Timepieces- Graff Galaxy Ladies

Graff Galaxy Ladies

A watch with lots of diamonds has become linked with tackiness. As more women are striving for mechanical sophistication, there seems to be a lessening emphasis on jewellery timepieces, especially for women who deem themselves watch collectors.

But of course, not all diamond watches are tacky. And when diamond on dial is done gracefully, it can really be marvellous. Take this incredible watch by Lawrence Graff, the Graff Galaxy Ladies. Sure, there's a lot of diamonds, over 30 carats in fact, and you can barely read the time on the dime-sized dial. But who cares!

The name for this watch is right on; its like the milky way- a snapshot of a twinkling constellation. The 70 diamonds that make up the bracelet are not set on a white gold platform. Instead they are set individually on prongs and then linked together, giving the watch a chain-mail like effect. The fluid bracelet moves rather freely with the contours of the wrist.

When Michel Pitteloud, Graff's watchmaker first showed me this watch, it seriously took my breath away. While the jeweller is making serious efforts to present itself as a haute horlogerie manufacturer, I do believe Mr. Graff finds it hard to sway from his dazzling roots in diamonds.

And it goes without saying that it was a laborious task to find diamonds of the same calibre for this masterpiece. Pitteloud agreed that if it wasn't a project by the house of Graff, this gem-intense design would never have been realised.