From the orchard and on to your dial, fruits are the new inspiration for watch design
Our watch columnist explores how they have become a starting point for some watchmakers.
Though watch brands have used fruit to describe certain case shapes since the advent of wristwatches, it is only recently, with the modern explosion of dial colours and feel for non-traditional hues, that a certain orchard-induced inspiration has arrived. And, no, I’m not talking about the Apple Watch, which is named more for Silicon Valley circuitry than farm-fresh produce.
The so-called banana shape, an elongated rectangle, originated in the Art Deco period that began in the 1920s after the fashion of wearing one’s timepiece on the wrist became firmly established. It was at this time that watchmakers looked to invent new case shapes departing from the usual roundness of the converted pocket watches. Famous makers of these included Patek Philippe, Cartier, and Tissot, though it was definitely a trend at the time.
One hundred years later, a new feel for colour has arrived in what we carefully call the ‘post-pandemic’ era. It’s a trend that established, smaller, and even newer micro and boutique brands have continued into 2022 with gusto. Nature plays a large part in the inspiration of many of the new colours and themes in use—Bvlgari’s recent high jewellery Garden of Eden collection, for example. While Bvlgari doesn’t specifically include Eve’s notorious apple in any of the highly jewelled watches, the apple comes into play in a surprising way for Hermès as the maker of leather straps for the aforementioned Californian wearable and its new Air Tags.
In some cases, nature’s candy plays a larger part in the creator’s vision that is more than about accessorising. For Lewis Heath, founder of Glasgow-based AnOrdain, one of the most beautiful watches in his company’s collection couldn’t have been about anything else. AnOrdain has become famous in watch circles for its inventive rendition of the ‘fumé’ dial, which is a gradient style with darker colouring around the perimeter of the dial that becomes lighter toward the centre. AnOrdain took the style and artistically ran with it, creating a grainy textured enamel, which the brand now offers in four colours—Green Fumé, Payne’s Grey Fumé, Plum Fumé, and Blue Fumé. The Plum Fumé is, for my money, the most interesting colour though, a reddish purple with gold pad-printed markings. It looks like nothing else in watches today. “The name of the Plum Fumé was subconsciously steered by our graphic designer bringing in boxes of fruit from his garden: apples and particularly nice plums,” Heath explained. “The naming process has always been very collaborative amongst all in the studio.” But how did the designers land on this colour? Lewis continues: “The plum enamel in that shade is perfect for our Fumé gradient technique, where we vary the thickness of enamel to alter the colour. Most are either too dark so there’s no difference in colour or too light and it’s all washed out. But this plum had the perfect make-up to create a beautiful light-to-dark gradient by varying the depth by only 0.3 mm.”
It is microbrand Underd0g who wins the fruit bowl, however. Last year, this London-based microbrand introduced an interesting watermelon-themed watch that garnered quite a bit of interest due to its unique design. This and the brand’s Sahara Desert models also piqued the interest of well-known tennis and watch writer Miguel Seabra, who has now collaborated with founder and owner Richard Benc on a new timepiece called Strawberries & Cream, inspired by—you guessed it—Wimbledon’s famous dessert. “The advent can be traced to Underd0g’s Aubergine limited edition for testicular cancer research, whose colours reminded me of the purple and green of Wimbledon,” Seabra explained. “And I told Rich I would like him to lend me one (it sold out immediately) so I could take wrist shots of it at Wimbledon just for fun. Then he joked about Strawberries & Cream—and I immediately thought that idea could be completely in line with the ‘delicacy’ editions Studio Underd0g had done (Watermel0n, Mint Ch0c Chip). My first reflex was to tell him to go for it! Especially because I love it when both my areas of expertise (tennis and watches) intersect! From then on, we started a tennis ball-like exchange until the final details were set up,” continues Seabra.
The writer sums up why the watch world has made a tasty turn to bright colours. “Especially after the grey pandemic times, colours provide emotions and a sense of joy. Studio Underd0g’s iconoclastic colour combinations and playful dials provide just that—and the Strawberries & Cream has a beautifully unique textured and gradient dial. And it’s a limited run!”
This article originally appeared in Harper's Bazaar Arabia
