Swatch recently unveiled its new partnership with Centre Pompidou, one of the world’s largest modern and contemporary art collections. The Parisian landmark, designed in 1977 by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, will be closed from 2023 to 2027 for major restoration work, and there are already plans to bring the collection to other cultural institutions, and with the watches in the new Swatch series, this will indeed be the case. So Frida Kahlo (with The Frame), Amedeo Modigliani (with Portrait of Dadie), Robert Delaunay (with Carousel and Eiffel Tower), Vassily Kandinsky (with Blue Sky), and Piet Mondrian (with Red, Blue and White) can now be worn on the wrist.
The Swatch X Centre Pompidou collection is the latest in a long synergy that began in 1985 with the presentation at the museum of the first Swatch Art Special watch featuring Kiki Picasso – a limited edition work by painter and graphic artist Christian Chapiron. A few years later, in 1999, Renzo Piano designed the Jelly Piano watch, another cult object of the brand.
“Bright colours and transparent details are the hallmarks of the Swiss watch brand,” they explained during the presentation of the project, “as are the original steel building, with its piping in primary colours and the famous caterpillar escalators made entirely of glass that snake along the side and allow passers-by to see the works of art inside”.
