Swatch - sorted for individual style
Since launching in 1983, Swatch has set trends and taken watch design in new directions. Back in the early 80s, most timepieces felt heavy on the wrist and were made from over 90 separate pieces. And then came the first Swatch - a sleek affair made from plastic and just 51 components. Now Swatch watches are sold all over the world and there are styles to suit every fashion tribe.
SAFW 2005
Swatch has always had a close relationship with fashion and this year is continuing to support emerging fashion talents with its sponsorship of Alternative Fashion Week, shed full of awards and prizes for designers and fashion colleges. SAFW 2005 will see over 60 designers and fashion students showing their collections including : Chelsea College, Tower Hamlets A Team Arts, University College Northampton, Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar School, Middlesex University, Colchester Institute, Shoreditch Community College, Newham College and Waltham Forest College. There's a huge variety of alternative fashion on offer from Sally-Anne Ashley's homegrown, jumble sale style art and crafts collection, to Nicholas Darrieulat's dramatic London Kills Me offerings featuring hand-drawn dresses.
Swatch has commissioned several world class designers to create unique timepieces starting a relationship in 1992 with the queen of British fashion, Vivienne Westwood. Then in 2001, Westwood designed 'Flying Time', a range of five limited edition timepieces each reflecting a period of Westwood's design. These featured in her spring/summer 2002 catwalk show and are still in demand by fashion fans and collectors today. Designers Christian Lacroix and Kiki Picasso have also created Swatches along with celebrated snappers Annie Leibowitz and David La Chapelle and artist Keith Haring.
Keith Haring - Modèle avec Personnages
One of three watches designed for Swatch in 1986 which cohered to his personal way of making art, incorporating haunting spiritual symbols which give his works a quasi-hypnotic, iconographic force.
Annie Leibowitz - Olympic Portraits
Long recognised as one of the most prominent photographers of her generation, in 1995 Leibowitz was commissioned to create the official Olympic Portfolio for the 26th Olympiad. Travelling over 70,000 miles to capture the spirit of the games, this watch is based on the results of this mammoth study.
Kiki Picasso - Kiki
With his works exhibited in the world's finest museums, Kiki Picasso was asked in 1985 to create a watch for Swatch. Only 140 were produced and given to prominent personalities, making them much sought after.
Anglomania - Vivienne Westwood
The celebrated British fashion designer and queen of punk has designed a number of watches for Swatch. Inspired by pirates, Anglomania shows a continuous red rope design and a 'Pirate' logo above the number 6.
David La Chapelle - Time Tranny
David La Chapelle, the US fashion photographer, has long been know for mixing glamour with comic fantasy working with some of the best known names in fashion. Featuring a picture of the model Amanda Lepore on the face, Time Tranny is one of the few Swatch watches to incorporate the face of a person into the design.
