Watch 1830 - 1845

Curator: The craftsmanship is astonishing; what strikes you about it at first glance? Editor: The incredible delicacy and ornamentation; it’s exquisitely wrought. It reminds me of power, how those with the resources could carry beauty with them always. Curator: Exactly! This is a watch, made by Jean-François Bautte & Co. between 1830 and 1845. It’s currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What’s remarkable is how a practical object became a canvas for artistic expression, representative of decorative art within the Romanticism style. Editor: So it functions as jewelry, statement of wealth and status. But let's think about the labor—the nameless skilled artisans behind it. Were they free or enslaved, paid well or exploited? A piece like this invites us to examine power structures of that time. Who had access to time, and on whose backs was that leisure built? Curator: Those questions of access and exploitation are key. This piece, while beautiful, can’t be divorced from the social inequalities that produced it. The imagery—a classicized figure, perhaps representing leisure itself—further complicates our understanding. This piece promotes a vision of idealised rest. Editor: I am curious to consider Romanticism and the exotic, where a surface fascination concealed a deeper control and extraction of resources. Was this a way of subtly showing its status, connecting it to the politics and economics of that time? Curator: Absolutely. Furthermore, timepieces in this era were becoming increasingly linked to industrialization, to the demand for punctuality, while objects such as these present another temporality—one of leisure. Editor: And for us, viewing it now, what are we invited to do? Admire the art, critique the conditions, both? The act of looking itself becomes fraught. Curator: Precisely. It prompts a dialogue about beauty, labor, and the enduring legacy of inequality. Editor: A miniature world, reflecting a much larger, unbalanced one.