With its latest watches, Swatch has found fresh ways to bring more art to people’s lives.
Swatch transports icons from artists’ studios and museum walls to the wrists of watch lovers
HAVE you never forgotten the time you gazed upon one of the world’s most famous artworks while standing in a museum?
Now, you can forever strap on that memory and have the view at hand.
Swatch has unveiled a uniquely beautiful watch collection that brings art into people’s lives.
The Swatch Art Journey designs represent an adventure through different moments in art history, from Botticelli to Lichtenstein.
There are 10 breathtaking masterpieces to really go crazy over – seven have already been launched, while a second release is scheduled for later in the year. Each one is sure to excite art and watch lovers.
Celebrating pop art
The Swatch x MoMa range celebrates the 100th anniversary of Roy Lichtenstein’s birth.
Two vibrant watches feature artworks from the famous Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of New York City. They blend the US pop artist’s unique, comic-style art and single-colour Benday dots, with the playfulness and creativity of Swatch.
One reproduces his famous artwork Reverie (1965) on the dial, with the famous phrase, “The melody haunts my reverie”, on the speech bubble loop.
The other is an ode to Girl (1963), with the recognisable image of a blonde woman taking centre stage.
Surreal appeal
The Swatch x Magritte range honours the 125th birth anniversary of surrealist artist Rene Magritte. He is known for his dreamlike, imaginative aesthetic and evocative symbols (the bowler hat and pipes, to name a few).
Magritte’s 1964 painting The Son Of Man can be seen on a watch dial, with the words “Ceci est une Swatch avec une pomme” written on the strap – a playful reference to his famous quote.
The original words “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” is detailed on the strap of another watch, along with “Ceci est une Swatch”. This one has a dial that carries the image from his The Treachery Of Images (1929).
Both underscore the fact that wordplay was as important to Magritte as images.
Renaissance glory
Watches from the Swatch x Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi range is seen as a remastering of Sandro Botticelli’s Renaissance art.
Gallerie Degli Uffizi in Florence, known by its rich collection of Renaissance masterpieces, may house both the Allegory Of Spring and The Birth Of Venus by the one and only Sandro Botticelli in the same room, but now people can wear both on their wrists.
The former features a strap depicting Flora, goddess of flowers, adorned with cornflowers, wild strawberries, violets and myrtle, among citrus trees. It has a dial showing numerous plants.
The latter shows the gods, Zephyr (of winds) and Aura (breeze) who gently drive Venus towards the shore – with her unmistakably beautiful face and pink roses covering the strap.
Perfect match
In the Swatch x Louvre Abu Dhabi watch, two worlds unite: The Great Wave Off Kanagawa (1831) by Katsushika Hokusai and the Astrolabe artifact by Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Battuti.
The artworks are part of the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s growing permanent collection.
On the dial and front side of the strap is a close-up image of the cresting wave that plays with perspective to make Japan’s grandest mountain appear as a small triangular mound within its hollow.
The underside depicts elements from Astrolabe, a marvel of mankind. The flat projection of a night sky was used to help calculate the position of the stars and determine the exact time of day.
Discover more about the collection here.
