PHOTO COURTESY OF SWATCH
The Swatch x Guggenheim collection arrives with a clear intention: to turn time into a moving canvas. As part of the ongoing Swatch Art Journey, it brings museum-worthy art into everyday life. This endeavour is shaped by a creative partnership with Swatch, the Guggenheim New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
The collaboration traces its roots back to the early 1990s, grounded in a shared belief that art should live beyond gallery walls. That cross-continental dialogue thus shows up playfully here, pulsing with the creativity of four legendary artists. Each watch features a double-length second hand, a subtle but symbolic detail that quietly unites the entire line-up.
Comprising four watches, the Swatch x Guggenheim collection blends Swiss precision with the expressive force of 20th-century art. For the first time in the Swatch Art Journey, works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Jackson Pollock and Paul Klee take centrestage. Indeed, each watch feels like a miniature exhibition on the wrist.
Firstly, Monet’s Palazzo Ducale (SGD152) captures the grandeur of Venice’s majestic Doge’s Palace through luminous Impressionist brushstrokes. A UV-activated dial reveals a radiant orange glow, paired with glow-in-the-dark hands. Then Degas’s Dancers (SGD137) zooms into ‘Dancers in Green and Yellow’, an art piece celebrating the grace and resilience of ballerinas.
Meanwhile, Pollock’s Alchemy (SGD152) unleashes abstract energy, translating splattered paint and rhythmic chaos across the dial and strap. Lastly, Klee’s Bavarian Don Giovanni (SGD137) channels Paul Klee’s playful geometry and theatrical flair. Its colour-changing calendar wheel alludes to the artist’s confession that his “infatuations changed with every soubrette at the opera”.
Blurring the line between art and utility once again, the Swatch x Guggenheim collection turns every glance at the wrist into a moment of inspiration. Available now in stores and online, it continues the idea that great art belongs everywhere.
