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In the mid-XIXth century Victorian England, a group of English painters, poets and critics, known as the Pre-Raphaelites, formed a brotherhood celebrating woman, romanticism and symbolic nature. Dissatisfied with what was taught and exhibited at the Royal Academy, they wanted to return to a more direct and honest artistic expression, with abundant details, intense colours and complex compositions.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of the driving forces behind this circle of artists and wished to reinforce the links between romantic poetry and art. Rossetti’s emphasis was on brilliance of colour and the women he portrayed often symbolized the creative power of Nature. ‘The Daydream’ (1880) is a celebration of controlled female sensuality, blending feminine beauty and mystery. The woman is not a passive beauty, but a powerful beauty, full of intensity.

Another artist that was greatly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites was Julia Margaret Cameron, rightly recognized as one of the most influential figures from the early days of portrait photography and that became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time. In her photography, Cameron strove to capture beauty and had the amazing gift of always ‘arresting’ the personalities of her subjects, achieving to depict their emotional state in her photos.

She rapidly developed her unique style of photographic portraiture, slightly out of focus and deliberately gauzy, in order to emphasize the emotional dimension of her subjects in an often highly allegorical way. The gentle melancholy of her portraits is irresistible, and for many remains unsurpassed even to this day in the world of photography.

Her associations with artists from the Pre-Raphaelite school brought her to meet Charles Dodgson, another passionate photographer of the time and better known under the name of Lewis Carroll. Dodgson had often used Alice Liddell (the inspiration for his Alice stories) as a child portrait subject for his photographs. Later, Cameron also recognised in Alice the perfect Pre-Raphaelite model and used her in her photographic allegory of Alethea, the Greek goddess of truth.

Julia Margaret Cameron had a truly artistic approach to photography in which she followed her own instincts, freed from all Victorian rules and conventions.

Considered the first avant-garde movement in art, the Pre-Raphaelites and their beautiful celebration of Woman, Romanticism and Symbolic Nature have been the driving inspiration behind the creation of the DeWitt Golden Afternoon collection.


ALL IN THE GOLDEN AFTERNOON

With the Golden Afternoon collection, DeWitt has tried to poetically and artistically retrace the different stages in the life of a woman and her changing perceptions of the world around her. With great lightness and a touch of fantasy, the Golden Afternoon collection offers a set of mirrors to the minds and hearts of women.

What better example than the tale of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to illustrate a woman’s attempt to decipher the world around her? Once decoded this most brilliant example of literary nonsense, we find ourselves facing a thoroughly contemporary girl, fighting to re-establish her own identity and aspiring towards complete feminine autonomy. A beautiful story of the long and sinuous journey from innocent childhood to wisdom and adulthood.

In his prefatory poem of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll recalls the afternoon during which he took a boat trip from Oxford to Godstow and improvised the Alice in Wonderland story to entertain the three Liddell sisters, Lorina, Alice and Edith. The first verse reads:

All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretence
Our wanderings to guide.


ACROSS THE THRESHOLD ON THE GARDENSIDE

The dial of the Golden Afternoon is a delicate mother of pearl garden with a gentle breeze blowing across its colourful beds of flowers. Of different dimensions and tonalities, the flowers pour out of the centre and are dispatched poetically across the dial. In the background, a mother of pearl sky with discrete puffy clouds mingles with a dozen water lily diamonds to form a painting in which reflection is reality. The slightly “out of focus” effect reminds us of Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographic style, exceptionally powerful and evocative.

The hours and minutes hands are refined little sculptures of angel wings, whereas the seconds hand, thin and elegant, is topped with a little flame. On the lower left part of the dial, a small DeWitt logo gently floats across the sky.


FEMININE FINESSE

The Golden Afternoon is a purely feminine 39 mm timepiece housing an automatic calibre with 42 hours power reserve. A classical feature of most DeWitt watches, the imperial columns were redesigned for the Golden Afternoon collection and illustrate feminine finesse. They can also be seen as twelve little doors opening up onto a beautiful garden, just as the many doors that Alice faced down in the Rabbit hole. As for the crown, it was also redesigned into softer shapes and is decorated with a blue sapphire or a ruby cabochon. A golden pin buckle, polished and with a fine engraving of the DeWitt logo provides additional finesse to the finishing.


SOFT DIAMOND SETTING: TOTAL OF 146 BRILLIANT-CUT DIAMONDS (~1,404 Cts).

ROSE GOLD & CHOCOLATE MOTHER-OF-PEARL – Ref. GA.AU.001

A very joyful and colourful combination of tonalities, with chocolate mother-of-pearl sky, salmon and white mother-of-pearl flowers. Fresh colours and pure feminity. 84 brilliant-cut diamonds on the bezel, 48 on the two wristband attaches and 14 on the dial.


WHITE GOLD & WHITE MOTHER-OF-PEARL – Ref. GA.AU.003

A very bright and clean face, full of purity and innocence on which salmon and white mother-of-pearl flowers compose a balanced floral arrangement. 84 brilliant-cut diamonds on the bezel, 48 on the two wristband attaches and 14 on the dial.


MEDIUM DIAMOND SETTING: TOTAL OF 287 BRILLIANT-CUT DIAMONDS (~2,17 Cts).

WHITE GOLD & BLACK MOTHER-OF-PEARL – Ref. GA.AU.004

This slightly more mature combination of tonalities presents a very interesting contrast of white gold and black mother-of-pearl. It conveys an atmosphere that reminds us of Rossetti’s “Day dream” (1880) painting, a celebration of controlled female sensuality, blending beauty and mystery. The woman depicted is not a passive beauty, but a powerful beauty, full of intensity. The flowers on the dial are of black and salmon mother-of-pearl.

117 brilliant-cut diamonds on the side of the case, 84 diamonds on the bezel, 48 on the two wristband attaches, 24 on the crown (also adorned with a ruby cabochon) and finally four rubies and
14 diamonds on the dial.


FULL DIAMOND SETTING: TOTAL OF 412 BRILLIANT-CUT DIAMONDS (~2,89 Cts).

WHITE GOLD & WHITE MOTHER-OF-PEARL – Ref. GA.AU.002

This dazzling, fully paved version is a delightful horological and jewelry work of art that expresses delicacy and refinement. It displays in the background a white mother-of-pearl sky with discrete puffy clouds that playfully mingle with water lily diamonds. Just like a painting in which reflection is reality. The slightly “out of focus” effect reminds us of Julia Margaret Cameron’s photographic style, exceptionally powerful and evocative.

165 brilliant-cut diamonds on the side of the case, 108 on the bezel, 48 on the two wristband attaches, 24 on the crown (also adorned with a blue sapphire cabochon) and finally 67 diamonds to decorate the dial.




GOLDEN AFTERNOON

Technical description

Calibre:

Movement: Self-winding (ETA 2892)
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds
References: Soft diamond setting (rose gold): GA.AU.001
Soft diamond setting (white gold): GA.AU.003
Medium diamond setting: GA.AU.004
Full diamond setting: GA.AU.002
Power reserve: 42 hours
Rotor: DeWitt’s design
Vibrations: 28’800 A/h
Balance: 3-armed, made in Glucydur
Balance-spring: Flat
Escapement: 510 angle of lift
Jewelling: 21 jewels

Case:

Case: Round-shaped, adorned with slender feminine imperial columns on the flanks
Material: 18-carat white or rose gold
Diameter: 39 mm
Total thickness: 9,28 mm
Crown: 18-carat white or rose gold polished crown adorned with a blue sapphire or a ruby cabochon
Case back: Engraved and secured with screws

Dial:

Dial: Mother-of-pearl background sky with mother of pearl flowers of different sizes and tonalities pouring out of the centre and dispatched across the dial.
Hands: Hours and Minutes: refined little sculptures in the shape of angel wings.
Seconds: thin and elegant and topped with a small flame.

Brilliant-cut diamonds used for the diamond-setting of DeWitt watches
are of Top Wesselton VVS Quality.

Wristband:
Wristband: Alligator leather or satin in different colour tonalities
Buckle: 18-carat white or rose gold pin buckle, polished and engraved with the DeWitt logo.

Water-resistance: 30 meters