Vacheron Constantin and The Met Artisan Residency: Three Works Unveiled

Three artisans complete an 18-month residency with Vacheron Constantin and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, unveiling original works in New York on 8 October 2026.

What Stands Behind It

• Launched in May 2025 and concluding at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on 8 October 2026, the Artisan Residency Programme placed three international artisans inside both The Met’s collections and the Vacheron Constantin Manufacture in Geneva across an 18-month period — one of the most structurally ambitious cultural exchanges the maison has undertaken.
• Three original works emerge: Aspen Golann’s monumental 5-foot bas-relief wooden vessel, Ibrahim Said’s 4-foot-6 three-tiered lacquered ceramic structure, and Joy Harvey’s bronze diadem forged in custom alloys of gold, silver, copper and tin.
• The programme rests on three declared pillars: developing the broadest possible range of craft skills, expanding the norms of traditional practice towards new expression, and transmitting knowledge to future generations.
• The partnership between Vacheron Constantin and The Met has been active since 2023, extending also to the ‘A Masterpiece on the Wrist’ commission programme through Les Cabinotiers.

Design & Mechanics

Each of the three works carries a distinct material logic, yet all three converge on the same ambition: to apply centuries-old techniques with deliberate formal invention.

Aspen Golann, a cabinetmaker and furniture design instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design, carved her vessel in wood at her New Hampshire studio. At 1.52 metres, the hollow form is populated with foliage, fruit and horses in bas-relief, drawing on American furniture she studied at The Met — carved Connecticut and Pennsylvania chests from the 17th to 19th centuries, a sunflower-motif chest of drawers, and a Federal-period satinwood and mahogany desk. At the Vacheron Constantin manufacture, exposure to enamelling and engraving in the métiers d’art workshop recalibrated her understanding of finish as meaning, not decoration.

Ibrahim Said, born into a potting family in Fustat, Egypt, shaped his three-tiered ceramic structure in North Carolina. At 4 feet 6 inches wide and equally tall, the piece carries relief carvings, piercings and multicoloured glazed surfaces that reference ancient Egyptian and Islamic motifs, including eight-pointed stars. Within its contours, the maison’s Maltese Cross emblem is present as a subtle echo. Said drew from artefacts at The Met spanning a 10th–12th century Islamic water filter, a floral necklace from Tutankhamun’s embalming cache and the pectoral necklace of Princess Sithathoryunet, engraved with the name of Senusret II (1887–1878 BC).

Joy Harvey’s Bronze Diadem is the most technically layered of the three works. The headpiece is composed of forged rhomboid bronze profiles interlaced with panels modelled on leaf-vein filigree, granulation, seed-shaped pendants from ancient Greek necklaces, and golden bramble flowers. Harvey used a copper-poor alloy of 60% gold rather than lead or arsenic to preserve the malleability of ancient bronze, allowing the fusing of granulation and seed forms. The final stage involved piercing the finished piece with cold machine-made rods — a controlled act of ruination central to the work’s conceptual argument. Guillochage patterns on the bramble petals were first engraved on a guilloché lathe, then deliberately distorted by striking and hammering. “It was a unique opportunity to work with skilled craftspeople who fully understand what it means to be an artisan and what you need to grow your skills,” Harvey has stated.

Heritage & Lineage

The mentorship structure at the core of this programme reaches back to 1755, when Jean-Marc Vacheron signed the maison’s first apprenticeship contract — the founding document of the oldest watchmaking manufacture in continuous production.

Vacheron Constantin currently holds artistic partnerships across three continents: with the Louvre since 2019, with The Met since 2023, and with the Educational Institute of the Palace Museum in Beijing since 2024. Within the broader Vacheron Constantin and Met collaboration, the Fondation Haute Horlogerie and Watches and Wonders serve as additional forums where the maison’s decorative-art position is regularly articulated to an international audience. The residency programme is one of several expressions of that commitment, alongside the Les Cabinotiers ‘A Masterpiece on the Wrist’ offering that allows collectors to commission a unique dial reproducing, in enamel, a work from The Met’s collection.

Availability & Edition Details

The three works are not commercial editions. They will be unveiled at a Vacheron Constantin-hosted event at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on 8 October 2026 in New York.

For collectors in the Gulf seeking to engage with Vacheron Constantin at this level of cultural investment, the Les Cabinotiers department remains the primary channel for unique commission work. Enquiries through the maison or an authorised retailer in the Middle East will direct patrons to the relevant specialists.

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