Tadao Ando’s “Apple Watch”: the watch he designed, inspired by an apple

This watch is a manifesto for an idea, and is the vision behind the new model created by Tadao Ando for Cauny, a watch company founded in Switzerland and now based in Portugal. Following collaborations with Álvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura and Rafael Moneo, Cauny has enlisted another leading figure in contemporary architecture for its The Architects of Time series, celebrating time as both a unit of measurement and a design concept. The Pritzker Prize winner and the world's most famous Japanese architect has always had a particular fondness for the theme of time. When he was guest editor of Domus in 2021, he wrote in his manifesto that "all things must one day weather and crumble. It could be said that architectural history is a trajectory of challenges against this truth in search of the eternal."

For the watch he designed for Cauny, Ando reinterprets the concept of youth using one of his most recurring metaphors: the green apple. This fruit often features in Ando's work, for example in his installations such as the one at Armani/Silos for Milan's 2019 Fuorisalone, and in the courtyards of his museums, including the 30-metre-diameter courtyard in front of the Hyōgo Prefectural Museum of Art.

“This watch reflects the spirit of the green apple—unripe, a little sour, yet full of promise. American Poet Samuel Ullman wrote that youth is not a period of life, but a state of mind: the courage to face difficulty without fear, the resilience to keep dreaming despite setbacks” comments Ando, presenting his watch.

The Cauny Ando is available in two versions: one measuring 31.5 mm, and a wider, more versatile model measuring 37.5 mm. It comes in two finishes: an understated, brushed steel finish reminiscent of the austere concrete aesthetic typical of Ando's style; or a vibrant apple green. Both models have a leaf-shaped minute hand and were conceived independently of age as "a reminder that youth is not a time, but a movement of the heart." This is not the first time that the architect has moved from architecture to design, nor is it the first time that he has created a watch. Previously, he collaborated with Bulgari, reinterpreting the famous Octo Finissimo model through his unmistakable aesthetic language of essential shapes and pure volumes reflecting emptiness and matter.

With Cauny, however, Ando is moving in a different direction, creating a more affordable, playful yet still distinctive watch by using his signature symbol. In a conversation with Domus, when asked about his vision for architecture on the occasion of his appointment as guest editor for 2021, Ando pointed to an apple.

All photos: courtesy Cauny