On 27 February 2007, in Venice, the gothic setting of the Palazzo Pisani Moretta was the venue for « The Ball of Time ». The thousand glittering points of the Zenith Swiss Watch Manufacture’s star blazed out that nignt to welcome more than 700 guests invited to discover the romantic splendour of Venice, revisited by the creative genius that characterises Zenith.

Distributors from around the globe, together with the international press, attended this memorable gala, a journey to the edges of the Italian Renaissance, a perfume of yesteyear in a contemporary bottle. An astonishing celebration of Time, from flowery baroque to absolute modernity, a paean to the past that gives us structure and gifts us the future.

In the heart of the Grand Canal, plunged in the mistiness of a laggard winter, stands a private 15^th century Palazzo. Inside, a multi-facetted spectacle on the three floors, in the soft light of some five hundred candles. Here, courtisans offer elixirs of love beneath a painting by Titian, a gypsy woman from another age peers into her crystal ball a magician from elsewhere juggles with illusion. There, characters from the Commedia dell’Arte improvise a popular scene, dancers in period costume celebrate Vivaldi and an improverished Casanova plays and wins at the casino.

All these enchanting living pictures opened up to masked guests who garnered stolen moments as they wandered through the labyrinthine Palazzo. « In the end, the present is nothing but a reinterpretation of the past. I give you as proof the renaissance of Zenith, whose star, after crossing the ages and the continents, now lights up the Venice sky. The sense of beauty and the marvellous is as universal as it is timeless – like our timepieces that carry the soul of a previous age in a style that belongs to today and are magnificently successful everywhere in the world. As Thales , the Greek philosopher, said, time brings everything to light, and we meet here tonight, in the city of lovers, to celebrate the triumph of our star ». Thus Thierry Nataf, President of Zenith International, welcoming his guests.