Rodin and the watchmaker’s stance

by Dave Grandjean

Everyday objects accompany our attitudes: a wink over the top of our glasses in an attempt at seduction, pulling up our cuffs to look at the time and show we are in a hurry. These are all gestures and mannerisms forming part of everyday life. The repetition of these movements makes them become ingrained in our habits without our being aware. Who hasn’t ever idiotically tapped on their computer monitor just after having used their tablet? Sometimes these practical gestures coincide with the Art aesthetic.

The early 20th century marked a major development in the watchmaking world. The Art Deco movement, coupled with a practical revolution, provided an opportunity for the watch to be worn on the wrist more as an object of beauty by keeping pace with the changing fashions. Such changes had repercussions on the clothing world. At the time, sleeves were worn shorter in order to make watches more visible, because the watch, as its name indicates, has always been an item to be worn ‘demonstratively’! Changes in custom also occurred. There was no longer any need to fumble around for the watch chained to the bottom of your pocket to see the time, it does not require much effort of imagination to envision the accompanying bourgeois gesture of re-setting one’s watch in public. Thenceforth, all that was needed was a simple, graceful twist of the wrist to tell the time and show that modern man, in a gesture commensurate with his social status, had no time for such foolishness as searching around in his fob pocket for his watch! Thus, from a practical point of view, the object’s appearance altered and the gesture was, as a result, simplified. But what about the way it looks?

In around 1880, Auguste Rodin had an almost avant-garde vision when he created what is now one of his most famous bronze sculptures: The Thinker. The statue exudes contemplation and poetry. It depicts a seated man in the act of thinking. In this pensive state, the man rests his chin in his hand, his wrist emerging at an exaggerated angle. If ever a model were made for a watch boutique, it would be this poetical stance!
Possibly aware of the potential of this pose, one watchmaking brand from the Joux Valley asked the London-based artist, Quayola, to reinterpret Rodin’s work for a world-touring exhibition. In Matter, Quayola reinterprets The Thinker as a metaphor for the watchmaker’s ethos. And that ethos, one based on a person’s character, way of being and mannerisms, serves to reinforce all the aspects that make The Thinker’s pose a perpetual favourite with watchmakers.

In his work Matter, the London-based artist, Quayola, reinterprets Rodin’s The Thinker for Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak exhibition.

Based on this observation, whether deliberate or intentional, many high-profile people, be they CEOs of watchmaking brands or celebrities under contract with the brands in question, will recognise in Rodin’s The Thinker, the perfect distinguished pose that will not only appear natural to the camera lens, but that will also provide the ideal advertising platform for a watch. For a more in-your-face, sexed-up approach, some may even transform the famous stance into a seductive gesture in the manner of James Bond, whose contracts with watchmakers are legendary.
The pose, with or without the watch, will become public domain by imitation.

So, just stop and think the next time you see a young woman walking through the street with her forearm raised in affectation. It’s not ridiculous, it’s a mannerism that makes a lot of sense when you realise it could be the perfect prop for displaying a branded handbag or advertising a jewellery watch at face level. The face is the first part of the body you look at in a person, the second is the wrist, given that nowadays the watch is a statement about the wearer’s social class. From now on, what you’ll see is an allusion to the contemplation and poetry of a Rodin sculpture!