For the 2021 edition of the Only Watch charity auction, Maison Trilobe and sculptor Daniel Buren set out to create a singular work, born of a unique and deeply meaningful collaboration.
It is from a desire for reciprocity that the Trilobe by Daniel Buren project was born: bringing together a young watchmaking Maison and one of the most celebrated artists on the international stage. Around a beating scarlet heart, the two envisioned a duality between the watchmaker's technical mastery and the artist's singular vision, in direct dialogue with Trilobe's "X-Centricity." Daniel Buren and Trilobe delight in their encounter: setting forms and colours against one another, unsettling the eye, questioning the mind. Art and horology oppose one another, and in that opposition, meet, as reciprocal forces.
La Réciproque
Forms, colours and meaning find their counterpart,
Hours, minutes and seconds unfold in a dance,
Black and white are joined by the beat of a red heart,
Verticality delights in circularity,
The unrelenting course of the "X-Centric" rings rides across bands 8.7cm wide,
Colours part ways and find one another again,
The forms align only twice a day,
At the very hour it all began, the hour of the first meeting between Trilobe and Daniel Buren: 02:13.
Calibre D-Centric
Conceived as the vivid, beating heart of the work, this mechanical calibre is unlike any other. It brings together Trilobe's architectural codes and the artistic vision of sculptor Daniel Buren. A genuine technical challenge, months of development were required to bring this singular calibre to life, entirely handmade by expert watchmakers in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Drawing on Trilobe's signature X-Centric calibre, every component was recalibrated to the scale of this one-of-a-kind timepiece, allowing hours, minutes and seconds to be displayed by rotating rings and fixed indexes. In the purest watchmaking tradition, the movement is fitted with a constant-force escapement, and features a twin barrel to provide an eight-day power reserve. It boasts finishing of the highest order, with hand polishing, angled bridges, sunburst-finished barrels and a frosted mainplate.
Daniel Buren
Regarded as one of the most celebrated French artists on the international stage, Daniel Buren has staged nearly 3,000 exhibitions around the world, among them Monumenta at the Grand Palais (2012), L'Observatoire de la lumière at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (2016), "Les Deux Plateaux" in the Cour d'Honneur of the Palais Royal, more than ten appearances at the Venice Biennale, including the Golden Lion in 1986, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2005, not to mention his memorable exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 2002, which took over every available space: the rooftops, the basement, the escalator tube and the balconies alike.