Swatch & Art Collection Launch Event

06-MAY-2010, London, UK

On 6-MAY, an international launch event of the new Swatch collection called Swatch & Art took place in London, UK. About 75 collectors participated at the event and we met in the late morning at the London Bridge tube and train station.

view from the bridge

Tower Bridge nearby

We were told to meet at the SHUNT inside of the station (Joiner Street). This was a bit mysterious as all we could find (after searching for quite a while!) was a door decorated with the event logo. It was really easy to overlook at first sight.

Only very few club members managed to be there on time (but of course the usual suspects :-)

But after a while, the place was crowded with collectors and journalists from all over the world...

Finally, the wait was over and we could enter the SHUNT. Essentially, it is a long tunnel with a few rooms (no doors) to the left and right. Quite an interesting location which is used as a club and as a theatre stage otherwise. It was properly decorated by Swatch.

later used for pictures with the artists

waiting for the press conference to start

And then, the press conference started. Unfortunately, Manish Arora who also has one watch in the collection could not be there (and I had brought some stuff for autographs :-(

Arlette-Elsa Emch (president of Swatch) introduced all the artists and showed the watches to the audience. Each artist also gave some statements about their respective watches.

left to right: Cassette Playa, Ivan Navarro, Arlette-Elsa Emch (president of Swatch), Enki Bilal, and Klaus Peter Mager (VP communication)

posing for a pictures

After one hour or so, the press conference was over. Swatch also had prepared a very nice exhibition (one room for each artist and some "digital playgrounds"). You can see some impressions from the exhibition at www.swatch.stawi.de or at www.always-surprising.com.

In the evening, a dinner with journalists, artists, and collectors took place at the very nice Delfina restaurant.

Cassette Playa signing a lot of watches

the collection

The tables were set up very nicely and the room had been painted completely white, very nice! You could smell the fresh paint a little bit :-)

The dinner was superb, we all enjoyed it very much... Later in the evening, it was time to party at the SHUNT...

Overall, it was a really interesting and enjoyable event but a very very short one! See you soon at the next event!

More event pictures and impressions at www.always-surprising.com and www.stawi.net. And at the official Swatch site as well...