The Apple Watch's Designer Reworked This Indie Watch. Can You Tell?
In many ways, Ressence is the Apple of high-end watchmaking. The independent watchmaker's innovative wristwatches are so technologically intuitive, with a design entirely stripped back to the essentials, that they've warranted many comparisons with the American tech giant. So, who better to collaborate on a Ressence watch than the guy behind the original Apple Watch?
In 2014, Marc Newson was hired by Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, to help with several projects he had brewing, leading to Newson being instrumental in the creation of the first Apple Watch. He’s since founded a creative collective with Ive, named LoveFrom, adding to his impressive portfolio of designing record-breaking lounge chairs, spaceship interiors, and hi-tech Nike Air Max sneakers.
Newson’s latest project sees him recreate Ressence’s TYPE 3 watch to reflect his industrial design language.
"I would like this watch to connect with those for whom purity of form, quality of material, and complex engineering is prioritised: those who admire, and find beauty, in a refined aesthetic, and find resonance with an object which looks and feels highly considered, coherent and elegant,” said Newson in a statement.
The resulting watch toys slightly with the already cutting-edge form of the Ressence TYPE 3.
Pebble-like in shape, the TYPE 3’s case houses domed sapphire crystal glass beneath which the watch hands appear suspended in an oil-filled chamber. As with all Ressence watches, there’s no crown cluttering its sleek build.
On Newson’s limited-edition TYPE 3 MN, available now for $54,500, funnel-shaped hands are brought over from the cult-favorite Ikepod watches Newson created in the 1990s. The restrained grey synthetic rubber strap base, meanwhile, is Apple Watch-esque.
It is, as Ressence founder Benoît Mintiens described it in a statement, a merging of Newson’s and Ressence's universes. "Knowing Marc Newson's design universe, I saw a pioneer of industrial-design thinking in fine watchmaking, and that really interested me," he said. "How often do designers work together on one product? In my eyes, one plus one can become more than the sum of its parts."
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