Swatch x Olaf Hajek collaboration

When you’re buying an affordable everyday watch, there’s really only one place the young adult demographic look. That’s Swatch. They are a reasonably priced Swiss watch manufacturing company based in Beil/Benne, a city on the language boundary between French and German in Switzerland. Swatch engineered their watches differently, making the back of the watch the movement main plate or ‘platine’ this allowed them to create the thinnest watch in the world.

With this motivation for innovation and outstanding feats at the core of the brand, it’s really no wonder that they would collaborate with artists from across the continent. As their latest collaborative collection with Olaf Hajek sees two brand new watches being launched. Hajek is a German artist and illustrator who was raised in the Netherlands, he began by studying Graphic Design in Düsseldorf before starting his professional career as a freelance illustrator in Amsterdam.

The two new watches entitled ‘Flowerhead’ and ‘Nature Man’ are an explosion of colour, texture across a 2D surface, and are clearly inspired by the beauty that surrounds us in nature. The watches themselves are similar in shape and design, being a simple face with a basic curved strap and buckle, whilst the hands on the clocks look like delicate twigs in autumn. The graphic illustrations on them are alive with floral designs, faces, shells, leaves, bugs, and so much more. Hajek himself said he tries ‘to combine them with animals, and insects, and thorns and water; a whole circle of life!’ That’s exactly what they show, bright light and darkness all showing a wild, beautiful side to nature.

This is a simple, sleek, stylish nod towards the earth and nature, whilst staying true to a modern, technological era of forever moving forwards whilst staying grounded. We can now take the raw, unforgiving beauty of nature into the office with us, discreetly upon our wrists. It’s a clever piece of art and engineering that should be in a high-end gallery, yet we can now take it with us everywhere.

Katherine Bull

You can buy Swatch watches here.