We welcome submissions of creative ideas to be considered for our evolving range of wrist-worn sculptures which tell the time. You will be paid part of the sale price of any watches created by you (which would usually be made available for sale as small numbered releases).
Note that UnconstrainedTime watches fit the definition of art, so we recommend that you approach this as art and sculpture rather than design. For details of the differences, see our blog post on the definitions of art. We have only used the phrase “watch design competition” on this web-page because that is a phrase potential creators might be searching for.
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 that of our current range of watches. After looking at our current range of watches, if you want some inspirational images of other creator’s work which does fit within our chosen aesthetic range, look at our Pinterest Boards, which show many examples which we love.
While submitting a 3D render is likely to show your creative ideas most effectively, we will accept submissions of sketches or drawings etc.. 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 creation, we can work with you to optimize those aspects.
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 a watch which the artwork doesn’t relate to.
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 in use.
If we accept your watch creation, we will put the 3D renders on our website and social media for potential customers to see, but we cannot guarantee that a watch accepted by us and shown on our website will be made available for sale since the response from potential buyers will be a significant factor, which cannot be predicted. We also cannot guarantee that a watch made available for sale will actually sell.
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 limited-edition number (if appropriate). On our website, the watch will be listed as by: your name “with UnconstrainedTime.”
Make sure you keep any initial sketches of ideas, or notes you make, as well as documenting your creative 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 sculpture which tells the time, can be of great benefit when promoting you as a creator.
You are responsible for making sure that your work does not violating anyone else’s copyright. This also means that you cannot use AI to generate your ideas, because the legal ownership of the results of AI work is currently not clear (since they can be seen as being derived from the works which the AI was trained on, and thus owned by the original creator of those works).
We are not looking for creations based on easily available 3D models, because we can do those ourselves. We are also unlikely to be interested in creations based on aesthetics which have already been explored in watchmaking, such as steam-punk or other conventional engineering-based concepts.
You may submit a maximum of three creations per creator, per month. If you want to submit creative ideas, first contact us and tell us you’re going to submit ideas, then, after we’ve replied by email, you can attach your creative ideas to an email (or give us a link). This is because if you send attachments or links in an initial email, that email will be less likely to get through to us.
Please include your email address and an alternative way of contacting you (such as a social-media profile or a mobile phone number) since emails don’t always get through.
If one of your watch creations sells well, we will invite you to submit further creative ideas. If we love your sketches, we will suggest suitable outsource experts you can use to generate photographic-quality renders and/or work with you to make renders or a physical version of your idea(s) which we will display on our website to attract buyers. We will tell you how to promote your UnconstrainedTime watch creations on your own website and/or social-media to increase the likelihood of sales, in addition to us promoting them on our website and social media etc.
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