Dezeen spoke to artists Thukral and Tagra about their upcoming design for Swiss watch brand Rado in the final live panel discussion as part of Rado Design Week.
Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs was joined by the founders behind the art and design practice, Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra, to talk about a special edition of the Rado True Square watch that was teased earlier today in a video filmed by Dezeen at the duo's studio in New Delhi.
For their design, Thukral and Tagra are creating a watch face that includes two colourful, intersecting dials that will aim to give a new perspective on telling time.
"Our inspiration was to feel connected with a lot more time zones and we wanted to bring something unique to the experience of reading time," Thukral said in the video.
The duo's design will also include imagery from their ongoing series of paintings called Dominus Aeries, a series of complex artworks that explore visions of the future interlaced with references to the past.
Based in New Delhi, Thukral and Tagra have been working together for the past 15 years on work including paintings, sculpture and installations that explore identity and globalisation through colourful imagery.
Their work has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo and the Asia Pacific Triennial, but this collaboration with Rado will open up their portfolio of work to a whole new audience they explained in the video.
"Rado is an incredibly popular brand in India and the prospect of having our work so intimately close to people here and the rest of the world is promising and fascinating," Tagra said.
Fairs, Thukral and Tagra were also joined by Rado's CEO Adrian Bosshard and vice president of product development Hakim El Kadiri, who gave an insight into the Rado brand and why it chose to work with the artist duo.
Joining Rado as CEO in June 2020, Bosshard was previously CEO of Rado's sister brand Certina, a position that he held for 17 years.
Rado Design Week is a week-long collaboration between the Swiss watch brand and Dezeen, which sees the reveal of four unique versions of its True Square timepiece created by a roster of international designers including Thukral&Tagra, Tej Chauhan, Formafantasma and YOY.
Every day throughout the week Dezeen broadcasted a live conversation between Fairs, Bosshard, El Kadiri and one of the designers. The week will conclude with a competition that gives Dezeen readers the chance to win one of the watches from the collection.
The event marks a pivotal moment for Rado, which started out in a workshop in Switzerland's Lengnau district back in 1917. Although the brand often hosts events to launch its new watches, this is its first virtual design week.
You can check out all the videos and live interviews here.
This talk took place on 3 December 2020 at 1:00pm London time as part of Rado Design Week. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.