Two collaborations with two famous independent brands.

 

Alain Silberstein's creations stand out for their deceptive simplicity, which is all the more eye-catching against the backdrop of great watchmaking legacies of brands from the 1980s. But colored triangles, circles and rectangles on the designer's dials are actually a continuation of studies which can be traced back to Wassily Kandinsky in Bauhaus.

 

That was where the painter and art theorist explored the relationship between colors, shapes and their effect on people's emotions. Kandinsky would invite students to answer questions along the lines of "do you think it's possible to express any of your feelings graphically?" or "which color do you feel is most suited to a triangle, square or a circle?"

It's be interesting to put together a similar survey to see how people feel when they look at Silberstein's hands on models from various manufacturers. The experiment could be conducted as early as this spring, as Silberstein has partnered with two brands in the space of one month: Louis Erard and Ressence.

 

This isn't the first time the designer has teamed up with Louis Erard. It all began with Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein, a model which received the 2021 Red Dot Award in the "Product Design" category. There are two new models in the Silberstein and Erard series for 2022: Le Régulateur Blanc Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein and La Semaine Blanche Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein.

 

Le Régulateur Blanc Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein
Le Régulateur Blanc Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein
La Semaine Blanche Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein
La Semaine Blanche Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein

The former is another regulator, while the second is a three-hand watch with changing emojis to indicate the days of the week — an indication known as "smiledays". Unlike the first regulator with its ETA 7001 movement accompanied by Louis Erard's RE9 complication, the novelty is equipped with Sellita SW266-1 without a power-reserve indication.

 

The movement chosen for the three-hand watch is Sellita SW220-1. Its dial is now a white-silver color with a 40 mm case made of titanium, which has given Silberstein's hands a different look.

 

The other model participating in the experiment is Ressence x Alain Silberstein “Carpe Diem”. The designer had to adapt the hands to suit the unconventional watch mechanics behind the Ressence indication, where the watch has the look of a digital display but disks rotating beneath the dial indicate the time using the ROCS 1 module integrated into the automatic movement.

The influence of Bauhaus and Kandinsky isn't as tangible here, but there's clearly a connection to work by Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674) and the Vanitas genre of still-life painting.

 

Champaigne’s Vanitas Still Life with a Tulip, Skull and Hour-Glass encourages the viewer to ponder the frailty of life. The watch has borrowed its key symbols: a skull for the seconds and a tulip to replace the hour hand. The model’s availability has been limited to a series of 36 pieces.