Swatch "Art Journey" New York City Club Event

10 and 11-MAY-2023, New York City, USA

Swatch Club Canada and Swatch Club USA together organized a 2-day Art Journey event in New York City on 10 and 11-MAY-2023. Twenty Swatch Club members from both countries participated in this first ever North America Swatch Club event (Canada and USA combined).

Swatch Club members arrived at the historic Paramount Hotel at Times Square (our event hotel) in the morning of 10-MAY.  At 10:45 am, the Art Journey officially kicked off by Shawn and Elizabeth. Our first activity was a guided tour in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Unfortunately, due to the mechanical issue of my flight in Toronto, I missed the tour. However, I was happy to join the group for lunch at a casual French restaurant La Bonne (Soupe). Everyone had a great time together and enjoyed the food.

After lunch, the members were transferred back to the hotel for check-in and with a 2.5 hour of free time.  Of course, it was the best opportunity to visit the Swatch Times Square (TSQ) store, made some purchases and chatted with the TSQ store staff.

Swatch Club Pioneer Member German and I also made a quick trip to the Swatch Store on the 5th Avenue, before heading for the apéro time at Dawson Restaurant & Bar for drinks with the group. 

Swatch Store on the 5th Avenue

apéro time at Dawson Restaurant & Bar

At around 7:30pm, the Swatch Club members were transferred by the tour bus to 99 Bowery for cocktail and the launch of the Jean-Michel Basquiat art watches.  To our surprise, Alain Villard (Swatch CEO) and Carlo Giordanetti (CEO Swatch Art Peace Hotel) from Switzerland came to NYC, presented to us the idea of the Swatch Art Journey and introduced the collaboration of Basquiat’s art and Swatch.  Each Swatch member had the opportunity to purchase a beautify Basquiat Triptych set, as well as the watches in individual box.  Thanks to Tristan, he explained the subtle differences between the watches in individual package and the set, and organized all of our orders.

Left to right:  Alain Villard (Swatch CEO), Carlo Giordanetti (CEO Swatch Art Peace Hotel), Edouard Mariotti (Swatch USA brand president), Shawn Kotania (brand manager Swatch Canada)

After the excitement of Basquiat art watch launch event, hungry Club members walked to a nearby Italian restaurant Misirizzi for dinner. Lots of food and drinks, it was a very enjoyable night together with Alain and Carlo in the group. By midnight, all of us were back to hotel for a good night sleep, as we all needed to recharge for more activities in NYC the next day.

On 11-MAY, Swatch Club members re-grouped in the hotel lobby at 9:30 am. We took the tour bus to One Vanderbilt for a guided tour on the SUMMIT.  After some preparation, we went up to observation deck on the 91st floor, where we could see the stunning view of NYC inside a space with infinity mirrors!  Swatch Club members took lots of photos and had fun in different activities on the top of NYC for about 2 hours. 

At around noon, we were heading back down, walked to a Cuban Chinese cuisine (Calle Dao) for our farewell lunch, before we concluded the wonderful 2 day Club event.