While ace designers who have created some stunning watches and pens have disappeared into oblivion, Pradipta K Mohapatra gives them a well-deserved tribute and also applauds Porsche's design initiatives
Rodolphe, Who? One of the most successful watch designers of our time, Rodolphe started his career as a trainee at Longines. He created a range of new concepts and was quickly noticed by his superiors. He was soon given the responsibility of re-launching Longines watches in the most fashion conscious market of Italy.
At the height of success, Rodolphe got carried away into believing that Longines' success may have been due to Rodolphe's designs. He promptly negotiated with Longines to launch a new line of watches branded 'Rodolphe'. The brand was a disaster resulting in Rodolphe existing and starting his own independent design house with a dozen designers called Rodolphe and Co. Finally, the famous watch company Franck Muller bought a majority stake in Rodolphe and Co. in 2005. We haven't heard about Rodolphe since …
Unlike other fashion industries such as garments and accessories, watch designers have been somewhat low profile backroom boys. They do their job, get paid for it, occasionally win a design award and are never acknowledged more than that. There are of course exceptions.
>
Rodolphe, Who? One of the most successful watch designers of our time, Rodolphe started his career as a trainee at Longines. He created a range of new concepts and was quickly noticed by his superiors. He was soon given the responsibility of re-launching Longines watches in the most fashion conscious market of Italy.
At the height of success, Rodolphe got carried away into believing that Longines’ success may have been due to Rodolphe’s designs. He promptly negotiated with Longines to launch a new line of watches branded ‘Rodolphe’. The brand was a disaster resulting in Rodolphe existing and starting his own independent design house with a dozen designers called Rodolphe and Co. Finally, the famous watch company Franck Muller bought a majority stake in Rodolphe and Co. in 2005. We haven’t heard about Rodolphe since …
Unlike other fashion industries such as garments and accessories, watch designers have been somewhat low profile backroom boys. They do their job, get paid for it, occasionally win a design award and are never acknowledged more than that. There are of course exceptions.
Our own Rohit Bal
Titan pulled a bit of a surprise couple of years ago by getting Rohit Bal, the famous fashion designer to design a watch for them. One must go on record to say that Titan could well get a Guinness record for the largest number of watch designs introduced by any single watch company! Alas, most of the designs are marginal variants of otherwise famous designs available in the world. How I wish they design and produce originals! Rohit Bal was an exception. The dial carried an enamel replica of a famous Moghul miniature of Emperor Jahangir carrying a rose. The dial also carried a signature emblem of Rohit Bal. An 18 carat rectangle gold case, leather strap and 18 carat gold buckle makes Nebula Rohit Bal a true collector’s watch.
Porsche Design
Prof. Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, designer of the famous Porsche 911 and grandson of Porsche’s founder, opened a Porsche design studio in Stuttgart in 1972. By the time he moved to Austria two years later, he was already contemplating designing watches. The first Ferdinand Porsche design watch was manufactured by a Swiss Company Orfina in 1980 and later moved to the famous watch maker IWC. Currently Swiss watch maker Eterna, manufactures Porsche Design watches.
So what makes Porsche Design watches special? The best way to describe would be to say that his designs are inspired by something memorable. Say for example, Porsche design – ‘Dashboard Chronograph’ was inspired by Dashboard instruments of Porsche 911 sports car. It’s 3H automatic chronograph was inspired by German Military Bundeswehr design. The other specialty of his design is that the dials and seconds are minimalistic, sleek and stylish like that of a Porsche 911 and usually comes with a mat or brushed finish. For one reason or another Porsche Design prefers black or grey as distinct from solid metal finish.
The other specialty of Porsche design is the innovative materials they choose. Individual choice of distinctive material and construction has been used by many designers for watches as well as other luxury products such as writing instruments. Porsche Design was the first to recognise that Titanium has exceptional quality to be a fashion leader. Twenty five years ago Porsche – IWC introduced the first Titanium watch to the world. Titanium is fashionable to serious watch makers even today!
Aircraft designer United Technologies, looking for the hardest composite material, invented ‘Carbon Fibre’. No sooner, carbon fibre was commercially available and design house Dunhill used it to make the most distinctive writing instruments in the world. In recent years, some watch makers are using this material for their dial designs.
Take for example Porsche Design’s writing instrument TecFlex P3110 series. The body of the writing instrument is made out of a rope inter-woven by five strands of steel and gold - a master piece of imagination and design.
‘Indicator’
Watch maker Eterna’s CEO Ernst Seyr is an enthusiastic hobby pilot. Seyr felt that commercially available mechanical chronograph watches are rarely readable in poor light conditions and times of stress. He wanted a distinctive chronograph to be designed. Seyr first commissioned a brilliant watch maker Paul Gerber of the Horological Academy of Independent Creators (AHCI) to conduct the feasibility of such a watch.
Finally he commissioned Porsche Design to produce a professional measurement instrument that will delight not just affluent sports enthusiasts, but also connoisseurs of mechanical compilations. The result is Porsche Design Indicator.
That is what it takes to design a great watch.
>
No comments:
Post a Comment