Hands-On: The Swatch & Keith Haring ‘From The Archive’
Last Thursday evening, fellow watch writer Griffin Bartsch and I were leaving one of the many events happening before the highly-anticipated weekend of WindUp and WatchTime, and we passed through Times Square on our way to the subway. Long jaded by the MoonSwatches sitting in a briefcase behind the towering glass windows of the Swatch boutique reflecting the bright lights of the most touristy square in Manhattan, I didn’t even turn my head until a display of neon pink and green caught the corner of my eye.
The three bioceramic tributes to the 1984 Swatch World Breakdance Championship.
I remember us stopping by the window, and without either of us saying a word, we just made a hard pivot and went into the boutique half an hour before it closed for the night. Walking up to the case, we saw the brand new “Break Free” collection from the brand, all inspired by the Keith Haring artwork of the 1984 Swatch World Breakdance Championship.
Though three of the new models (in the square What If? case) were based on the competition’s poster, both of us immediately knew that the fourth model, in the classic case shape, was the one we wanted. Before I could even try to talk myself out of getting one, Griffin just started walking to the counter. I sighed and also promptly took out my credit card. Just a few minutes later, we both left the boutique with the new “From The Archive” watches in tow.
A little bit of history here – back on September 20, 1984, just a year after Swatch was founded, the brand hosted the Swatch World Breakdance Championship in New York, in part as a way to associate the fun, inexpensive quartz watches with a very youthful and energetic market in a major cultural center of America. This was just the beginning of a long line of ambitious marketing exercises from the brand, but it also was the catalyst for the series of iconic and extremely collectible Haring Swatches that would debut in 1986.
It turns out that a year after, Haring had created and gifted a piece of artwork to Swatch which the brand had then proceeded to adapt for the dial of the iconic “Model Avec Personnages” Swatch in 1986. The brand put the original pencil and ink artwork in the Swatch archives, and after almost forty years since the work’s creation, has decided to bring back the original sketch in a new tribute to Haring.
The 1986 “Modele Avec Personnages.”
See the resemblance?
Aptly titled “From the Archive,” this Swatch here is all about the dial, so more on that in a second. The case and strap are both clear, taken from Swatch’s ever-popular Clearly series, with the sizing being the more modern 41mm variant with a thickness of 9.85mm. The strap is silicone, with a frosted, slightly cloudy finish that we’ve previously seen in their current color-accented Clearly models. It’s very soft to the touch, which is very different from the completely transparent straps that are found on the more vintage-inspired clear models like the Clearly Skin. Likewise, the bio-sourced plastic case on the watch is also frosted, which is a nice touch to both frame the artwork on the dial and hide my horrendous watch tan. A frosted plastic buckle completes the picture, with the licensing attributions printed on the backside of the strap in white. Though I wish there wasn’t any text at all on the strap, it’s very well hidden on the six o’clock side of the strap, meaning you’ll never really see it at all.
Now, let’s get to the important part – the dial. The original artwork gifted to Swatch has now appeared for the first time in the public through this new model. Rather than what we’re typically used to in Haring’s collaborations, this one is purposely left unmodified from the original artwork – it’s been recreated precisely on the dial to incorporate both the original inked portions of the art as well as Haring’s pencil marks and notes. The dial color is a warmer eggshell beige, which adds a sort of vintage, tropical charm to a Swatch and contrasts nicely with the cold tones of the case and strap. Looking up close, you can see that the dial is actually textured to resemble paper, and all the lines and handwriting on the dial actually keep the textures and shading of graphite and ink. In-person, this genuinely looks like someone took a pencil to a paper dial. It’s a brilliant effect and unique take on Haring merchandise.
Of course, the Haring Swatch touches are very much present, with the copyright, artist’s signature, and “Swatch Swiss” in Haring’s original handwriting. The hands are in a polished metallic finish, giving a nice contrast to the watch’s entirely matte or frosted elements. They catch light quite well, and the watch is very readable despite a lot going on in the dial. Flip the watch to the back, and the frosted case subtly reveals the elements of the tried-and-true quartz movement from Swatch. The center seconds gear in a gold finish slowly ticks away. If I have one real part I have a gripe with, it’s that this movement has a ghost-date position. I think it would have been so much better had the brand created a time-only quartz movement for this watch (and presumably for the many other models without a date wheel that Swatch produces). But for a $110 watch, I’ll give it a pass because all I care about is the dial on this one. Plus, it’s a quartz watch, so I’m not really going to be interacting with the crown all that much.
I used to find that it was easy to get jaded by the sheer amount of Haring collaborations. Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely adore Haring’s work, but at the same time, there have been so many commercial releases and licensed merchandise opportunities in the past few years that it’s sometimes easy to get fatigued. Despite my feelings about this, I can’t fault it – Haring was always known to want to make his work as accessible as possible and to continue to contribute to pop culture. The Keith Haring Foundation has made it very clear that it will continue to support those wishes, which I find admirable as revenues from these deals go back into supporting the foundation’s various grants. As I read the Keith Haring Foundation’s website to find out more about their licensing, a quote there from the artist started to change my notions on this.
The use of commercial projects has enabled me to reach millions of people whom I would not have reached by remaining an unknown artist. I assumed, after all, that the point of making art was to communicate and contribute to culture.
Keith Haring
Who am I to disagree with Mr. Haring?
The Swatch Break Free “From The Archive” ref. SO29Z145. 41mm in diameter, with a thickness of 9.85mm. Lug-to-lug of 47.40mm. Frosted bio-sourced plastic case, with frosted silicone strap and plastic clasp. Quartz movement with 3 bar of water resistance. Beige dial with Keith Haring artwork. $110.
For more, visit Swatch.com.
Hodinkee
