George Bamford met British artist Marc Quinn on the Caribbean island of Mustique this past December. That chance encounter has led to Bamford Watch Department’s newest collection of three customized watches set to launch on June 13. The design is something unexpected, but visually appealing.
Each one of BWD's watches features airplane hands above various colors of irises from human eyes that are superimposed onto a map of the world. It sounds complicated but once you see the images that appear above, you'll understand and admire. They are a statement about humanity's relationship to time and distances. They are reminiscent of Quinn's The Eye of History paintings shown at his solo exhibition at the Fondazione Cini in Venice.
The three aviation watches (in editions of five) come in low-altitude (brown), mid-altitude (blue), and a high-altitude (white) version. The watches also sport signatures from Marc Quinn himself on the dial. “My theory is that wearing one of these big watches will give you the illusion and reassurance of control over the uncontrollable,” says Quinn.
[viaDesignboom]
