Cloisonné dials...

A Forum search on cloisonné (also spelled cloisonne and cloissone) dials reveals a lot of enthusiasm, some pictures (mainly from Cellar), and 2 b&w catalogues, but very little information re who made the dials, the types of dials manufacured, the circumstances, and production numbers.
Anyone can add to what has been written?
Thanks in advance.
Clepsydra.

I do not know much about these, but Patek Philippe

perhaps a look there might give a broad based understanding.
--
Cheers from Isobars.

Cloisonné dials by IWC

I found a link to a site of our forum friend Cellar. Those dials are really fantastic and colourful sometimes. I guess they are of a past era, though, I cannot imagine the current watches with those dials. It must be very difficult to make them, and expensive too.

Kind regards,
Paul, wearing steel VC Portuguese

Cloisonné dials by IWC

I am aware of Cellar's site...

and I am trying to go a bit farther. Cellar asks pertinent questions in a 2001 posting which, to the best of my knowledge, were never fully answered.
Perhaps the answers can only be found in Schaffhausen.

Other than IWC, I've seen some beautiful dials...

from PP, and from the R brand (rendering the brand almost palatable). The dials appear to have all been made by an Italian artist Carlo (Charles) Poluzzi in Geneva, but I have been unable to confirm this.

Partial answers

Hi Tony,

I reproduced the questions below to save others scrabbling to find them:

1. Were these watches "one offs", a limited release or a customer order?
2. Given that the number was limited, how many were produced?
3. What other dial designs existed?
4. Who produced the dials?
5. Did they contain "standard" movements or were they improved with better finish, etc

MF's answer is on the link below.

I suspect little has changed since Michael's reply. Charles Poluzzi was most probably the dial maker (this information was added to my site long ago but after the question was asked) so question 4 has likely been answered . There seems to be more of these dials on Universal watches than other brands and Charles Poluzzi is given as the supplier.
I haven't seen other Cloisonné dials on IWC watches other than the ones on my site and would have thought if others existed they should have surfaced by now so question 3 have likely been answered.
Michael answered question 5 in his reply.

Questions 1 and 2 remain unanswered and an examination of the archives may not add anything unless the data was recorded at the time.

At least one forum member owns such a watch, and if we knew case numbers of several examples and if the case numbers were closely related it may give an idea on production.

Sorry I haven't been more help.

Cheers from the cellar

Great post, but unanswerable questions?

there's been a handful of companies...

...some are still made today. I know that Girard Perregaux has a Cloisonné artist on staff. JLC makes enamel pictorial dials (that is, not just showing numerals but an actual handmade scene) and I believe Patek will do so on order, however, I believe they are technically less complex than Cloisonné which uses wires to inlay the powders.

When I asked GP whether they did it "in-house", even having the oven and the haute horologerie person there said "sure but the oven is a little larger than a shoe box, that's all".

From the 1950s, I've seen several dials by several companies, also including Vacheron as well as Patek and IWC. They all look surprisingly similar and I've always thought that one third party supplier sold each of the companies on his Cloisonné work. To my thinking, IWC's historical Cloisonné dials are as good as any.

Regards,
Michael

Thanks Greg. We know tantalizingly little...

about these watches/dials.
I just found out that the Archives have no reference to cloisonne dials and that dial's reference, motif and/or name are not known. Therefore, the dial type can't be included in the Extract form the Ledger.
This info must be part of Schaffhausen's institutional knowledge or, failing that, in the "tribal" knowledge. I wonder if our estimed Moderator (not-so-subtle-hint) could dig up this info from one of many contacts there, present and past. I am just saying ,-)
I wonder if the Museum has a watch with a cloisonne dial.

I've tried...

...including asking key persons when I've been in Schaffhausen. I just don't have all the hard answers yet here. Sorry!