The birth of modern horological art

Singapore

A parallel shift in watchmaking

As the Swiss watch industry regained its feet in the 80’s it did so tentatively and in many ways replicating the model of the past. Brands like Blancpain stressed the values of mechanical watchmaking as a counterpoint to the increasingly disposable culture of the contemporary world. But this message was still targeted at a niche audience of watch connoisseurs that viewed the watch as a coolly intellectual product.

As we approached the end of one millennium and the beginning of the next, horology finally embarked on a transformation that precisely reflected that intense period when modern art was born. The rationale was simple and was identical to that followed by the impressionist painters of the late 19th century. If accurate timekeeping no longer commanded value, then the ability to emotionally engage the consumer would logically have to become the goal. The magic that the industry was about to experience was that by making the conceptual leap from time keeping instrument to consumer art form it was also capable of reaching a far greater audience. Because while only a limited minority of consumers appreciated watchmaking for its intellectual properties, every modern consumer feels the need to fill their life with art in the form of the objects they populate their home with or decorate their person with. The innate mobility and intimacy inherent in watches made them the perfect instrument for luxury self expression.

At the onset of the new millennium, the watch was resoundingly reborn as “modern horological art,” a lightning rod for the contemporary world, absorbing and expressing our arousal by industrial materials and avant garde aesthetics. In 2000 Richard Mille tapped F-1 technology to bring a new machine aesthetic to haute de gamme watchmaking. In 2001 Ulysse Nardin’s Freak demonstrated that a watch could be a mobile sculpture. Together these two watches opened the flood gates of creativity for a whole new generation of artists seeking to reinterpret horology with an all new time telling language. Amongst the most significant of these is Urwerk, Hautlence, HD3, Vianney Halter, while on a manufacture level Audemars Piguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Roger Dubuis have injected massive doses of artistic energy into traditional haute de gamme watchmaking. Through these efforts the watch’s primary raison de etre has been irrevocably transformed from an instrument of high pragmatism to a high luxury conduit for creative self-expression.

Why is this change occurring now? Richemont Group creative director Giampiero Bodino explains, “I think we are living in a moment where watches are not necessary any more. We are surrounded by accessories that tell the time. In many ways we cannot escape time. So logic dictates that the watch has to become a means for self-expression, it has to become a canvas for creativity to give the consumer a reason to wear it.” Says Jerome Lambert, “In the past the watch industry was a prisoner of its own success, but this caused it to become increasingly niche. Today we must connect our traditional values to the modern world in which we exist,” underscoring his understanding that a timepiece is today an expression of human ingenuity, creativity and human artisanship and is at its core an art form.

The role of the media

Why is it important to chart this evolution? By placing the birth of “modern horological art” in historical, social and artistic context we provide the same intellectual infrastructure and academic rationale for its existence as provided to modern art by countless books and journals. Without this body of knowledge a Russian Suprematist painting like Kasimir Malevich’s “White on White” from 1935 descends into the banality of slashes of white paint on a white canvas. Without historical and social context March Duchamp’s “Fountain” is diminished into a urinal with the hastily scrawled signature of “R. Mutt” across its porcelain veneer rather than one of the seminal works of Dadaist art.

Today the mechanical watch is immersed in an incubation period which is one of the most significant in the history of horology and some of the timepieces created today will represent the horological equivalent of Wassily Kandinsky’s initial foray into abstraction or Jackson Pollack’s first works of “Action Painting.” That ruling infrastructure of the watch industry itself has come to realize that the horology has been irreversibly changed in this new era. In Asia, Michael Tay, the owner of the Singapore retail giant The Hour Glass, has begun a self-funded initiative to create MoCHA the world’s first “Museum of Contemporary Horological Art.”

Every era distinguished by an artistic revolution has been propelled by one definitive voice. The birth of rock and roll would have been impossible without Rolling Stone to amplify the message of new music around the world and to place this art form in historical and social context. Revolution Magazine’s mission is to spread the culture of horology around the globe and connect the traditional values of watchmaking with the vibrant culture of today. As an offshoot, one of our objectives is also to place the birth of modern horology in historical and social context to give it permanence and value as an art form. ■ WK

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