Dezeen Watch Store: new content on our watch store blog includes an interview with the designers of the Activité watch, which they claim is the first to put smartwatch functionality in a traditional-looking Swiss timepiece.
“Activité is a real breakthrough compared to most of the smartwatches that we know of,” said Frédéric Lintz of Eliumstudio.
“It is the first analogue watch that combines the benefits of traditional timepieces with an activity tracker connected to your body.”
In an exclusive video interview, Alessi president Alberto Alessi tells us how he launched his company's range of watches after Italian architect Aldo Rossi pitched him a design he'd been working on.
“The history of Alessi watches started in the middle of the 80s, when Aldo Rossi presented a prototype of a very nice wristwatch to me,” Alessi says. ”I never asked it of him, but he thought it could be part of the Alessi collection.”
The blog also features an interview with designer Denis Guidone, who says he "hates designing watches" despite having designed a number of best-selling timepieces, including Ora Unica, which features a rotating squiggle instead of hands.
“The watches I designed so far don’t look like watches at first sight,” the Milan-based designer told us in the interview. “It might seem strange, but I hate designing watches. I prefer to think in terms of designing time.”
Industrial designer Michael Young came to visit us recently to discuss the relaunch of his PXR-5 watch, which will be launched exclusively at Dezeen Watch Store.
The simple digital watch, first launched ten years ago, was the forerunner of the designer watch industry and inspired many other designers to produce their own watches.
“After we designed the PXR-5 we got a lot of enquiries from friends in the design business who I think believed I was making a lot of easy money out of watches,” Young said. “I introduced a lot of my friends to my suppliers and they started making watches.”
The PXR-5 goes on sale next week and will only be available at Dezeen Watch Store.
Other new features on the watch store blog include a report on a fully functioning 3D-printed "tourbillon" watch mechanism and an update on shipping of The Bradley, the tactile watch originally designed for blind people and which is our fastest-ever selling watch.
