This page is for established creators who have sold at least 3 of their creations in the past, to buyers other than friends and family. This can include art-jewellery creators, fine artists, painters, sculptors, ceramicists, digital artists and creators in other media (even watchmakers!). If that’s not you, see our open art / design competition.
We welcome collaborations with established creators who’s work fits our aesthetic range and brand concepts. If we’ve contacted you suggesting a collaboration, show us some of your recent work so that we can confirm that it’s a good fit with our aesthetic range.
If we’ve not contacted you yet, then please contact us, showing us a range of your recent work, so we can see if your creations are a good fit for the UnconstrainedTime project.
We can work with you to optimize the fit between your creativity and our timepiece design. We can help you adapt your work to our watch concepts, if that’s of interest to you.
UnconstrainedTime is based on art and conceptual-art-jewellery. This is fundamentally different from all other watches which are based on engineering and/or fine jewellery. Before you consider creating a watch idea for UnconstrainedTime, make sure you fully understand these vital differences (we don’t accept watch ideas based on engineering or fine jewellery). You can start with the summary of these differences on our infographic about Art and Conceptual-art-jewellery Influence on Watches, then read in more detail on the links from that page, and our home page etc.
Not all creative watch ideas will fit within the range of aesthetics which make sense as part of the UnconstrainedTime brand, but we are definitely open to some ideas with aesthetics which extend beyond those of our current range of watches, provided they fit the UnconstrainedTime brand concepts, as described in the above paragraph. After looking at our current range of watches, if you want some inspirational images of work by other creators which does fit within our chosen aesthetic range, look at our Pinterest Boards, which show many examples which we love.
When working on watch creations, make sure the creation will make use of our time-display as an intrinsic element of the whole. Ensure that the whole watch will make sense as a holistic artwork. We are not interested in artwork as an addition to, or decoration on, a watch which the artwork doesn’t relate to.
If you are used to working on a larger scale, consider techniques like 3D scanning followed by either 3D printing, precision CNC milling, deep laser engraving etc.
Watch construction starting-points
When working on watch creations, make sure your creation will use our unique time-display (which consists of a ring of 12 LEDs and one button at the 3 o’clock position, no hands, no dial) as an intrinsic element of the whole creation (not an unrelated addition). Ensure that the whole watch will make sense as a holistic artwork. We are not interested in artwork as an addition to a watch which the artwork doesn’t relate to.
Make sure you think about what materials and finishes your creation will use, and how they will be made. We certainly welcome ideas which use materials that are not used by current watches, since our creative focus is from conceptual-art-jewellery (which accepts use of any material) rather than fine jewellery and engineering. If we love your creative ideas, we can work with you to optimize those aspects.
Keep in mind that the time-pieces you create with UnconstrainedTime must be able to be worn in practice as watches. They need to be practical to make, and wearable without damaging people or clothing, without breaking or becoming imperfect from reasonable use, and the time-display needs to be visible when worn on the wrist in the usual manner.
In order for the internal parts of the watch to fit, so that the time-display functions, your watch creation needs to be based on one of our templates. It can be extended outwards from one of those starting-points, but is unlikely to be able to be reduced inwards. The templates are available in 40mm or 30mm diameter.
Our templates have either a rounded cross-section or a rectangular cross-section. As you can see from our current watches, the two options are either a partially filled central section, or a hole in the middle with protrusions (not shown below) added between the lugs which hold the strap (to accommodate batteries):
We can give you the 3D file for one of these templates, which you can customize as desired and have 3D printed and/or precision CNC milled in your choice of materials. We will send you a completed flex/rigid internal time-display printed-circuit-board (no soldering needed) and other suitable parts, with clear assembly instructions.
We strongly suggest that you keep any initial sketches of ideas, or notes you make, as well as documenting the creation process, because people love to see the development which goes into this kind of work. Showing the whole sequence of how you get from initial ideas to a finished piece of artwork can be a valuable element of promotions.
You will be listed as the creator of the watch. So on the back-plate will be the UnconstrainedTime logo and name, watch name (which you choose), by: your signature and name, then the serial number and a release number (if appropriate). On our website, the watch will be listed as by: your name “with UnconstrainedTime.”
If we invite you to create a watch in collaboration with us, we will show it on our website and social media for potential customers to see, and plan to exhibit some of our watch collaborations in suitable art galleries, but we cannot guarantee any sales.
You as the collaborator are responsible for making sure that their work does not violate anyone else’s copyright, and are responsible for all repairs, warranty etc. on any part you have made or modified. UnconstraedinTime is responsible for the electronic components and any part(s) supplied by us.
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