When the lock is smart, the keys become jewellery

Unison, a wristband made of keys, is the latest idea from Yale, a historic locksmith company that has set its sights on a new smart system for opening your front door using your smartphone.

Of all the established symbols in the imagination of love stories - roses, chocolates, printed cushions and heart-shaped gadgets - keys and padlocks are now among the most dreaded. As if the horror of padlocks on bridges were not enough, housing is one of the hottest topics at a time when skyrocketing prices are making property a coveted and seemingly impossible goal for the younger generation.

The size and exceptional nature of this "challenge" is not the only reason why your loved one is more likely to give you flowers than a key for Valentine's Day: new technologies and home automation - another hot topic - are contributing to the extinction of this small object so full of meaning.

The Unison bracelet. Courtesy Yale

But not celebrating the fateful moment of the key exchange is not an option: Yale, a leading manufacturer of household locks, wanted to reinterpret the moment of moving house in a romantic key by launching Unison, a bracelet made of fused keys.

My aim was to bring the keys into the world of contemporary jewellery while remaining true to their origins.

Alexandra Čaušić

With the Unison bracelet, we wanted to renew the romantic gesture and create a new way of saying 'come live with me', while offering the security of a modern lock for the shared home," said Juan Ashida, Svp of Yale.

Alexandra Čaušić, designer of Unison

Behind the design of the unusual necklace is the intuition of Alexandra Čaušić, a Stockholm-based jewellery designer and founder of Silver by Sash, a silver accessories brand that offers products that are not exactly in line with the type of jewellery we are used to. My aim was to bring the keys into the world of contemporary jewellery while remaining true to their origins.

Do without the keys, but not the feeling' was the claim that guided the company and the designer in the creation of Unison, in which the modular pattern created by the fusion of the keys creates an object that is not only meaningful, but also interesting from a design point of view: The idea came to me when I joined the ends of the keys, creating a beautiful pattern with a rectangular opening in the middle," says Alexandra Čaušić.

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