American architect Steven Holl has designed a colourful wristwatch for the Swiss brand Cauny. The idea came from a conversation with the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza, and the resulting timepiece is a small piece of architectural dialogue.
Called The Sculpture Watch, the timepiece sits in a circular case that echoes the watch Siza designed for Cauny. Its dial holds four intersecting blocks of colour in red, green, yellow and blue.
The blocks are three-dimensional. They rise above one another on the dial, creating depth that a flat print could not show.
If you enjoy watches where raised forms and playful colour meet precise mechanics, Playful ghostly designs meet precise watch engineering offers a lighter take on the same idea.
A compliment in Porto
The story begins with a lecture. On July 25, 2018, Holl gave a summer talk at the Porto Academy. Siza attended and approached him afterward.
“Steven, you use colour like Matisse, I must try in my next project,” Siza told him, Holl recalled.
Holl calls Siza the greatest living architect. He says the watch is an homage to him, and it is built around that afternoon.
Watercolour sits at the centre of Holl’s work. He begins most of his architecture projects with a small watercolour sketch. The Sculpture Watch translates one of those paintings into an object that fits on a wrist.
“Watercolor painting, integral to my design process for architecture, inspires this timepiece,” Holl said.
Brass was the practical choice for this piece. Holl says the colour volumes are made of brass, a metal that is well tested in watchmaking and can reproduce the look of his watercolours.
Colour as a concept
Holl does not treat colour as decoration. He says he starts with the idea behind a design and then decides how colour will serve it.
For another way colour transforms a building’s surfaces, Bold fluorescent installation lighting Hayward Gallery’s concrete shows how light can change how a brutalist structure is experienced.
He points to two examples. At the DE Shaw trading floor, colour is projected from surfaces that visitors cannot see. In his Chapel of St. Ignatius, seven bottles of light use complementary colours that he links to the Jesuit spiritual exercises.
Holl also connects colour to time. Each moment, he says, carries its own mix of hues. “Time is marked in a personal way, with each moment its own polychrome experience,” he said.
He adds that colour makes time visible and felt at once. “The fragility and variation of colour remind us that time is a human experience of duration,” he said.
The steven holl watch in a growing series
The Sculpture Watch is the fifth piece Cauny has created for The Architects of Time Series. Siza designed the first watch in the collection.
Rafael Moneo, Eduardo Souto Moura and Tadao Ando have since designed watches for the brand. Many high-profile architects now contribute to the architect designed watch trend, and Holl’s contribution stands out for how directly it turns a remark into a material object.
Its dial makes the argument plainly. A passing compliment in a lecture hall became four raised blocks of brass, and each colour marks a moment in a conversation between two architects.
Via dezeen.com
Frequently asked questions
What is the Steven Holl Sculpture Watch made of?
Holl says the colour volumes on the dial are made of brass, a metal that is well tested in watchmaking and can reproduce the look of his watercolours. The watch sits in a circular case that echoes the watch Álvaro Siza designed for Cauny.
How did Álvaro Siza inspire Steven Holl’s watch design?
The idea came from a lecture Holl gave at the Porto Academy on July 25, 2018, after which Siza told him, “Steven, you use colour like Matisse, I must try in my next project.” Holl says the watch is an homage to Siza and is built around that afternoon.
What colours appear on the Sculpture Watch dial?
The dial holds four intersecting blocks of colour in red, green, yellow and blue. These blocks are three-dimensional and rise above one another, creating depth that a flat print could not show.
How many watches has Cauny made in The Architects of Time Series?
The Sculpture Watch is the fifth piece Cauny has created for The Architects of Time Series. Siza designed the first watch in the collection, and Rafael Moneo, Eduardo Souto Moura and Tadao Ando have also designed watches for the brand.
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