Art Jewellery and Watchmaking: What is Art Jewellery and Why is it Relevant to Contemporary Watch Aesthetics?

By Chris Melchior.

The image above shows our Poppy Seed Pod watch on the right.

Sections Of This Article

• Basic Concepts
  • What is Jewellery?
  • What is Art?
  • What is Fine Art?
  • The Difference Between Art and Design
• A Very Brief History of Jewellery
  • What is fine jewellery?
• The Western Art Tradition Breaks Free from the Single Focus it had for More than a Millennium.
• The Evolution of Art Jewellery
• The Main Influences on Watch Design
• Art Jewellery and Watchmaking: Why Art Jewellery is Relevant to Contemporary Watch Aesthetics
  • UnconstrainedTime watches

Introduction

It seems strange to me, as I am beginning to write this, that I can’t find a single article already existing on the subject of art jewellery and watchmaking. By the end of this article you’ll understand why I say it’s strange, because the relationships between the two that I explain here will probably seem obvious once you read about the relevant areas.

There are plenty of articles about collaborations between fine artists and watchmakers, also plenty about watches portrayed in fine art, and, of course, the combination of jewellery and watchmaking has existed from near the beginning the evolution of the watch. But the art jewellery influence on contemporary watchmaking, which seems clear to me, seems not to have been noticed before, or at least, not written about.

In this article I’ll detail exactly why it seems to me that art jewellery based watch design has been inevitable for some time, given the ongoing evolution of relevant subjects. And I’ll explain why there are many watches with what seem to me to be some degree of influences from art jewellery, and why our own brand, UnconstrainedTime, is arguably the first watch brand based on conceptual art jewellery.

As usual in my articles, I’ll be including ideas that are little-known, and which sometimes challenge existing views, but I’ll explain them clearly so you can make up your own mind rather than assuming that the accepted views are the only ones available. An example is my unique perspective on the simple causes of all the differences between art and design which I detail below. You can see from UnconstrainedTime watches that I like to think for myself . . . this article is for readers who choose to do likewise.

Note . . . I only use watch images with permission from the watchmaker (unless the photos are public domain), so some of the watches I present here might be lacking an image.

Basic Concepts:

To think clearly about the perspectives presented in this article, it’s important to understand the relevant concepts. A lot of people assume they know what they mean when they use words like “art”, but, if you ask for a precise definition, most people will realize that they don’t really have one.

We’ll start with jewellery, because that’s somewhat easier to define . . .

What Is jewellery?

Jewellery is objects used as decoration or adornment, worn on the body, originating from the word “jewel”, also known as a gemstone, relating to the French word for delight. Jewellery typically uses precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum, and is based on using those materials as settings for jewels.

While these days in the “Western world”, the choice of the jewellery one wears would be seen as an expression of individual style, aesthetic preferences and emotional connections, there are still many parts of the world where jewellery has a more practical use, such as in areas of India where one’s personal wealth is still typically worn on the body in the form of gold necklaces etc.

Some jewellery also has cultural meanings, specific ones like symbols of membership of a subculture, as well as more general ones like symbolizing status. Because it has become part of accepted culture, few people realize that the concepts of things like the modern conventions surrounding engagement and wedding rings (especially the diamond solitaire) are mainly the result of marketing by relevant industries, although ring‑giving as a marriage symbol is much older.

I’ll explain more about the evolution of jewellery, and how it is now transcending some of its traditional definitions, later in this article.

What Is Art?

This is a more challenging word to define, and is used by different people to mean different things. Advertising adds to this confusion by presenting design as “art,” as is common these days in the jewellery and watch industries, because art is associated with higher status and perceived value, compared to design.

I’ll start with more conventional concepts of what is art, then present a little-known perspective on the difference between art and design which challenges accepted views, in the next section.

To put it as clearly as possible: art is usually defined as something which meets a set of criteria (although there is variation in definitions from different sources), including the fact that it is creativity relating to conceptual ideas used as a means to communicate, evoke emotions and present challenging perspectives. It also includes the concept of non-utilitarian pleasure which means that people enjoy art for its own sake, not for its practical usefulness as one would with design. Another relevant concept is special focus . . . art presents something as being worthy of unusual attention, unlike most of the experience of everyday life. Art is also a personal exploration beyond one’s current reality. More on that later.

Philosopher and artist, Leo Tolstoy, famously remarked, “Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.“

A study of art through history reveals that art, or more precisely changing aesthetic tastes, has a profound relationship to the society the artist is part of. Some people might assume that aesthetics is an absolute, independent of culture, but it is, observably, strongly influenced by culture. This relationship is illustrated by: a few hundred years ago in Europe the ideal examples of beauty being women portrayed in art who more recently would be described objectively as “fuller-figured”, compared to a slim figure being more often portrayed as the ideal of beauty somewhat later in the evolution of art and the cultures it related to, mainly due to changing perspectives relating to physical health:

Art often serves as a reflection of societal values, beliefs, and cultural identity. The Tate, a renowned art institution in London, describes art as “a mirror on society,” emphasizing how art captures and interprets the world, offering insights into historical, social, and political contexts.

Art should be distinguished from craft and design. I’ll give a clear, though controversial, definition of the difference between art and design, below, but for now, craft is about skilled workmanship (as opposed to mass-production) which can be used either for functional or decorative purposes, and design is primarily about the functionality of the results.

Decorative art, or “applied art” is when art is applied, or added, to functional design:

. . . so it’s a combination of the two things. There have been attempts to bridge the gap between art and design, such as Art Nouveau, inspired by the natural world, which flourished across Europe mainly in the decade before and the decade after 1900. While fine art painters such as Klimt have an obvious Art Nouveau influence, the majority of the works produced by the movement are examples of decorative art, although undeniably beautiful ones.

In my opinion, the aim of unifying fine art and applied arts resulted instead in a juxtaposition of the two concepts which remained separate and are still defined as different things, today. Decorative objects such as Art Nouveau lamps by Tiffany (below) or the posters of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec being mostly focused on beauty while retaining functionality.

The distinction between art, craft and design lies in their primary focus, though there are inevitable overlaps.

One can see the difference in focus when designed objects are presented as fine art. Examples include Roy Lichtenstein’s use of printed cartoon images enlarged and presented as fine art:

. . . and ‘Fountain’, by Marcel Duchamp which is a standard urinal shown in an art gallery. In both cases, they are design when the focus is on functionality (such as the function of communicating which is the focus of graphic design), yet become fine art when presented in such a way that the special focus is on concepts, meaning and evoking responses, rather than the functionality, which fits the generally accepted (although somewhat controversial and somewhat subjective) definitions of the two different concepts as being separate.

Which brings us neatly to the next topic . . .

What Is Fine Art?

Fine art is works with a primary focus on aesthetics and usually concept or story.

It can be seen as a stronger focus on the factors which distinguish art from design and craft, so it is used as a means to communicate, evoke emotions and present challenging perspectives, includes non-utilitarian pleasure and a significant degree of special focus.

Fine art often includes painting, sculpture, drawing, limited edition printmaking, and other traditional mediums, as well as newer forms such as digital art and mixed media.

The Getty Museum defines fine art as “creative art, especially visual art, whose products are to be appreciated primarily or solely for their imaginative, aesthetic, or intellectual content.” This definition underscores the emphasis on aesthetic and intellectual value inherent in fine art, transcending mere utility to evoke deeper emotional and intellectual responses from viewers.

The fine art process involves creation which is at least partly “from the void” (as it is known in Eastern philosophies, not from the existing models of reality in your imagination) which can be profoundly terrifying but can also be very addictive, because it is not only an exploration of the relationship between your internal reality and the outside world, it also changes who you are, as can be seen from the evolution of the work of any great fine artist.

The fine art process applies just as much to abstract art. For example, once it was pointed out to me that the paintings of Rothko are very much landscapes (i.e. relate to objective reality), it was obvious, especially when looking at the originals rather than printed reproductions.

By contrast, the design process involves inventing something in your head (i.e. in your imagination), then manifesting the results, whether it is product design for functionality, or graphic design which can occasionally be made only to be appreciated visually as art although usually is for communication. Thus the phrase “expression of the imagination” which is sometimes used to describe one of the purposes of art, from this perspective refers more to design than art. More on the difference between art and design in the next section of this article . . .

The Difference Between Art and Design:

My unique perspective on this is that the difference between art and design can be summarised by two underlying factors, which cause all the other differences, including each of the criteria which are commonly used to define art:

	Art	Design
Focus	intrinsic	extrinsic
Aim	unknown	known

The focus of art is intrinsic, it is about the self of the artist (while not being self-indulgent), and is about the artwork itself, enjoyed for its own sake. This is also what makes art unique because a copy of art is not the art itself, it is, in its intrinsic existence, something different. By contrast, design is usually mass-produced.

The focus of design is extrinsic: it is about the results it produces, its functionality, for others. And it doesn’t matter who did design work: if someone else does something that works just as well, then that is just as good. Design is often done by a group, unlike art which is almost always done by an individual. It matters very much who created an artwork. This difference is clear in the creation of our own UnconstrainedTime watches, with the aesthetics of each watch being very much a personal artistic exploration, compared to the functionality of the internal components for our unique time-display, which involved more than ten different designers working on different specialist aspects of the design.

The aim of art is freely exploring into the unknown without preconceived results (although with a chosen focus). This is embodied by the results of the fine art process (detailed above), which are, fundamentally, something that was not in the head of the artist when they began the process. The fine art process also transforms the artist, changing their own intrinsic nature due to their contact with the unknown and how it relates to the reality of the world outside the artist and the artists’ chosen focus in that reality.

The aim of design is clearly known and defined before the process is started, and is the manifestation of something already existing and known inside the head of the designer, at each stage of the process. Design is done in the head of the designer(s) then manifested into physical reality, compared with fine art which manifests results beyond what is in the head of the artist.

The special focus of art is due to the focus on the artwork itself (rather than external reality) as well as the fact that it presents something unknown and challenging.

Art inspires others (conceptually, aesthetically and emotionally) because of its reach into the unknown and because it is about individuals, both the artist as a unique individual and the individuals who are each inspired by the artwork in different and personal ways. Design works basically the same for a broad group of users.

More details on each of the criteria for defining art in my article Art Watches Art?

It is also clear that the overall progression of the evolution of the Western Art Tradition can be seen as exaggerating the differences between art and design. Abstract art and art jewellery are more about what they are rather than what they represent than figurative art (which represents objects you can name) and fine jewellery (which uses simple symbolic representations all highly-polished to represent a perfect ideal rather than complex reality). They are also more clearly about the unknown as they move from a focus on use of predefined (i.e. pre-known) sets of symbols (such as notes in music) to vastly more complex fractal realities (fractals being on the edge of chaos, i.e. the unknown and somewhat unpredictable), most obvious in the development from note-based to ambient (non-note-based) music (where the focus is more on the sound than the notes). For more on that fascinating change, see my article “The Biggest Revolution in the Western Art Tradition“.

An interesting question is posed by Phil Chan in his article “Art and Ethics“. He asks “Are the arts a precondition to civil society? If so, does art serve as a moral foundation for civilization?” My answer to that is that, as civilization develops, basic survival needs are consistently met so they become taken for granted, allowing an increased focus on the higher levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which include the self-expression and creativity found in art.

A Very Brief History Of jewellery

We’ll have a brief look at the history of jewellery because it is directly relevant to the rest of this article.

Ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptians:

. . . Greeks, and Romans, crafted elaborate jewellery using materials like gold, silver, precious gemstones, and intricate techniques like filigree, granulation, and enamelling. For these cultures, jewellery was more than mere adornment; it held religious, social, and spiritual significance.

The art of jewellery-making flourished during the Renaissance (14th to the 17th centuries), characterized by intricate designs, elaborate gem settings, and a revival of ancient classical motifs. Europe saw a resurgence of craftsmanship, with artisans creating exquisite pieces for royalty and nobility, often incorporating symbolism and heraldry.

The 18^th Century saw a rapid expansion and popularisation of fashion or costume jewellery, which are typically made with glass instead of gemstones, and with other less expensive materials, but made to look as similar as possible to fine jewellery.

The 19th century witnessed significant changes in jewellery design and production. Industrialization introduced mass production techniques, making jewellery more accessible to the burgeoning middle class. Innovations in technology, the discovery of new gem deposits, and advancements in metalworking, expanded the variety and availability of materials.

Art movements like Art Nouveau and Art Deco in the late 19th and early 20th centuries revolutionized jewellery design. Art Nouveau embraced natural forms, flowing lines, and the use of unconventional materials:

. . . while Art Deco favored geometric shapes, bold colors, and a streamlined aesthetic.

The 20th century witnessed a very significant shift that resulted in a new type of jewellery, which I’ll explain below.

What is fine jewellery?

I’ll define fine jewellery here, in order to contrast it with a very different type of jewellery I detail below.

Fine jewellery represents an exquisite category of adornments distinguished by its superior craftsmanship and high-quality materials. Unlike fashion or costume jewellery which uses less valuable materials, fine jewellery is crafted using precious metals such as gold, platinum, or sterling silver, often adorned with genuine gemstones like diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and pearls.

In the dominant Western commercial tradition (which arose out of earlier, somewhat related, traditions), most jewellery until around the mid 20^th Century, and the majority of jewellery since, is either fine jewellery or fashion/costume jewellery which is designed to look like fine jewellery but made of less expensive materials. The “fine” part of fine jewellery refers to the use of precious metals and precious gemstones.

Subcategories of fine jewellery include high jewellery (which is usually one-off or limited-edition) and demi-fine jewellery. For more details about those, see this article on “What is Fine Jewelry?“

If you look at fine jewellery (and high jewellery), you can see that it is almost always based on simple geometric shapes and smooth, highly polished surfaces. While it would have originally been made by guilds, small workshops or sometimes by individuals, since the industrial revolution most jewellery is designed by businesses, where the design work is usually done by a group of people (which is one of the factors making it design rather than art). That is usually still true to some extent, even when the piece is advertised as if it is the artistic creation of an individual working alone.

If it’s of interest, I also wrote in more detail about the history of fine jewellery and its aesthetic influences.

The Western Art Tradition Breaks Free from the Single Focus it had for More than a Millennium.

While it might not be immediately obvious why this section of the article relates to art jewellery and watchmaking, it is actually an important part of the concept . . .

For well over a thousand years, music in the Western Art Tradition was much more focused on notes than sound.

Until abstract art in the 20^th Century, most visual art was focused on objects which have a word (or short phrase) for each object, such as people, animals, specific places etc. Although in the Western fine art canon, figurative, object‑based representation dominated until the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Islamic geometric art, Celtic interlace, and medieval pattern books existed before abstract art these can in general be seen more correctly as decorative, which, according to relevant experts, makes them design, not art.

The profound changes around the mid 20^th Century, from music focusing on notes to music focusing on sounds that cannot be described as notes, and from art focusing on nameable objects to abstract art (below) focusing on the content of the artworks themselves which cannot be effectively described in a few words, happened at about the same time (see below for a note on the timing). And they can both be said to be about the same thing: changes from things which have the main focus on concepts which can be described by very simple data, to things where the main importance is placed on things which need very much more complex sets of data to represent them effectively.

And the same change, at around the same time, can be seen in the evolution from fine jewellery which is mainly about simple geometric shapes and smooth polished surfaces, to art jewellery which often uses forms and/or surfaces which are complex, rough, broken, or organic (i.e. more like the natural world).

Note that, while some writers state that ambient music originated with Brian Eno’s music in the 1970s, which aligns with when it was recognised as a distinguishable genre and labelled “ambient music”, it seems to me that the definitions of the concept of ambient music is such as where the sound is more important than the notes, and the music not necessarily being the main foreground focus, show its emergence to be more gradual, including such pieces as Erik Satie’s “musique d’ameublement” (furniture music) for background listening in the early 1900s. Which is clearly around the same time as abstract art, with Hilma af Klint painting abstract pieces around 1906, then Wassily Kandinsky creating his first abstract works around 1910-1911, and around the same time as art jewellery was emerging (although that started slightly earlier).

This seems to me to be a change from a single system where the focus is on a simple type of symbolic representations, to a focus on the exploration of what is outside that system. In my opinion this is arguably the biggest revolution in the Western Art Tradition, even though no-one else seems to have noticed it (at the time of writing).

The Evolution Of Art Jewellery

In the mid-20th century, slightly after abstract art appeared and music was undergoing the major change in focus from notes to sounds I described above, a movement emerged that sought to redefine the boundaries of what constituted jewellery. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, this movement was characterized by “a desire to move away from the mainstream and produce innovative, wearable art.” This marked the beginning of the evolution of art jewellery as a distinct form.

Art jewellery (which overlaps with and is often called, “contemporary jewellery” in scholarship) represents a fascinating evolution in the realm of adornment, blending artistic expression, innovative techniques, and individual creativity. Its evolution has been marked by a departure from traditional norms and a focus on personal expression and conceptual design.

Art jewellery pioneers, like Peter Chang (above), Gijs Bakker, and Wendy Ramshaw, challenged conventional notions by experimenting with unconventional materials, incorporating found objects, and exploring new techniques. Their work aimed to provoke thought, spark conversations, and challenge the traditional concepts of beauty and wearability (these are some of the definitions of art as distinct from design).

The 1960s and 1970s saw a surge in conceptual art and avant-garde movements, influencing jewellery artists to explore ideas beyond the traditional focus. The Smithsonian American Art Museum notes that during this period, artists viewed jewellery “as a medium for personal expression rather than as a decorative accessory.” This mindset shift led to the creation of pieces that conveyed social, political, and philosophical messages, often pushing the boundaries of traditional jewellery norms (and is another one of the definitions of art).

Jewellery artists began using non-precious materials, industrial elements, plastics, and even everyday objects to create unconventional yet thought-provoking pieces. It also relates to authenticity and things being what they are, instead of being decorated and disguised as they are in fine jewellery. The Art jewellery Forum describes this as a movement that “redefined jewellery by placing an emphasis on concept over materials, wearability, or preciousness.“

Some areas of art jewellery, such as artisanal craft jewellery, are craft more than art, and represent a recent resurgence of interest in high quality craftsmanship by individuals rather than mass-production. Some art jewellers distance themselves from the word “craft,” which, to some, has connotations of amateurism and lack of aspiration. The word “artisan” seems more popular these days while referring to approximately the same thing.

What could be called conceptual art jewellery (which overlaps with the definition of contemporary jewellery), which is created by an individual as a personal exploration and expression of story or concepts, and valued primarily for aesthetics (unlike fine jewellery which is valued due to materials used and the brand) clearly relates to fine art.

Empar Juanes, whose wearable artworks relate to sculpture, architecture and jewellery, says in the article Empar Juanes: Stone as sculpture and jewelry “The only difference I find with large-scale sculpture is the intimacy that I feel with the small scale.” Ivan Barnett states, in the article And & Both: Is It Jewelry or Sculpture?, “sculpture is inherently designed to be seen in the round, while jewelry is made to be worn against the body.“

Other writers say that the term “wearable sculpture” is currently being avoided by art jewellers.

Here are some examples of recent art jewellery:

As in most areas, marketing seeks to create false associations to more prestigious realms, such as advertising things as individual creations by “artists” when they are not really that at all. While there are certainly genuine creative artists working in jewellery and watchmaking, creating items as personal exploration, there are also plenty of mass-produced design pieces being marketed as “art”. So make sure you look at the reality of what things are, rather than what you’re told to believe.

Here is my brief summary of the differences between fine jewellery and art jewellery:

Comparison of fine jewellery with art jewellery:

Fine Jewellery:	Art Jewellery:
materials: precious metals, precious gemstones	can include any material
simple symbolized forms	can include complex forms (organic, broken, fractal etc.)
highly polished surfaces	surfaces can be complex, rough, organic, broken, fractal etc.
design	some sub-categories (including conceptual-art-jewellery) are art
symbolized, polished, decorated & decorative	can use materials, forms and surfaces as what they are
valued by materials and brand	valued as art

As with most evolutionary developments, while fine jewellery and art jewellery have different properties, the differences between the two are sometimes more of a spectrum of degrees rather than always being an absolute distinction, and the two can sometimes be combined in a single piece.

Unique insights into art jewellery.

Other researchers talk about most of those differences shown in the above table. Articles such as “How do you define art jewelry?“, and “What is art jewelry?“, for example, point to the fact that art jewellery has many of the characteristics of art such as expression, creativity, story, challenging convention, stimulating emotions and reactions, and having no rules. And both mention the use of a wider range of materials and techniques.

However, very profound differences between the art jewellery and fine jewellery seem not to have been noticed by anyone else (even though they are likely to be obvious when pointed out), which are:

• how art jewellery commonly uses vastly more complex forms and textures than fine jewellery which focuses on simple symbolic forms and highly-polished surfaces,
• how art jewellery uses the intrinsic and authentic nature of materials, forms and textures as what they are instead of fine jewellery’s simplification and symbolization of everything using decoration as a concept and insisting on highly polished surfaces.

The two points above seem to me to be aspects of a single difference, which is that of art jewellery celebrating the natural world in all its complexity and imperfection, compared to fine jewellery which is separated from reality by simplification and symbolization.

The Main Influences On Watch Design.

Looking at recently made watches, it is obvious that there are two main influences on their design.

One is mechanical engineering, which was the basis of the functionality of watches from the beginning, and is now often used as an impressive achievement in its own right or to produce visually stunning results. Even with many of the most dramatically interesting and unusual watches today, this is still the main design influence.

The Cartier Rotonde de Cartier Skeleton Mysterious Double Tourbillon:

. . . is a beautiful example of creative design with mechanical engineering influences, with its expanded roman numerals and off-centre circles concept. It also shows the difference between the engineering and fine jewellery influences, with the slightly rough texture of the dial surface compared to the highly-polished case.

Devon Works Tread 1:

The Devon Tread 1 uses a patented system of interwoven time belts to display the time. It is a fascinating and visually stunning innovation in mechanical time-display, as well as using aerospace-quality materials, and is well known by any enthusiast of contemporary watches both from its technical innovation and from the perspective of the aesthetics.

The Richard Mille RM 70-01 Tourbillon Alain Prost:

. . . is a great example of creative engineering design, designed to reflect Alain Prost’s interest in cycling by including their “totaliser” which displays the overall distance travelled on his cycles. Several of the design elements have a bicycle influence, and the case is made of Carbon TPT.

The Christopher Ward Bel Canto:

. . . (shown above in Rosa gold) is an unusual looking watch for this brand. Every 60 minutes, to mark the hour, a ‘hammer’ strikes a chime which is a steel spring around the edge of the dial. The Grade-5 titanium case improves the quality of the sound, as well as combining durability with light weight.

The HM9 Sapphire Vision from MB&F:

. . . is visually extraordinary as well as being technically impressive, and was made available to the public in four variations with just five pieces each. It was made as “a tribute to the extraordinary automotive and aeronautic designs of the 1940s and 50s. The result was a case like no other that echoed the epoch’s flowing, aerodynamic lines.“

They decided to present their amazing and beautiful movement encased in “an outer hull of sapphire crystal and precious metal” (with the use of precious metals relating to the fine jewellery influence on watchmaking). An outstanding example of engineering presented as an impressive technical achievement by one of the foremost individuals in watchmaking, as well as being a great example of an aesthetic watch.

The Xeric Vendetta X Automatic:

. . . was “born from Mitch’s passion for vintage dystopian science fiction and concept cars of the 70’s like the Lamborghini Countach or Bond’s Lotus Esprit submarine“. It is an outstanding example of creative and visually innovative design, with obvious mechanical engineering influences.

Several of the brands above also have watches which feature in my article about unusual watches.

The other main influence on current watch design is fine jewellery. Since watches were, until the industrial revolution, only affordable by relatively wealthy clients, fine jewellery and watchmaking have long had a close relationship, with precious metals and decorative engraving being common in historical watches. It was often the same craftsmen who made jewellery and watches, sometimes for specific reasons, as described in my article on the evolution of the watch. More details on the influences from fine jewellery, below.

There have, of course, been many other minor influences on watch design, especially in recent times when the market has increasingly desired innovation and uniqueness as well as concept or story, as cultures and technologies have evolved.

Historical watch design influences include practical considerations, such as the rounded edges and smooth surfaces once watches evolved from being worn around the neck to being kept in pockets, the greater creative freedom when watches moved to the wrist so no longer needed to be round and smooth, and the very influential design of the Cartier Santos, made for practical use by the famous aviator:

In 1904, pioneering Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont needed to be able to see his watch without letting go of the controls with his hands in order to time his performances:

He asked Cartier to find a way to create a watch for his needs, and they designed one to be worn on the left wrist, with what are now called lugs to hold the strap to the case and a clasp to hold it firmly (unlike a slip-on women’s bracelet), a winding mechanism on the right, and a minute hand. They named the model the “Santos”:

. . . and it has been one of the main watches influencing the majority of wristwatch designs since that time.

And, of course, there are the space age and digital aesthetic influences that came along with the use of the 7-segment digital time display in the ’70s.

Other recent influences include collaborations with artists, concepts from other industries such as car makers from Land Rover to Bugatti, materials such as pieces of meteorite or metal from a historical gun barrel, and ecological considerations. Some great examples of these fascinating influences and others can be found in my article on what makes some limited edition watches loved and others hated.

Artistic movements have influenced watch design, from the romantic period adding characteristic flourishes, embellishments and jewels to watches, Art Nouveau with its organic curves being one of the factors behind the use of curved Arabic numerals in place of the more traditional straight angular Roman numerals, then the change to simple indexes aligning with the plainer design sensibilities of the Art Deco period.

Fine jewellery has exerted a profound influence on the world of watchmaking, including:

• Design Elegance: Fine jewellery’s emphasis on elegance, sophistication, and aesthetic appeal has influenced watch designs.
• Use of Precious Materials: Fine jewellery’s utilization of precious metals and gemstones has influenced many watchmakers to employ these luxurious materials in crafting watch cases, dials, and embellishments.
• Craftsmanship and Attention to Detail: The meticulous craftsmanship and attention to detail characteristic of the upper end of the fine jewellery market have set a standard for watchmakers.
• Collaboration with jewellery Houses: Collaborations between esteemed jewellery houses and watchmaking brands have resulted in exceptional timepieces that blend the expertise and design influences of both worlds.

Here are two examples of obvious influences of fine jewellery on watchmaking:

Art Jewellery And Watchmaking: Why Art jewellery Is Relevant To Contemporary Watch Aesthetics

Art jewellery based watches have, in my view, been inevitable for some time now, as what can be seen as art jewellery influences on watch design has increased in various ways that I’ll detail here.

This can also be seen in the evolution of watch advertising.

Early watch adverts focus on the properties of fine jewellery such as materials (eg. “18 carat gold”) and mechanical engineering (eg. “keyless lever” or “extraordinary accuracy”).

Many luxury watches are now being advertised as if they have the characteristics of art jewellery such as being created by an individual focusing on chosen aesthetics, being influenced by fine art such as by embodying abstract ideals, and having a significant focus on story or concept.

The jewellery market has already expanded to include art jewellery for more than a century now, and it is an important and growing sector of the market. Some areas of the watch market are very interested in uniqueness and innovation, and in individual creativity, story and concept, which are characteristics of art jewellery.

Since most people in the developed world have the exact time on the smart-phone in their pocket these days, as well as other functions such as alarms and timers, it is easier for this significant new direction in watch design to place less emphasis on the time-display functionality of a watch, allowing much more focus on the watch as an art object and as an expression of the choices made by the wearer.

Art jewellery can already be seen as influencing recent watch design in various ways, some of them relatively well known, others much less so. This influence seems to be subconscious so far, since I’ve not seen anyone else mention it (at the time of writing). There is some awareness of influence from specific art movements, such as the Bauhaus influence on the unpolished dials of Ochs Und Junior watches, but no-one seems to be writing about how this significant change in use of materials and textures can be seen as relating to the evolution from fine jewellery (which has always been part of the watchmaking space) to art jewellery.

While not exactly about art jewellery, collaborations between watchmakers and artists have certainly presented fine art and horology together, as well as aligning with the market’s desire for uniqueness and watches with a concept or story.

Art jewellery’s acceptance of a wider range of options can also be seen as having helped inspire watch brands to explore unconventional materials. An example are wood watches (below), which make sense as coming from the art jewellery perspective on materials, since they don’t make sense as coming from engineering or fine jewellery influences, and they also align with recent interest in ecological and environmental concepts. The recent fascination with deliberately patinated bronze watches also makes sense as art jewellery but doesn’t fit fine jewellery or obvious engineering concepts (although there is some degree of a link with bronze used for its corrosion resistant properties in marine contexts).

Another area of influences from art jewellery (or fine art) which also aligns strongly with the desires of the current watch market are concepts such as personal exploration, uniqueness, concept and story, breaking free from conventions, evoking emotions, presenting challenging perspectives and deserving special focus.

And, as I detailed above, art jewellery also often uses forms and surfaces not seen in fine jewellery, such as those which are complex, rough, broken, fractal or organic, i.e. much more complex than the very simple geometric forms and smooth polished surfaces used in fine jewellery.

Examples of influences on watchmaking which can be seen as coming from art jewellery include:

The “Khumeia” by Simon Pierre Delord, which has a significant influence from Art Nouveau, with conventional straight watch hands.

The Cartier Crash Tigrée watch can be seen as having some art-jewellery influence as well as surrealist and fine jewellery influences while retaining conventional watch hands.

The DB28 XP Météorite by De Bethune:

. . . has a beautiful dial which can be seen as having a significant art-jewellery influence of irregular marks, with conventional case and hands.

Blancpain The Great Wave is a gorgeous art-jewellery dial inside a conventional fine jewellery watch case.

What can be seen as art jewellery influence can also be seen in the way Holthinrichs watches proudly display the rough 3D printed texture on some parts of their watches:

I also have an infographic depicting other examples of the influence of either art, or art-jewellery (or both) on watchmaking.

While the beautiful and unique watches above can be seen as showing what can be seen as a degree of art jewellery influence, they can all be said to be based on conventional watch design, with art jewellery adding a degree of influence.

UnconstrainedTime watches:

. . . by contrast can be seen to be fundamentally arising out of fine art and conceptual art jewellery perspectives, with little or no influence from either engineering or fine jewellery aspects of conventional watch design. Our unique simplified time-display frees us from the powerful archetypes of watch hands or numerals, allowing much more special focus on the personal creative aesthetics which convey the concept or story, while also showing our use of the ancient 12-point concept of horology.

The forms we use are often complex, rough, broken, fractal or organic, and we use surfaces such as rough blackened silver, patinas and the undisguised textured results of 3D printing, as well as materials such as fine hardwoods.

We are not a conventional collaboration between an artist and a watchmaker where the two influences are observably separate, our brand is about watches where the fundamental design of the whole watch is based on personal creative explorations of fascinating concepts or stories. Our watches are very unique, profoundly evocative, and present challenging perspectives.

An example of a challenging concept is the 3D fractal used in our Fractal Emergence watch, which, because of the type of fractal it is, can be seen as a 3 dimensional object emerging from 4 dimensional space, as well as beauty emerging from the border between chaos and order:

Our watches have little or no influence from the usual watchmaking references, one reason being that I am not starting from being a watchmaker pushing the envelope of watchmaking. My background is in fine art and contemporary music composition, and my watches are created as a personal exploration of concepts of my relationships with the outside world . . . you can click on any of our watch images below, to see the fascinating concepts it relates to.

These factors, together, seem to me to show that UnconstrainedTime watches are clearly part of the world of conceptual art jewellery, and/or fine art.

The fact that our watches are art is also clear from how aesthetics focused they are. For example, our Fractal Emergence watch is based around a 3D fractal which has zero functionality, it is just to look at, and, while our minimal time-display does display the time and relates to ancient horological principles, the obvious focus of almost all of our watches is on freely chosen aesthetically focused structures with no functionality.

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Did you know about the art jewellery influences on watchmaking before you read this article? I’d be interested to know . . . add your comment below, or on our social media.