Some things feel as though they have always been there. La Colombe d’Or in Saint-Paul-de-Vence is one of them. It began as a small café in 1920 before becoming an inn in 1932, and over the decades grew into one of the Riviera’s most iconic meeting places for artists, travellers and creatives. Around the same period, a new design language was emerging across France. The 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes marked the defining moment of Art Deco — a movement built around making the familiar feel modern, combining established craftsmanship and historical forms with new proportions, materials and geometry.

That same idea sits at the heart of the Visionnaire. Rather than creating something that simply looks contemporary, we started with forms that have already stood the test of time: the compact rectangular case, the balance between square and rounded forms, and the refined proportions associated with classic watchmaking and the Art Deco era. The 24 × 39.5 mm case is only 7.4 mm thick, giving it a distinctly compact silhouette, while sculpted “widebody” side flanks inspired by automotive design add a subtle sense of strength and sportiness.

The details continue that balance between past and present. Three-faceted Dauphine hands and elongated hour markers reference traditional watchmaking, while BGW9 lume, sapphire crystal and a seven-layer anti-reflective coating bring the watch firmly into the present. The sandblasted steel case adds a tactile, contemporary finish, while the textured green dial gives the watch its character — deep, understated and particularly at home in the Mediterranean light. Paired with a Japanese cotton-hemp strap by Fujikinbai, the result is a watch that moves naturally between elegance and sport, much like the person it was designed for.

That connection became even more apparent when we photographed the green Visionnaire at La Colombe d’Or. The setting has its own relationship with modern art and design: artists were welcomed there for decades, with paintings often exchanged for rooms or meals, gradually turning the inn into the remarkable collection it remains today.

The green Visionnaire first appeared as a limited edition created together with Only Classy, with 200 pieces produced and finished with the OC signature. Today, that collaboration has evolved into a permanent part of the Corniche collection. The green remains, but without the OC® logo, allowing the design itself to stand on its own.

There is something fitting about that progression. A watch inspired by a design language that emerged nearly a century ago, photographed in a place that was itself taking shape during the same period. Both are examples of how something can evolve without losing the qualities that made it distinctive in the first place.

The Visionnaire takes familiar proportions, reworks them through modern materials and details, and gives them a new attitude. Contemporary in execution, timeless in its foundation — and at home on the Riviera, where those two ideas have always seemed to meet.