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 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.”

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.

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.

Read more

• Design