Fancy art on your wrist — that’s a concept that Swatch nails every time they debut a new collaboration with the world’s most renowned museums, a brilliant idea that transforms a functional, everyday object such as a watch into a literal piece of art.
Similar to last year’s series, the Swiss watchmaker reimagines iconic art pieces, from Botticelli to Lichtenstein, as part of the Swatch Art Journey collection of timepieces that take us through various moments in art history. Some of these are so recognisable that you don’t need to be an art major to namedrop their origins — take Roy Lichtenstein’s vibrant dotted pop art style for instance, or the famous Great Wave by Japanese artist Hokusai.
Swatch has partnered with museums and institutions such as MoMA, Fondation Magritte, Le Gallerie degli Uffizi and Louvre Abu Dhabi to give us GENT and NEW GENT silhouettes that playfully celebrate art on your wrist, across five capsule collections that will be released from mid-March all the way till May.
Ahead, we take you through the first four releases, comprising of 7 watches in total. The last release in the Swatch Art Journey collection will be unveiled at a later date.
WAVE 1 — Swatch x MoMA ; Swatch x Magritte
2023 marks the 100th anniversary of American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s birth, which is why MoMA decided to honour his legacy with this Swatch collaboration of two watches that feature his vivid comic-inspired style.
The first timepiece recreates ‘Girl’ (1963), where a smiling blonde woman is originally rendered in the artist’s signature Benday dots technique, and now featured on the watch against a striking electric-blue backdrop for high contrast. To keep it more interesting, most of the 41mm watch’s strap is in that same blue shade, though you’ll find more a surprise zoomed-in version of Lichtenstein’s art piece when you flip the watch around.
In a slightly smaller 34mm watch face is Swatch’s take on ‘Reverie’ (1965), which marked the artist’s inspiration of jazz music. The famous text on the artwork “The melody haunts my reverie” features on a pop-up speech bubble loop on the watch, while the timepiece also features a bright canary-yellow strap that takes after the woman’s blonde hair. Both the above watches’ cases are made with bio-sourced plastic.
The two Swatch x MoMA watches, $150 and $135 respectively, is now available in Swatch stores, on Swatch.com, at MoMA Design Stores and store.moma.org.
Next up, we’ve got Surrealist painter René Magritte, who’s known for incorporating symbols and self-portraits into his dreamlike aesthetic. ‘The Son of Man’ (1964), for instance, is a recognisable piece of self-portrait art that sees a man in a bowler hat, though with his face hidden behind a floating green apple. The Swatch watch faithfully recreates this image and muted colour palette, right down to the man’s suit across the strap.
A subtle beige-and-brown number depicts Magritte’s love for irony and wordplay, seen in ‘The Treachery of Images’ (1929), which features a pipe with the words “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“this is not a pipe”), that then challenges the viewer on their perception of the world. Swatch continues on this playful twist with the phrase, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe. Ceci est une Swatch.” (“This is not a pipe. This is a Swatch.”) across the watch strap.
The two Swatch x Magritte watches, $150 each, is now available in Swatch stores and on Swatch.com.
WAVE 2 — Swatch x LOUVRE ABU DHABI ; Swatch x LE GALLERIE DEGLI UFFIZI
Swatch’s collaboration with Louvre Abu Dhabi combines the best of both worlds in one nautical-inspired timepiece — both the iconic Japanese artwork by Katsushika Hokusai, and the Astrolabe artefact by Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Battûtî are featured here in a unique cultural exchange.
First off, Hokusai’s most famous print, ‘Under the Wave off Kanagawa’, is featured on the dial and front side of the watch strap, of a close-up image of the cresting wave in Prussian blue tones.
Running with similar themes of oceans, navigation, and the night sky is Astrolabe, seen on the underside of the watch, a flat projection of a night sky and a marvel of the ancient times as it helps calculate the position of the stars while determining the exact time of day.
The Swatch x LOUVRE ABU DHABI watch will be available in Swatch stores and on SWATCH.COM from 13 April 2023.
A fourth series transports us to Le Gallerie degli Uffizi in Italy, an art museum known for its rich archive of Renaissance paintings. Two mesmerising masterpieces by artist-of-the-era Sandro Botticelli feature here, starting with the joyous ‘Allegoria della Primavera’, or ‘Allegory of Spring’.
The Italian painter depicts Flora, goddess of flowers, adorned with her dress of cornflowers, violets, myrtle and more, while Cupid and other mythological figures make an appearance in this ode to nature. The watch is a celebration of nature as well, and combined with a translucent pink bezel for a modern touch.
Then, there’s Botticelli’s famous ‘Nascita di Venere’, or ‘The Birth of Venus’, where the watch dial sees the gods of winds, Zephyr and breeze, Aura, while Venus herself features on the strap, as beautiful as ever and complemented by romantic pastel hues with gold-coloured accents.
The two Swatch x LE GALLERIE DEGLI UFFIZI watches will be available in Swatch stores and on SWATCH.COM from 13 April 2023.
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