The birth of modern horological art

Singapore

Wei Koh - “What was true for the painters of yesterday is false for the painters of today.” Umberto Boccioni. Every new generation seeks to define art in its own bold voice.

Wei Koh*

“What was true for the painters of yesterday is false for the painters of today.” Umberto Boccioni

“I was always astonished how the industry was using 21st century materials and techniques to make 19th century watches. I say if we are going to use today’s materials and today’s technology then we have to make today’s watches.” - Richard Mille

“I am a watchmaker, my father is a watchmaker, my grandfather is a watchmaker. But I could no longer continue to repeat the past as they had. I had to find my own way.” Felix Baumgartner, co-founder Urwerk

Watchmaking’s new wave

Every new generation seeks to define art in its own bold voice. The seminal British rock brand The Who, released their first album in 1965. Titled My Generation, its ragged teeth gnashing blues-on-speed rhythm was counter-pointed by a counterpunch of combative lyrics that furiously declared this “their generation,” illustrating the torn fabric that separated the old world and the generation of rock and roll. From 1958 to 1964, five French directors, Truffaut, Goddard, Chabrol, Rivette and Rohmer slashed apart the formula laden structure of old cinema and gave birth to the raw, irreverent wildness of the French New Wave. Similarly watchmaking is undergoing a similar rupture from the past, a wild crucible of decimation and restructuring as a brilliant Nouvelle Vague (New Wave)of watchmakers attempts to coalesce their vision of horological art. This is the birth of a new era of passionately expressionist, adrenaline charged, boldly lascivious, kinetically hyperbolic watchmaking art that for lack of a better name we call “Modern Horological Art.” And if the best classic watchmaking can be compared to the perfect figurative art of Rembrandt then modern horological art is propelled by the same kinetic fury expressed by Jackson Pollack. If Vacheron Constantin is like Puccini then the latest Hautlence watch is like the howling industrial arias of Nine Inch Nails or Linkin Park. In the same way that both types of music use the same notes to render vastly different sonic experiences, both brands utilize the same horological language to render two totally different and equally valid emotional experiences.

The new high luxury commerical art form: watchmaking

The roots of this New Wave are in the transformation in watches from precision instruments into the most enthralling high luxury commercial art form. How did this change come about? With the proliferation of electronic culture and the insistent confrontation with “time” on PDAs, mobile phones, car dashboards, electronic wall clocks, it is clear that from a pragmatic perspective the mechanical watch is unnecessary. If a watch is no longer a time telling device, no longer a functional instrument used to guide pilots through the night skies or to provide sailors accurate readings of longitude, its sole reason for existence becomes distilled into the single purpose… to emotionally engage its owner. It is in essence a work of art.

In just under 30 years the mechanical watch has undergone a revolutionary conceptual transformation and become reborn as the most innovative, widely embraced means of high luxury self-expression through its reinvention from precision instrument into art form.

As a result of this transformation, a new movement within watchmaking, a New Wave of creators, has banded together to collectively push watchmaking beyond its comfort zone and into an all new realm of artistic expressionism. Are they rebel visionaries or charlatans and frauds? The same question has been asked about Jim Morrison, Francois Truffaut, Jackson Pollack, John Coltrane and Marlon Brando and in each instance history has come to embrace these individuals as causing evolutionary ruptures in their respective artistic mediums.

This story charts the rise of this New Wave of watchmakers and explains why their horological achievements may one day be viewed as amongst the most significant in the enduring story of watchmaking.

Necessity is the mother of re-invention

The re-invention of the wristwatch from precision instrument to modern horological art finds many parallels with the birth of modern art at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. In both instances watchmaking and painting were altered forever by the abrupt and jarring intrusion of new technology. In the case of watches it was the quartz movement that compelled the industry to change and in the case of painting it was the camera which forced this art form to evolve.

The beginning of the reinvention of watches as art has its roots in the Quartz Crisis. Until that point watches were judged on their accuracy, following the rationale the more expensive your watch the more accurate it was. But the creation of the quartz movement instantly democratized accuracy. Suddenly everyone could have an incredibly accurate watch for a few dollars. The prevailing belief was that this would kill the luxury mechanical watch industry. Similarly the invention of the camera in the late 19th century sent shock waves through out the art world. Previous to this the quality of art was based on how accurately it could represent reality. Painters like Da Vinci or Rembrandt were deified for their capacity to render life-like plasticity through Chiaroscuro and Sfumato. In other words an artist achieved greatness through his capacity to replicate reality. But the camera democratized reality. Anyone regardless of skill level could instantly capture a humblingly accurate level of reality that far exceeded the most skilled hand of the painter. The prevailing belief was that the camera would eliminate the need for painting.

Indeed in the late 19th century, with the proliferation of photography, realism in painting had lost all significance. But an interesting phenomenon occurred that was dictated by the essential logic of the artists’ position. With his back against the wall it was clear that he had to shift primacy of importance from depicting reality to communicating his impression of reality to create a heightened emotional impact on the viewer. In 1874 a group of painters displayed a new method of depicting the world, one in which brush strokes and paint obliterated the real world into a fleeting glimpse - an impression - of an ethereal reality. Through this act, one of the most significant movements in art was born. Indeed the birth of impressionism signaled the beginning of what is commonly known as “modern art.” Liberated from the conventions of the past, modern art exploded onto the contemporary consumer universe with immense force of energy. More importantly this form of art connected directly with a new generation of consumers seeking to redefine luxury on their own terms. (More)

*Editor in Chief, Revolution Magazine

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