Watchlords

The name ‘Art Deco’ goes back to the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris and is also known as ‘style moderne’. Art Deco would be the short form of ‘arts décoratifs’, which was literally a fundamental aspect of Art Deco; using a host of decorative techniques to accentuate a variety of objects and structures directed towards architecture, art, or jewelry design. This included sleek and stylized shapes, bold lines and figures often for separation, and repetition in various forms – think of the long rectangular case of the Cartier Tank Cintrée. Part of the decorative aspect of Art Deco was using specifically new man-made materials, including the famous Bakelite, and also natural ones. Thus, Art Deco, in its essence, is rarely mass-produced.

The style is said to have been inspired by Native American and Egyptian sources but also a number of previous movements, namely Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, and Cubism.

https://montrespubliques.com/new-1minut ... d-horology

Deco, when it came to America, melded with various styles; of course, some would say that America got there first, with Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie style.

French (and European) Deco was very stiff and precise; when it got to America it merged with many different moderne styles and became more joyful and playful. Mid-century moderne carried it further. Mrs. C owns a Lord Elgin watch, inherited from her grandfather who got it in the late 1950s, that is pure American Deco.