Swatch has announced its two latest Swatch & Art design collaborations, with musician Moby and artist Mathieu Mercier, who have each designed a watch for the fashion brand.
The two watches continue the brand’s link ups with famous designers and artists, that have so far included the photographer Rankin, fashion designers Jeremy Scott and Cassette Playa and many others.
Swatch has joined forces with Moby to produce a limited edition watch called the Little Idiot that will be available in a limited edition of 7,777 pieces and comes in special packaging, with prints of Moby’s hand drawn Little Idiot character – who has cropped up in various of his music videos – adorning both the time piece itself and its packaging.
Moby said of the watch’s inspiration: "I started drawing cartoon characters in the mid 1980’s when I worked in an underground record store.
“Every bag that left the store had a drawing on it, and one of my jobs was to draw the cartoons on the bags. And since then the little cartoon characters have just taken on lives of their own. I have been familiar with Swatch watches for many years and have admired the sense of creativity that they convey and promote. Working with Swatch on this project provided an interesting opportunity to give new context to the Little Idiot drawings and I really love the finished results."
The second collaboration is with international artist Mathieu Mercier, who finds inspiration in 20th Century European “avant-garde utopias”.
Mercier’s New Gent watch design, named The Stone From Your Heart, has been produced in a combination of solid plastic and silicone and is limited and numbered in an edition of 777 pieces, presented in special packaging.
Within this special packaging, the watch is displayed upon an elegant circular construction in transparent burgundy-coloured plastic which has the same dimensions as a bangle and can be worn as a piece of jewellery in its own right.
The watch’s dial has a multicoloured kaleidoscopic print which references work from Mercier’s own archive and is surrounded by a solid black plastic 41mm case which is attached to a solid black plastic silicone strap.
Mercier said he was inspired by clocks, which feature through his artworks: "I was very inspired by working with Swatch. I use the notion of time a lot in my shows, as well as clocks in my artworks.
“Time is fascinating because it escapes any attempts to understand it better. The more you run after it, the more it becomes abstract. The design chosen by Swatch came from a series of paintings I started in 2003. It is a kaleidoscope revealing the artificiality of our pictorial codes and cultural values. I love the simple design of the Swatch and I really consider this little plastic space as a museum."
