Reflecting on her career as a professional watch designer, Jacqueline Dimier is unsure whether to attribute her success to chance or to being in the right place at the right time. Today, one might jump to conflate “right place, right time” with the concept of chance: wouldn’t Dimier’s upbringing in the watch capital of the world — Geneva, Switzerland — have everything to do with her horological success? But perhaps chance was essential to the fact that she, a woman in the 1960s, was able to forge a path in an overwhelmingly male dominated industry. Ms. Dimier still resides in Geneva and at 83, her experience has led her to firmly believe that “each instant, used as action or nonchalance, has its own value.” Take this perspective of time from a woman who has literally built a vocation around it: no moment, no matter how insignificant it seems, should be considered wasted.

Dimier looks back on her near 25-year career at Audemars Piguet with a sense of gratitude for the respect and freedom she was granted to do her job properly. Even in her downtime today, she recognizes the importance of owning one’s time to simply enjoy life: “To me, entertainment connotes freedom.” That one is able to do anything — for work or for fun — is not to be taken for granted. “My body no longer responds to expectations and its rhythm betrays me,” she explains of the inevitable limitations that come with natural age, “but I enjoy the happy and festive moments of meeting with family and friends.” Indeed, Dimier finds solace in a sort of simplicity that cannot be dismissed as unproductive. Despite a less constrained schedule, however, she still keeps the time: “I wear a slightly smaller Royal Oak model than the original women’s version from 1976. This watch has been faithfully sitting on my wrist for more than 25 years now.”

As tempting as it is to keep digging into her boundary-breaking career, Dimier herself prefers forward motion. “This thirst for what comes next motivates me everyday, and I am rarely backward-looking.” Driven by the future, she nevertheless remains deeply present: “I enjoy every single moment I have,” relishing in the beauty of the everyday. “I try to translate this into drawings, paintings, texts and stone sculptures. I am always curious to learn, to know.”

She laments the fact that her health no longer allows her for long, energizing walks through the forest, but — ever resourceful — she has traded this for meditation by the water, which “with its horizontality, has always been able to calm everything down.” The movement of water, with its serene, reliable rhythm, is not unlike the ticking of a clock — and thus you begin to understand Dimier’s rich experience of the world around her.

"It is important to know how to receive, create and give back."