On June 15th 2019, Swiss fine watchmaking brand Jaeger-LeCoultre will celebrate its partnership with the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival. As the official partner, Jaeger-LeCoultre will host a charity dinner at the West Bund Art Center, and donate a specially customised timepiece for public auction, in support of the restoration of Chinese classic films. In the pursuit of technical sophistication and artistry, Jaeger-LeCoultre draws inspiration from peaceful nature, putting its heart and soul into the art of time. This edition marks nine years of involvement between Jaeger-LeCoultre and the Shanghai International Film Festival, as well as a tribute to filmmaking, which will offer an artistic experience for all guests of honour from across the world.
A Rendez-Vous with Flowers of Shanghai
The Manufacture's master watchmakers are deeply influenced and inspired by the natural world, artfully combining enamelling, engraving, gem-setting, and guilloché preserved by the Manufacture's Rare Handcrafts (“Métiers Rares®”), to achieve a balance between nature and watchmaking.
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s explorations into fine watchmaking came from a tradition of precision that is shared by the cinematic world. Each timepiece donated for the charity auctions over the past years, represents Jaeger-LeCoultre’s esteem for the art of cinema, as well as a contribution to it. Every restored classic Chinese film illustrates Jaeger-LeCoultre’s passion and dedication to the art of time.
This year, the ‘Rendez-Vous Moon Medium Tribute to Cinema Unique Piece SIFF 2019’ for the charity auction Gala is decorated with 107 elegant and discreet diamonds on the bezel and dial, a pink-gold case, pink-gold applied hour markers and a silvered guilloché dial. The moon phase displayed at 6 o’clock has a new feminine expression of the moon, with a golden polished moon and stars on a red lacquered sky. Underneath, the cloud is also guilloché. The pink gold Floral applied numerals are true to the Rendez-Vous design codes.
Over the past nine years, in collaboration with the Shanghai International Film Festival, Jaeger-LeCoultre has restored dozens of Chinese classics, including ‘The Spring River Flows East’, ‘Two Stage Sisters’, ‘A Better Tomorrow’, ‘Endless Love’, and ‘Outside the Window’, as well as ‘Flowers of Shanghai’ which will be premiered this year. Both film restoration and watchmaking require patience and precision from the artists, as well as concentration on technical sophistication with aesthetic finesse. No matter how long it takes to restore “time” and indicate “time”, the fine watchmaking of Jaeger-LeCoultre strives to push the boundaries of precision.
A Celebration of Cinema
In 2018 the “Glory to the Filmmaker Award”, which first featured at the Venice International Film Festival, made its debut at the Shanghai International Film Festival, commissioned by Chinese filmmaker Joan Chen to pay tribute to the outstanding achievements of Chinese filmmakers in film art creation. This year, the Jaeger‑LeCoultre “Glory to the Filmmaker Award” made its second appearance at the Shanghai International Film Festival, to continuously support the growth of the Chinese film industry, and to honour artists that have made tremendous contributions to the development of filmmaking. As partner of the Shanghai International Film Festival Jaeger-LeCoultre will join Chinese filmmakers in writing a new chapter in the history of cinema.
