Poetry in motion: Watchmaker explains the dark art

To the casual observer, the luxury watch industry can seem opaque. Watches ceased to be practical with the advent of mobile phones, and many find it difficult to justify the millions of dollars spent on what they consider a glorified accessory.

This view owes as much to the industry's self-reinforcing attempts to remain exclusive as it does to its poor communication of the ideas and innovation - the very art of high horology - to a wider audience.

Enter master watchmaker Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, on a mission to demystify fine watchmaking by explaining some of the most complicated and innovative movements devised. "Such kinds of watches have to be explained," says Wiederrecht, adding they are "more expressing an idea than expressing time".

Wiederrecht is in Asia to "explain" his latest work, the Van Cleef & Arpels Poetic Wish timepiece. After Hong Kong, he will present the watch at the annual DFS Masterpieces of Time exhibition in Macau, which opens to the public next week and runs until the end of February.

The Poetic Wish series is in its fourth iteration and, as with the previous incarnations, marries Van Cleef & Arpels' expert handling of precious materials with Wiederrecht's groundbreaking movements. A pair of watches, the 2012 Poetic Wish is the continuation of a love story as told by the watch dials, with the scene for the women's watch at the Eiffel Tower and that of the men's watch at Notre Dame Cathedral, with the two characters depicted in the scenes longing for each other.

"We started from nothing but a picture, and from there we built the watch," says Wiederrecht.