Tadao Ando unveils serpent-informed watch for Bulgari
Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando has created a snake-informed watch as the latest addition to Bulgari‘s Serpenti range.
Named Serpenti Tuboga x Tadao Ando, the collection of four watches are Ando’s take on Bulgari‘s Serpenti range of jewellery where each piece has a form of a stylised serpent with head and tail.
Tadao Ando has designed a serpent-like watch for Bulgari
“Tadao Ando possesses a rare creativity, inspired by nature and its transient character,” said Bulgari executive director of product creation Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani.
“Aligning with Serpenti felt instinctive. In a metaphor for time and transformation, indeed for the renewal of nature itself: the serpent likewise sheds its skin and emerges anew, its colors transformed.”
The watch has faces made from aventurine, tiger’s eye and mother of pearl
Ando aimed to bring to mind the four seasons with the watches and each has a face coloured to evoke a season.
The first watch in the collection – summer – aims to “capture the lush intensity of a sun-drenched forest” and has a face made from green aventurine, a form of quartzite, with a strap made of yellow gold and steel.
For autumn, the watch’s face is made of tiger’s eye – a red-brown gemstone – while winter has a face made of white mother of pearl. The spring version was designed to evoke cherry blossom trees and has a pink mother-of-pearl face.
All of the watches were finished with a bezel incorporating 38 diamonds. They will all be encased in a box designed and signed by Tadao Ando, while his signature is engraved on the rear of the pieces.
The four watches were each designed to evoke a season
Ando is the latest Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect to design a watch, with fellow winner Frank Gehry creating a transparent watch for luxury brand Louis Vuitton that was informed by his Fondation Louis Vuitton buildings.
Other recent watches by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architects include a piece by Rafael Moneo for Cauny and a square watch informed by a swimming pool by Álvaro Siza.
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