Vianney Halter’s Latest Limited-Edition Watch Is a Wearable Tribute to the Statue of Liberty
A hallmark of Vianney Halter’s work as a watchmaker is his penchant for creating high-concept timepieces. The Antiqua, his 1998 retro-futuristic ode to marine chronometers, inspired by the fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, is often credited with kicking off the independent watchmaking revolution.
Since then, Halter has gone on to produce some of the watch industry’s most far-out creations—the 2021 Deep Space Resonance triple-axis tourbillon chief among them.
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In light of all that, you’d be forgiven for not recognizing Halter’s latest timepiece, the Liberty, as his own. Deceptively simple-looking, the limited edition wristwatch—12 pieces, $79,500 each (many already spoken for)—does not have the visual bells and whistles of a signature VH creation. It does, however, have a concept every bit as compelling as the ones that resulted in his earlier, career-defining timepieces.
Inspired by the Statue of Liberty, and the twin ideals of freedom and independence that she represents, the 38 mm titanium model features a striking green dial topped by a sapphire crystal. It was born of a conversation with Steven Rostovsky, the Los Angeles-based watch dealer who serves as its exclusive distributor.
“We decided to make a Classic limited edition for the US and the rest was up to Vianney,” Rostovsky tells Robb Report.
The creative freedom sparked an idea in Halter. His thoughts turned to the Statue of Liberty, which France gifted to America in 1886 to celebrate its centennial.
“This feeling Europe had for the USA in the 19th century; it’s the exact same feeling in me,” Halter tells Robb Report.
From his workshop in the Swiss village of Sainte-Croix, Halter conceived a timepiece with aesthetic details that pay homage to Lady Liberty and the American dream. These include an outline on the dial featuring the 11-pointed star fortification on Liberty Island, where the statue resides; a crown motif around the dial’s periphery; and numerals designed in a typeface borrowed from 18th-century US dollar notes.
Even the dial’s green color “was carefully selected to mimic the greenback, a perfect symbol and instrument of people’s freedom,” according to the press release.
“For the first time, I have used sapphire crystal as a material in which to cut the hands and dial,” Halter notes in the release. “The display is luminescent so as to shine Liberty’s light day and night, as the original conceptor of the statue, Edouard René de Laboulaye, intended.”
On the caseback, the automatic winding mass is inscribed with the original name of the sculpture, “La Liberté Éclairant le Monde” (Liberty Illuminates the World).
“With Steven, I was completely free to create,” Halter says, “and when people give you freedom, it’s a new land.”
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