusier - are employing gold, sapphire crystal, steel and even concrete
to reinterpret the work of the great Modernist in a series of exceptional new
timepieces.
This sublime project is the apotheosis of more than a century of communal history
between the Jeanneret and Girard-Perregaux families. Mere happenstance?
Hardly. It is, rather, serendipity at its most poignant — the seemingly inevitable
result when genius takes up residence in close proximity to genius. The very
essence, in other words, of La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Le Corbusier’s life took him well beyond the shadow of the Jura, of course; he
traveled the world designing buildings — and, in some cases, entire cities. Fittingly,
he was part of the multinational team of architects that designed the headquarters
of the United Nations Secretariat Building in Manhattan — a metaphor, in glass,
reinforced concrete and steel, for his own global citizenship.
The Girard-Perregaux Le Corbusier Trilogy, however, reflects the three places that
most embodied the concept of home to the man himself, who once observed that
“the home should be the treasure chest of living” : La Chaux-de-Fonds, Paris and
Marseille.
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The model selected by Girard-Perregaux for the basis of the Le Corbusier Trilogy is
the Vintage 1945, the year Le Corbusier published one of his most famous works,
Les Trois Etablissements Humains (The Three Human Establishments) and devised
his anthropometric scale of proportions the Modulor.
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Vintage 1945 Le Corbusier
La Chaux-de-Fonds
In a marvelous coincidence, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret’s hometown,
La Chaux-de-Fonds, happens to be the world capital of watchmaking. Before
the world knew him by his pseudonym, Le Corbusier, the young CharlesEdouard spent his formative years in the town’s School of Art, training as a
sculptor and engraver.
Inlaid Mother-of-Pearl Dial
Girard-Perregaux’s craftsmen pay tribute to an early Le Corbusier work by faithfully
reproducing it in a bas-relief of mother-of-pearl — a nod to both the piece itself
and to Le Corbusier’s beginnings as a sculptor and engraver.
Seven exacting days are required to produce each dial, requiring mastery of
multiple skills : design, sculpture, polishing and varnishing. The foremost challenge
was to preserve the integrity of the original work’s five colors — necessitating
considerable patience and meticulous attention to detail.
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CASE
Material : Pink gold
Dimensions : 36.20 x 35.25 mm
Crystal : Anti-reflective sapphire
Case-back : Sapphire crystal, secured by four screws
Water resistance : 30 meters
MOVEMENT
Girard-Perregaux GP3300-0078, automatic
Calibre : 11½ ‘‘‘ Frequency : 28,800 vibrations/hour (4 Hz)
Jewels : 26
Power reserve : Min. 46 hours
Functions : Hour and minute
Limited edition of five pieces
Reference : 25880-52-103-BB6A
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Vintage 1945 Le Corbusier — Paris
Charles-Edouard Jeanneret arrived in Paris in 1917. Three years later, he assumed
the nom d’artiste “Le Corbusier.” His timing was propitious; Paris was becoming the
global center of the cultural movement known as ‘Modernism’, and Le Corbusier’s
painting and architecture alike embraced it, emphasizing elemental geometric
forms — “space and light and order,” as he put it.
Although he’s now celebrated along with Mies Van der Rohe or Walter Gropius as
a pioneer of modern architecture, Le Corbusier applied his theories about shape
to the decorative arts as well. In 1929, along with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret
and Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier debuted Le Grand Confort at Paris’s Salon
d’Automne. Among the pieces shown was his iconic furniture, constructed from a
then-unique combination of steel, tanned leather and rawhide.
Metal Dial
The second limited edition Girard-Perregaux timepiece in this series commemorates
Le Corbusier’s contributions to the decorative arts by focusing on materials —
pairing a steel case with a cowhide strap to evoke the Le Corbusier chaise longue.
The hand-engraved dial reflects his Modulor system of architectural proportion,
based on the male figure (human scale) and the “Golden Ratio,” as well as his
applied perception of light.
CASE
Material : Steel
Dimensions : 36.20 x 35.25 mm
Crystal : Anti-reflective sapphire
Case-back : Sapphire crystal, secured by four screws
Water resistance : 30 meters
MOVEMENT
Girard-Perregaux GP3300-0078, automatic
Calibre : 11½ ‘‘‘ Frequency : 28,800 vibrations/hour (4 Hz)
Jewels : 26
Power reserve : Min. 46 hours
Functions : Hour and minute
Limited edition of five pieces
Reference : 25880-11-102-HKBA
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Vintage 1945 Le Corbusier — Marseille
Arguably Le Corbusier’s most important late work — and certainly his first
significant postwar structure — is the Cité Radieuse (“Radiant City”), an unité
d’habitation (“Housing Unit”) in Marseille, France. Although it was conceptualized
earlier, the Marseille building was built from rough-cast reinforced concrete (steel
and concrete) — a signature Le Corbusier material — between 1947 and 1952
to help alleviate a severe housing shortage at that time. The colossal 12-story
complex accommodates some 1,600 residents and was the inspiration for several
similar unités d’habitation throughout France, as well as in Berlin — all designed
by Le Corbusier and given the same utilitarian name. The unité d’habitation was
a prime example of the Modulor philosophy — and the design and proportions
of the Marseille watch dial are an homage to the Modulor anthropometric scale.
CASE
Material : Steel
Dimensions : 36.20 x 35.25 mm
Crystal : Anti-reflective sapphire
Case-back : Sapphire crystal, secured by four screws
Water resistance : 30 meters
MOVEMENT
Concrete Dial
We end, appropriately, where we began : with careful attention to raw materials
— in this instance, concrete — that become stirring works of art. For this last
component of the Le Corbusier Trilogy, Girard-Perregaux developed a concrete
dial requiring three days to pour, dry and meticulously hand-finish. Concrete is an
exceptionally uncommon material in watchmaking now, as it was in construction
when Le Corbusier used it to build Cité Radieuse. The result is an unparalleled
interpretation of Le Corbusier : a seamless blend of watchmaking and architecture.
Movement : Girard-Perregaux GP3300-0078, automatic
Calibre : 11½ ‘‘‘ Frequency : 28,800 vibrations/hour (4 Hz)
Jewels : 26
Power reserve : Min. 46 hours
Functions : Hour and minute
Limited edition of five pieces
Reference : 25880-11-101-BB6A
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The rights for the reproduction of works by Le Corbusier are granted to Girard-Perregaux in
exchange for a charitable donation to the Fondation Le Corbusier, to help restore Villa “Le Lac” in
Corseaux, Switzerland; and to the Association Maison Blanche, for the ongoing preservation
and maintenance of the Maison Jeanneret-Perret in La-Chaux-de-Fonds,Switzerland. About Girard-Perregaux
Girard-Perregaux is a Swiss high-end watch manufacturer tracing its origins back to 1791.
The history of the brand is marked by legendary watches that combine sharp design with
innovative technology, such as the renowned Tourbillon with three gold Bridges.
Devoted to the creation of state-of-the-art Haute Horlogerie, Girard-Perregaux is one of
the very few watchmakers to unite all the skills of design and manufacture under the same
roof including the forging of the “heart” of the watch — the movement. Girard-Perregaux
is majority owned by PPR, a worldwide leading Luxury and Sport & Lifestyle group.
www.girard-perregaux.com
About the Le Corbusier Foundation
The Foundation, in accordance with its statutes and its missions, has devoted all of its
resources to the conservation, knowledge and dissemination of Le Corbusier’s work. It is
based in Paris.
www.fondationlecorbusier.fr
About the Maison Blanche Association
The Association owns the house which Charles-Edouard Jeanneret Le Corbusier built for
his parents in 1912 and works to guarantee its structural integrity and conservation, to
ensure it fulfils a cultural role in the general public interest and to highlight Le Corbusier’s
legacy in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
www.maisonblanche.ch