From 14 April 2022 to 08 May 2022

"Time Design"

location_on Fondation Haute Horlogerie, Pont de la Machine 1

Geneva, 4 April, 2022 - Watches and Culture presents "Time Design", a journey into wristwatch design. After previewing at Watches and Wonders Geneva, the “Time Design” exhibition, curated by Watches and Culture, was presented at Pont de la Machine in Geneva from April 14 to May 8, 2022. In seven themes, visitors embark on a journey to the heart of watch design through the twentieth century to the present day, and beyond.

The watch’s modes of expression have always emphasised aesthetic considerations and attention to detail. “Time Design” reveals the many creative facets of watch design in a journey through time. After a brief evocation of pocket watches, this immersive exhibition trains the spotlight on the wristwatch and its multiple stylistic iterations, from form watches to tool watches and contemporary executions. Presented in showcases, imagined by students at Lausanne University of Art and Design (ECAL), some one hundred objects illustrate the inventiveness and diversity of watch design.

Watches and Culture, the cultural division of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie and curator of the exhibition, has crafted seven inspirational worlds to illustrate the fabulous creativity of “time design”.

The beauty of early watches

Worn as a chatelaine, a brooch or a pendant, the jewellery watches of centuries past, like pocket watches, are wonders of the imagination, beautifully brought to life by the decorative arts.

The many faces of the wristwatch

The wristwatch, an innovation of the early twentieth century, combines functional considerations with an inventiveness inspired by the latest fashions as well as technical advancement, in an array of forms, materials and dimensions.

Imaginative adverts for creative watches

Advertising for watches can be as innovative as the watches themselves, as illustrated by more than one hundred advertisements, from the 1940s to 2000, that students at Lausanne University of Art and Design (ECAL) have selected from the archives of Europastar magazine.

Gérald Genta (1931-2011), a designer for the modern age

Trained as a jeweller and a goldsmith, Gérald Genta spent a lifetime exploring the wristwatch in all its forms. His creative genius produced multiple icons, among them the SAS Polerouter™, the Royal Oak™, the Nautilus™, the Ingénieur™, the Bulgari-Bulgari™ and the Gefica Safari™. The watch industry owes him its biggest successes; thanks to him, watch design has received the recognition it deserves. Gérald Genta showed how the wristwatch, both its aesthetics and its ergonomics, could become a subject for study. A man of his era, the remarkable singularity of his work transcends time.

Contemporary watchmaking, a laboratory for new ideas

Over the past two decades, watches have set out in new directions. Breaking with the classical canon, they adopt unreservedly futuristic intonations or return to the grand tradition of the decorative arts, becoming a work of art for the wrist.

The future of time?

The year is 2122. Our perception of time has changed. Students in watch design at Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD – GENEVE) have imagined the objects that will keep track of time, a century from now. Five projects, represented by five models, explore time as a concept to be mastered.

Augmented reality: from symbol to watch

Six iconic watches, represented by six objects symbolic of their design, are presented in an augmented reality experience.

After previewing at Watches and Wonders Geneva, “Time Design” opened to the public on April 14 to May 8, 2022 at Pont de la Machine in Geneva. An opportunity to discover (or rediscover) the extraordinary creativity and diversity of watch design.

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