Swatch: Forever in and on time
Now, more than ever, the season is all about personality. Focus is on the individual. It was impossible not to spot the fashion trends this season. The ideas are loud and clear. And Swiss watch and jewelry maker Swatch never misses a beat. It is always on-trend. The true star of the season is you. So take a peek at summer’s big fashion ideas and pick the ones that are tailor-made for you.
The Swatch Sports collection confirms the power of personality. The Swiss watch and jewelry maker never fails to be on-trend. Six striking watches are designed by the members of the Swatch Proteam — the highly-skilled riders proudly sponsored by Swatch. These creations combine the technical excellence and design innovation which Swatch is synonymous with. Six men and women of the team not only excel in their chosen field of sport from snowboarding to surfing and FMX but also in the design and creative arena. Highly personal design inspirations — from classic surf films to animal prints, or nature and bikes — confirm this. Swatch’s support for international action and extreme sports is, at the same time a fashionable force to be reckoned with.
Beyond Sports
No longer confined to the sports world, sportswear goes beyond its origins and paves its way to fashion. Sports utility goes urban.
With the London 2012 Olympics fast approaching, the trend is further highlighted. After conquering the recent US tennis open, Ralph Lauren takes the challenge of designing the US team’s uniforms and gets inspiration from the 1948 Games in London. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Stella McCartney dresses the British team as creative director of Adidas Team GB. Athletic gear has never been this fashionable.
Luxe sportswear takes hi-tech and performance fabrics to another level. The fitness craze goes to fashion and sports fabrics get updated with the help of fashion designers’ expert hands. For the sports pace, see the trend on the catwalks of Lanvin, Alexander Wang, Antonio Berardi, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, Dirk Bikkembergs, Dsquared2 and Rag & Bone. Fashion’s sports streak is seen in nylon windbreakers, mesh fabric in skirts, dresses, jackets, and accessories from shoes to bags, and sporty details like drawstrings and perforated fabric panels.
French snowboarder Xavier De le Rue is an avid nature enthusiast who particularly adores the icescapes of Antarctica, loves surfing, climbing and mountain biking in his spare time. He believes in living on the edge. Famed for his majestic snowboarding style, this two-time Boarder X World Champion and three-time Freeride World Tour Champion, and two-time Standout Performance of the Year award in the Transworld Riders Poll designed a Swatch watch with a view! The New Gent High Wonder boasts a black dial, adorned by a mountain-shaped cutout, to remind any fan of snowboarding that it’s time to hit the slopes. “After 11 years of riding with Swatch products, designing my own Swatch is like a dream come true.” The gorgeous watch is in-sport and on-trend.
The Swatch Sports collection goes beyond sports. It is in-fashion. Fuel your wardrobe with the new Swatch watches to create extreme style statements.
The Digital World
As if your life is not tech-filled enough, fashion, too, gets invaded. Hi-tech digital printing methods and photography provide a fresh take on various landscapes, vibrant blooms, Navajo patterns and other ethnic graphics. Digitally-manipulated prints appear everywhere from Dries Van Noten to Akris, Prabal Gurung, Preen, Diane Von Furstenberg, Versace, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, and Peter Som.
Swatch is yet again in-style. Here are some of the Swatch Sports collection watches that reference the season’s digital age idea.
An icon of her sport, Swiss-French snowboarder, Anne-Flore Marxer — 2011 Freeride World Tour Champion, 2007 second-most influential female rider of all time, 2008 best international rider and French Female Rider of the Year in 2010 and 2011 — lends her talent to Swatch design in contrasting colors of cool mint blue and sleek black with the New Gent Wonder Flora watch. The solid mint-colored strap with purposefully-wild scratchy black marks combines a sense of energy and cool style. “I imagined I had taken two different watches, mixed them, and then customized the results by drawing with a pen on it. I do that with most of my things…customize them and make them my own. I hope people will like it.” Again, fashion and Swatch are all about individuality and personality.
Legendary Swiss Moto-X Freestyler Mat Rebeaud, who has notoriously taken his FMX machine to an astonishing 11 meters high, creates a bold and fearless design of the New Gent Wonder Zebra. Black striped print runs diagonally across the watch’s vivid orange dial. “The watch design is in relation to my own FMX bike. The colors of orange and black are the same ones on my bike. I like this mix between a fun and aggressive style, so my bike — and the watch — is designed in that same spirit.”
Courtney Conlogue is a multi-medal surfer at just 19 years old who creates the New Gent Wonder Drift watch: “When I was coming up with an idea and brainstorming on watch designs, I wanted it to show what I love and make that into something someone could wear and enjoy as much as I do. I was just daydreaming in my chair and my eyes wandered to the hardwood floors of my room. I decided to capture the grain of the wood, something full of pattern, yet a simple composition and not hard on the eye. Then, I wanted to add color to the face for vibrancy.” The vibrant pink dial presents a daring contrast to the more restrained shade of elegant brown subtly decorated by fine lines inspired by grain of wood.
Hawaiian surfer royalty Coco Ho’s powerful and unique-yet-versatile style of surfing separates her from her peers. The 2009 Rookie of the Year accelerates to sixth position on the ASP Women’s World Tour and lands her as the second Most Popular Surfer in the World by Surfer magazine in 2011. Her design features a wonderful shade of bright blue on its dial, and printed in jagged-yet-precise stripes across its solid blue strap. The New Gent Wonder Tube evokes the dazzling blue skies and seas, which form a backdrop to skiing and surfing. “I love wearing Swatch watches, because the designs are so simple and come in a ton of fun colors. I thought it would be cool to mix a pattern into my watch design and zebra has always been one of my favorite prints.”
Another surfer, Kassia Meador, who is world famous as the queen of the waves, is also a model, artist, photographer and wetsuit designer. Currently one of the best longboarders in the world, her watch design is truly action-packed. The New Gent Wonder Inspiration is covered across its dial and all over its solid strap with multi-colored images photographed and then reprinted from classic surfing films. “With my watch, I wanted to fuse my love of surfing and photography. I chose film as my medium-shooting fragments of moments from my most favorite and iconic surf films, wrapping the watch with the filmstrip, so those fragments and moments would be frozen in time.”
Fuel your everyday life with the latest wrist details. Pick one that becomes you. Remember, fashion now is all about individuality. There is always one that best fits your hyperactive lifestyle. Swatch watches are definitely forever on-trend and on time.
