A tiny octopus, hand-sculpted in transparent glass, takes centre stage on the dial of a Vacheron Constantin watch.
The Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Animal Kingdom – Glassoctopus is the outcome of a collaboration between the Maison and Italian artist Simone Crestani, created as part of Vacheron Constantin’s One of Not Many Crafts Programme.
The project brings an art form rarely associated with the Maison’s Métiers d’Art tradition—glass sculpture—into haute horlogerie.
The collaboration is also being celebrated in Rome, where Vacheron Constantin’s boutique on Via dei Condotti is hosting twelve of Crestani’s works from September 29 through October 31.
Glassoctopus: i.e., a glass octopus on the dial
Vacheron Constantin and Simone Crestani unveiled their collaboration in Venice in early September, as part of Homo Faber, the international venue for exceptional craftsmanship and contemporary creativity.
For Glassoctopus, Crestani has brought transparent glass into an object so delicate as it is small.
At the dial’s centre, a tiny octopus appears to drift through an underwater world. Crestani shaped its tentacles and suckers one by one, using tools developed specifically for the project.
The result is a unique piece in which the sculpture is far more than a decoration: it is the dial’s defining trait.
Crestani’s glass sculpture downsized to watchmaking scale
The project’s major challenge was applying Crestani’s sculptural language to a size he is not usually used to.
He traditionally uses glass to evoke the natural world, drawing on forms found in both the plant and animal kingdoms.
Glass also lets him explore the interplay of light and volume, giving his creations an almost weightless, feather-like appearance.
Glassoctopus’s artistic touch reveals Simone’s talent. Crestani has hand-shaped every detail with incredible precision and skill, and the result is a tiny three-dimensional sculpture glued to the dial so precisely that it looks like one piece.
That is what makes the collaboration so compelling: Crestani’s distinctive craft remains unmistakable, and so does it when it meets watchmaking.
Introducing new ideas into haute horlogerie
Glassoctopus is part of Vacheron Constantin’s One of Not Many Crafts Programme, which brings the Maison’s watchmaking expertise into dialogue with artists and craftspeople from other disciplines.
Founded in 1755, Vacheron Constantin continues to safeguard traditional skills in-house, including engraving, guilloché, enamelling, and gem-setting.
The programme builds on that heritage by introducing techniques from outside the conventional boundaries of watchmaking.
Crestani is one of six craftspeople the Maison selected. His contribution brings glass sculpture into the Métiers d’Art tradition, while the other collaborations explore different creative domains.
The programme’s appeal lies in its power to bring expertise from entirely different fields to the exceptionally small canvas of a watch.
Simone Crestani’s work is on display in Rome
The collaboration takes centre stage in an exhibition at Vacheron Constantin’s boutique at 29 Via dei Condotti, Rome, open from September 29 through October 31, 2026.
The exhibition features twelve of Crestani’s works, including candelabras, pitchers, and decorative objects. Full-scale, these pieces offer a broader sense of his artistic language—and the challenge of translating it into Glassoctopus‘s miniature world.
The exhibition is therefore more than a guide to the watch itself: it reveals the wide artistic vision from which the collaboration began.
Toughts
Glassoctopus shows what happens when an artistic discipline steps into a new, scaled-down territory.
Crestani’s glass is not merely any add–on ornamental piece on the dial. It was reimagined to meet haute horlogerie.
That is the project’s main trait—and where the One of Not Many Crafts Programme is heading: to bring new expertise while preserving each craft’s domain.
