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Vacheron Constantin and The Met Unveil Three Artisan Residency Works, Without a Watch in Sight

Three artisans, three finished objects in wood, ceramic and metal, and not a single watch in the announcement.

Image: Vacheron Constantin

Museum partnerships are easy to announce but harder to deliver. Vacheron Constantin just did: the output of its residency with The Met is now public, and it is worth a closer look.

Vacheron Constantin’s press release confirms the Artisan Residency Programme with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, launched in May 2025, has reached its final phase. Three artisans, the American designer Aspen Golann, the Egyptian-American ceramicist Ibrahim Said, and the Anglo-Italian goldsmith and jeweller Joy Harvey, each completed an 18-month residency split between New York, Geneva and their own workshops.

The works are titled, not numbered. Golann’s Vessel is a monumental, 5-foot-tall (1.52-metre) wooden vase with bas-relief carving on its surface. Said’s Shaping Time is a ceramic piece modelled, engraved and lacquered. Harvey’s Ruined splendour – Bronze Diadem is hammered, chiselled and laminated from a precious metal alloy of bronze, copper, tin, gold and silver. Vacheron says the three will be shown at an event it is hosting at The Met on 8 October.

Now the part collectors should hold onto. Nothing in this release is a watch. There is no caliber, no reference, no dial or case detail, no limited edition, and no stated connection between these objects and anything Vacheron sells. The release also does not say whether the works stay with the maison or join a museum collection.

Vacheron positions the residency within its wider cultural work: the Louvre since 2019, The Met since 2023, and the Palace Museum in Beijing’s educational institute since 2024. Named craftspeople, finished objects, nothing on the price list.

Source: presslounge.vacheron-constantin.com

Why this watch, on this wrist?