The legendary couturier Christian Dior revolutionised women’s fashions after World War II with designs that rebelled against post-war restrictions and austerity with his shapely New Look. He also re-introduced a celebration of femininity and a focus on luxury. Dior had many passions, including an abiding adoration of fancy-dress balls. These fabulous celebrations offered an opportunity to step outside the everyday and enter a dreamworld fantasy with free rein for his imagination to take flight, designing pieces of great opulence.

The designer’s enduring legacy is enshrined in codes of the Maison, and contemporary collections contain references to the past, reinterpreted for the modern day. This can also be seen in Dior’s watch collections, which draw inspiration from haute couture and themes close to the designer’s heart. Dior timepieces, always about femininity, are made with a touch of creative daring, a full palette of colour and a mix of rich materials, brought to life with watchmaking expertise.

In 2011, the Maison launched the Dior Grand Bal watch collection to pay tribute to the founder’s love of sumptuous balls. Each timepiece is fitted with the Dior Inversé 11½automatic movement, notable for having the oscillating weight visible on the dial rather than being tucked away on the underside. This has been reversed to focus on the motion of the weight. Cleverly, as the watch wearer moves her arm, the swaying of the weight evokes the graceful swirling of voluminous ball gowns. The dial of each Grand Bal watch is dressed with couture techniques and refined materials, resembling a miniaturised concentration of the world of couture for the wrist.

The calibre, developed by Les Ateliers Horlogers Dior in association with Soprod manufacture, is a great technical feat. Every new Grand Bal iteration requires specific movement development involving the recalculation of its weight and inertia. Each oscillating weight requires 300 hours of work using computer-aided design. To make one dial and one oscillating weight requires 1-2 weeks’ work. The process includes the selection, cutting out, the stabilisation, the treatment, the assembling and the polishing of different elements composing the piece and the setting of diamonds and gems. And each stage needs specific expertise and must be skilfully worked on with precision and deftness to avoid damaging elements already assembled on the dial or weight.

This watch complication reflects the ethos of Christian Dior’s designs and ambitions. In his memoirs, he remarks: ‘A ball gown must be one of your dreams, and it must make you a dream-like creature’. In the Maison’s ateliers, he fashioned fabulous fabrics like satin, faille and taffeta into architecturally inspired, opulent party dresses to turn his clients into dream-like creatures. Echoed through its collections, the Grand Bal too becomes dreamy and enchanting, embellished and dressed with sophisticated and exotic elements such as gold threads, net, silk, gems, even scarab-beetle wing.

The newest version is a downy addition to the Grand Bal Plume (feather) series. The Dior Grand Bal Plumes Précieuses Pastel features feather-making know-how specific to haute couture combined with watchmaking technology, crafted to resemble a feathered petticoat embroidered with diamonds and other precious stones that catch the light as the oscillating weight gyrates. The 36mm polished stainless-steel case gleams with a bezel set with 71 brilliant-cut diamonds, while the dial is made of shimmering mother-of-pearl, and the watch is completed by a beige satin bracelet with steel pin buckle set with brilliant-cut diamonds. The oscillating weight is made from pink gold and the rooster feathers are decorated with a subtle, pastel-hued flurry of eight amethysts, five sapphires, three tsavorites and many diamonds.

And, like couture, the watch is finished as beautifully on the reverse and the inside as it is on the dial. It’s a real dance to the music of time.

£31,000, Dior Watches; the watch is exclusively available from Harrods, during the “Fabulous World of Dior” installation until its worldwide launch in January; dior.com