CROSS-FERTILIZATION IN WATCHES

“When thinking about the future of a product within a sector, it helps to think about what it is that sets the trends in that design space. With Cars, it’s F1. What is it with watches?”

-Ayaz Basrai

We’ve seen watches with carbon-fibre detailing, architectural themes and watch straps moulded to woven textures, While moodboards can inspire form, detailing and a reinterpretation of space from any literally anywhere, it would be worth pointing out the fields that often cross pollinate with watches. Developments in these fields are likely to influence the design of watches.

Smart Phones: Former designer at Apple, Tony Fadell, talks about how the industry was trying to build better touchscreens in 1991. The setting of the touchscreen mounted on the display left the designers with the problem of having an air gap between these two parts -the air gap created parallax because of the refractive difference between the screen and the air. To solve this problem, designers filled oil to fill the air gap to kill the refractive differences. The result of this effort was beautiful, the oil gave this feeling that the display popped up to the surface. The format of having a touchscreen on top of display in a gadget is similar to having a crystal on top of a dial read out in watches - You get an air bubble in both cases. Ressence founder Benoît Mintiens used this same trick to get the numerals on his watches to come all the way to the face. The result is beautiful here as well.

Pens: ‘Guilloche’ refers to an engraved ornamental pattern comprised of intricately intertwined lines. Historically Guilloche was used on Ivory and wood, and soon it found its way into fine pen and jewellery constructions. It was the cross fertilization between these fields that saw guilloche being used in watch dials - the effect creates a sense of depth in what might seem a very plain watch dial.

Jewellery: Gem setting is tricky and historically, we’ve seen companies like Chopard use their knowledge of jewellery making (the company started out as a jewellery company from Pforzheim) to create truly unique creations. The art of creating and ‘invisible crown’ and ‘floating case’ coupled with slender lug and strap integrations make for an aura of being delicate. This has inspired women’s watches across manufacturers.

Belts: Being of the same family, watch band closure systems are reminiscent of those we find in belts. Take for instance the Daniel Wellington, whose fabric strap was so created to match with that of the belt. The buckle closure systems on the Hermes belts too are seen on the apple watch.

Perfume: Altering the quality of light is the domain of jewellery. Beautifully cut diamonds catch light as in ways that inspire emotion. However, this has greatly influence the design of watches and perfume bottles. One often gets reminded of the folklore that talks about Magpies stealing shiny objects. In much the same way, the way these products react to light is an essential component in the creation of curiosity, desire and value perception. You can think of light in this respect as the hook that creates interest.