French for skilled artistic crafts, including disciplines such as embroidery, engraving and decorative metalwork.
In France, métiers d’art are defined by law: the Ministry of Culture counts 281, listed by an arrêté of 24 December 2015 in 16 domains. One covers bijouterie, joaillerie, orfèvrerie and horlogerie, and its métiers include the engraver, the guillocheur, the gem setter (sertisseur) and the enameler on metal, with dial enameling as a specialty.
In watchmaking and jewelry, it means the decorative crafts. An enameler fires enamel onto metal in a kiln, layer by layer, in techniques such as champlevé, cloisonné, grand feu and miniature painting. Engraving forms patterns by hand with a graver, or by machine such as a rose engine. Vacheron Constantin’s gem setters drill a seat in the metal, fit the stone and push the metal back to hold it, without glue. Houses also use the phrase as a collection name: Vacheron Constantin’s Métiers d’Art collection includes a series combining gem-setting, engraving, glyptics and enameling.
In job listings
The term appears in workshop roles at watch and jewelry houses, such as enamelers, engravers and stone setters. At the bench it signals hand decoration as a specialization; in Switzerland, enameling training follows a watchmaking CFC or equivalent. See current stone setter roles.
