The co-creator of the Apple Watch says up to date luxurious watch design is “underwhelming” and “slightly troubling”. Marc Newson, who on Thursday will announce his first high-end luxurious mechanical wristwatch in additional than a decade, stated watchmakers had been too “isolated” and that the business was liable to getting “carried away with the technicality of things” on the expense of what he known as the “aesthetic fundamentals”.
The prolific UK-based Australian designer has beforehand collaborated with Jaeger-LeCoultre on its Atmos clock collection, in addition to initiatives for Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Montblanc and Dom Pérignon. In 2015 one among his well-known early works, the Lockheed Lounge chair, broke data at public sale when it offered for $3.7 million, essentially the most that had ever been paid for a design object.
He spoke to The Business of Fashion forward of the discharge of the Ressence TYPE 3 Marc Newson, a collaboration with a high-end Belgian unbiased watchmaker in style amongst watch collectors.
“I was on a watch prize jury a couple of years ago, and it’s not that there was a lack of design, but a lack of design I could respond to,” continued Newson, who co-founded the artistic collective LoveFrom with Sir Jony Ive in 2019. “We’re in a moment where the industry is a little slow and sluggish. But I’d like to think it will change.”
Ressence was based in 2010 by Benoît Mintiens, who, like Newson, is an industrial designer. Before he turned to designing watches, Mintiens had labored in a variety of sectors, together with transport and medical tools. With a design studio in Antwerp, Ressence has a cult following however stays area of interest, making round 700 watches a yr in Switzerland towards revenues of €8 million, in line with the corporate.
Design is a key driver behind watch shopping for choices. According to the Deloitte Swiss Watch Industry Study 2025, it’s an important consideration behind a watch buy alongside value and model.
But Mintiens, who shouldn’t be a certified watchmaker, countered the discovering. “Design is not what watchmaking is looking for,” he stated. “Mainstream watchmaking is about marketing and that’s fine. People buy brands. And then when it comes to smaller brands like mine, 90 percent of them are created by watchmakers, so for them the value is in the movement and the finishing, and not so much the design, the shape and the style. That’s logical, they’re watchmakers. But when it comes to design, in the 21st century there aren’t many brands that have our approach, which is user-centred.”
Newson and Mintiens met a variety of years in the past, having been conscious of every others’ work lengthy beforehand. “I became aware of Ressence immediately after they launched their first watch,” stated Newson. “It was a sensation and one of the most interesting developments in the industry for years.”
Ressence’s core assortment watches show the time through a collection of rotating discs that sit beneath a dome-like crystal stuffed with oil, making them look extra like screens than standard watches.
Newson’s first transfer into watches was with Ikepod, a cult watch model recognized for its conceptual designs. He stepped away from the model over a decade in the past after monetary difficulties left it bankrupt. It was relaunched in 2017 by the entrepreneur Christian-Louis Col, and now operates on the extra accessible finish of the posh watch market.
“I look back on the Ikepod days fondly, in terms of the work, but it was a bittersweet exercise because of what happened to the company,“said Newson. ”Had it been my precept focus, issues might have been a little completely different.”
He stated working with Ressence, whose watches he stated adopted related design rules to Ikepod, had reawakened his urge for food for high-end watch design. “It was kind of an itch,” he stated.
After Ikepod and whereas nonetheless appearing as artistic director for Qantas Airways, Newson was invited by Ive to work on Apple Watch and joined the US tech large as designer for particular initiatives. Since it was launched in 2015, the Apple Watch and the smartwatch class have decimated entry-level Swiss watchmaking. Over the previous decade, volumes of watches with an export worth of underneath 500 Swiss francs – roughly half the everyday retail value – have nearly halved, with 8 million fewer models exported final yr in comparison with 2015.
“The demise of the watch industry was somewhat inevitable,” stated Newson. “I remember when we began working on the Apple Watch, a surprising number of people couldn’t tell the time [on an analogue watch]. Kids were not wearing watches and there are a couple of generations of people who, had it not been for the Apple Watch, their wrists would have been empty. The success of the Apple Watch is staggering. I never imagined it would be so profound.”
Even so, Newson described the mechanical watch business as being “absolutely fine”. While Swiss watch export volumes have slumped, revenues reached report ranges within the aftermath of the pandemic, solely slowing final yr as world shopper urge for food for exhausting luxurious cooled. “Apple Watch has permeated the world,” stated Newson. “And we know the world of mechanical watches is intact.”
Newson stated the posh watch business wanted to broaden its design horizons. “You get a real sense that a lot of these people, although technically brilliant, are isolated,” he stated of conventional watchmakers. “The opportunities to be exposed to design culture exist more than ever and you can’t not be aware of everything that’s happening. Yet somehow, particular industries are very myopic in the way they approach their problems.”
Ressence, he stated, was an exception to the rule: “There always has been a difference between the world of design in general and watch design. They’ve always lived in a different space. Ressence is one of the only brands that has successfully lived in both worlds. Some of the younger designers need to be more adventurous. Some are, but I don’t see them striking a chord outside the industry.”
The collaboration started 18 months in the past. Both Newson and Mintiens stated the method behind the TYPE 3 Marc Newson had been easy and environment friendly.
The bulbous 45mm watch retains Ressence cues, together with the rotating discs and oil-filled dome, combining them with Newson signatures, resembling a streamlined, elliptical case form and a yellow and gray colourway he described as a “a favourite” from his Ikepod days.
“It felt like it was meant to be,” stated Newson, including that the design had arrived in his thoughts fashioned “in its entirety” as soon as the collaboration had been signed off. “It was a bolt of lightening,” he added. ”It was prefer it existed earlier than and simply want pulling into the world.”
The Ressence TYPE 3 Marc Newson will value 46,000 Swiss francs ($59,800). “I’m accused of designing things which end up being very expensive, but unfortunately when you manufacture things in Europe, they tend to cost a lot of money,” stated Newson. “But designing things that won’t end up in landfill is really important.”
Now 62, Newson stated he wished to return to look at design and that he hoped to do additional collaborations with Ressence. He hinted at one other watch mission at the moment within the pipeline, and stated that subsequent yr, he would reveal an as-yet-unannounced automotive mission. “I want to work on projects that touch a part of you you can’t explain,” he stated.