The fine line between art and watch design was definetly crossed in the late 1940s by the American artist George Horowitz, a follower of the Bauhaus movement. This movement applied the theory that machine-inspired esthetics could be used for everyday objects. Horowitz’s watch design, famous for its simplicity and still available today, features a plain black dial with a single gold dot marking twelve o’clock. Since then, several watch companies have maintained the tradition of asking a contemporary artist either to design a specific piece or to grant permission for one of his/her works of art to be incorporated into one of their creations. Most designs produced seem to follow the more modern expressions of art; they make most spectacular additions to any collection; but are widely sought.
Fir several years, the Movado watch company has made a point of commissioning watches as works of art from several major contemporary artists. One in particular, who made a sizable contribution although he died before it completion, was Andy Warhol, with his Times/5 wrist watch. Comprising five different photographs of New York as individual dials, this piece has five separate watch movements. It was made in a limited edition of 250; 50 pieces were retained by Movado, and 200 went on sale in 1988 for $18,500 each.
Another artist invited by Movado to design for them was Yaakov Agam, also a follower of the Bauhaus school, who in 1989 produced the Rainbow collection, which included not just a wrist watch but other timepieces as well, presented in four separate sets. These reflected the artist’s interest in sculptural works.
Agam’s achievement was followed in 1990 by The Color of Time, created by Arman, a neorealist painter and sculptor. Presented in a maple-wood box also designed by the artist, these wrist watches have paint brushes in lieu of the more traditional hands and swatches of color instead of numerals. The paint-brush theme is also carried over to the watch strap.
In 1991 James Rosenquist presented Elapse, Eclipse, Ellipse. Again, this featured several watches – this time three – with mechanical movements, made of silver and with a dark blue leather strap decorated with silver stars.
The creation of this piece followed the artist’s works entitled Welcome to the Water Planet: one blue dial, Ellipse, represents the earth as seen from outer space; Eclipse represents a meteor; and finally Elapse is an abstract concept of time. The piece is packaged in a pyramid-shaped box, an integral part of the concept.
Another design from the Movado company is its new art watch by Max Bill, called Bill-Time and produced as a limited edition of 99 pieces. The color patterns, both on the dial and the bracelet, are inlaid under tiny sapphire-glass plates.
Movado is not the only company that bridges the gap between art and design. The Jean Lassale company was responsible for the creation of a watch based on a 1962 painting by Roy Lichtenstein. This piece has an unusual 18-carat white gold dial, hand-engraved with the paintings’ golf-ball motif.
However, before you aspire to such dizzy heights as the pieces mentioned above, consider the more accessible watches of other companies. These include Omega’s Art watches, or even its Symbol range which features mystic symbols on the watch dial.
