3 years ago, Pierre Nobs lost his wristwatch brand, Ventura, to a fire sale. (You can read the entire story here) He tried to win it back at the auction but someone else won the bid. What was worse was that Swatch group, the owners of the trademark Ventura in the U.S. (it’s the name of a Hamilton model), filed an injunction against the winner claiming that their contract of co-existance ended with Ventura when Pierre declared bankruptcy. Thus, not only did he loose the company but Ventura was now stuck in limbo hell.
Pierre tried to move on. He launched a luxury belt but he couldn’t shake Ventura from out of his mind and with the help of his partners and friends, he was finally able to re-purchase Ventura’s assets and relaunch the company.
Back in 2008 Scott Wilson, the designer behind the Nike Presto watches gave a presentation at the Hong Kong watch and Clock fair where he showcased his work and also revealed that he was developing his own line of luxury watches under his agency name, MNML. This was before the recession hit.
Cut to late 2009 and he is launching (To be accurate, he’s co-founding) Uncommon, an on-demand fashion brand that allows consumers to print custom graphics (whether its your own design or from another artists from their artist gallery) on to any customizable accessory. This includes ipod cases, iphones and in the future, macbook cases and Yes, WATCHES – Fashion watches that allow consumers to easily upload their own design and order a custom edition for their own personal use or to make their design available for a 5% royalty fee on each design sold.
The process is being branded as 3D TATT (Thermo-active transdermal techonlogy) so I don’t know how exclusive the process is to Uncommon. The brand plans to donate 2% of all profits towards the pursuit of the arts and arts education and its nearest competitor, atleast in the wristwatch segment is France’s Wize & Ope.
The Nike Presto had an innovative packaging that could be reused as a plant pot
Scott had wanted to release a custom in-mold graphic design version of the Nike+ Amp but it never happened though it let to the development of his own brand, Uncommon
Angular Momentum’s new model, La Boulle Classic “Day & Night”, has a 24 hour self winding mechanical movement and a clever elegant dial that i thought was noteworthy. Probably due to the recession, these watches are only made on order only.
The 0Hundred watch is designed by Car industry veterans Nicholas DiLoreto and Kort Neumann. It’s a concept watch and judging by the date wheel on the watch, this is definately would need a custom mechanical movement. There is no information available whether they intend to develop this into a finished product.
I’m not a very big fan of Rado but I do like this new model called the r5.5 by Jasper Morrison. It was first launched during the vienna design week in austria, and will be gradually introduced to the world market soon.
Bell & Ross new limited edition timepiece creates a circular radar display using three discs with a small protruding hand as rotating hands thus mimicing the look of a radar. Limited to 500 pieces.
A watch is not only used by a wearer to tell time but to tell others as well. Design studio Maezm’s new concept watch makes that practice of sharing even more convenient by changing the placement of the watch display by 90 degrees so you can share more easily. You can achieve the same result with the ‘Skew’ by Ross Mcbride (link)
Burberry has launched a limited edition set for men and women this fall. The ladies watch is limited to 50 units and will retail at 800 USD, whereas, the men’s is limited to 60 units and will be sold at 1265 USD. I like both of them, though i think they should’ve made them part of their permanent collection.
Now imagine if you’re automotive designers Andy Shaw and Robert Silkstone and you decided to develop your own range of watches? And why not? Watch brands have for decades associated themselves with cars and if they could do it,so could you. And even better, you would go one step further, you would create these watches using your ‘automotive engineering methods’ and intensive manufacturing techniques like spark erosion and wire-EDM machining combined with laser engraving to create something … ordinary? I doubt you would, but their two debut models, Britannic and Vanguard-Precision don’t look too impressive especially since they are priced at $8000 USD.
Wisely, the designers have limited their collection to an edition of 15 units. No idea if it is a mechanical or a quartz.
This has already made the rounds on the blogs so I’m a little late to this, but Marc Ecko/Timex may be doing a Star Wars collaboration for the 2009 Holiday season. Since it’s mid October, I would’ve imagined it would be out now.
On a side note: I’ve been following on Timex’s initiative to go high-end and I noticed on one of the posts regarding the Star Wars collaboration that Stephen Scholz was now the Global Brand Director for Timex. I remember him as the Brand Manager for Ecko watches at Callanen back in 2005 before Timex purchased the company (Callanen and not Marc Ecko). This is significant because it shows how much of an influence Callanen’s culture of branding is having at Timex.
Untrod is a mysterious project (Mysterious because I couldn’t find a link for it anywhere) that collaborates with international designers on various project themes. Coincidently the first theme is about watches.
For the project, designers were asked to investigate the possibility of bringing new meanings to the conventional form of a watch. Below are some of the design concepts and I hope to dig up all of them:
The Sol, pictured above, is a solar powered watch that features the cell technology on the face instead of disguising it. (I’ve done a similar design myself minus the solar technology part)
Ororon by Fumie Shibata
The Ororon does a simple improvement. The strap on this watch fastens on the case itself. Unfortunately, they didn’t work around the problem of adjusting it for different wrists thus rendering it obsolete commercially.
Analarm By Industrial Facility
I like the name of this one – It’s called the Analarm and it’s by industrial facility (They previous did a watch for Seiko Instruments – See link). The watch is inspired by the alarm clock with the exception that the sound is replaced by a vibrator that indicates when the alarm is activated. I like how it sets the alarm – You have to keep the alarm button pressed while moving the hands to the desired time and then release the button. Simple.
Skew by Ross Mcbride
Madokadoke by Ross Mcbride
Duo by Ross Mcbride
The last three are all done by Ross Mcbride who incidently runs his own little wristwatch brand called ‘Normal’. The first one is called the Skew. It allows the wearer to adjust the case so it can be adjusted to your ideal viewing angle.
The second one is the most impressive. It’s called the Madokadoke and it is a bracelet that camouflages the buttons and the presence of the watch except when the digits appear to tell you the time. This concept has been done before by Hiranao Tsuboi but it was definately not as sexy in it’s execution.
Finally, the last one is called the Duo. It’s a dual time watch where the crown is concealed under a silicon flap.
Pardon the title of this entry, it’s a reference to a hilarious internet meme. Anyway, Recession has been good for Timex. Marc Ecko, having incurred $170 million in debt, moved out of his $9 million office and sold his brand’s wristwatch license to Timex’s subsidiary, Callanen International.
This move was further encouraged by Callanen’s previous experience with Guess where Fossil tried to snatch the license away from them.
