Blue Tit

The artful sound of nature.

Nature is awakening and spoiling the eye with colourful splashes. During a walk among this blaze of colour, the attentive observer sees isolated yellow dots shining between the branches of the blossoming cherry trees. At first glance, these splashes of colour look like blossoms, but the song that follows says it all. The sound of the blue tit is unique and it is also the inspiration of this hand-painted dial of the tenth UNIQUEO model called: “AS.UNIQUEO.10 – Blue Tit“.

The upper part of the head and the wing and tail feathers of the blue tit are bright blue. Their breast is bright yellow. Blue tits are constantly on the move and mostly on the move in trees. It is the largest and most widespread tit species in Europe. In addition, its range extends across the Middle East and through the temperate zone of Asia to the Far East. This time it made it onto the wrist of “Alexander Shorokhoff”.

For the two striking songbirds, Alexander Shorokhov uses miniature painting on a bright mother-of-pearl dial, which requires extraordinary precision. The artist works an average of 40 hours with a magnifying glass to produce such a unique miniature painting.

Only the highest quality brushes with bristles made of marten hair are used for this art. The base colour for each element is applied evenly so that the mother-of-pearl does not show through. The other colours are gradually blended in to achieve the desired gradations and nuances, but the painting is barely five hundredths of a millimetre thick when completed. To ensure that each layer of paint has dried out, the small work of art must be dried out several times in an oven at 100°C. The process of repeated drying minimises dusting of the wet paint, which could damage the work. This takes between 30 and 60 minutes, depending on the thickness of the paint layer. Finally, the finished painting is baked for five hours to prepare it for finishing. A transparent varnish is then delicately applied to the entire surface of the dial, which must then be left to dry in the oven for another 24 hours.

For the case, Alexander Shorokhov opted for a brushed and polished round case shape measuring 39 mm. A sapphire crystal case back allows a view of a hand-engraved and refined automatic movement SW200 with blued screws and a power reserve of 38 hours. A genuine crocodile leather strap with engraved stainless steel pin buckle completes the work of art.

This artistic one-of-a-kind piece is limited to only 1 piece and dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the manufacture.