HOMME|WATCH| The distinctive collaboration of two talents – r5.5 jointly created by Rado

The distinctive collaboration of two talents – r5.5 jointly created by Rado and world renowned designer Jasper Morrison manifests the true definition of "visionary, innovative and iconic" design.

 

Renowned as the leading technologically-innovative watch brand focused on design, Swiss watch brand Rado joins hands with world renowned designer Jasper Morrison to create r5.5, an exceptional timepiece made in High-Tech Ceramics that manifests the synthesis of two talents by demonstrating the beauty of "Less is More". Jasper Morrison was invited to talk about the collaboration with Rado and his vision on design.

About the Collaboration with RADO:

1.          The development of the r5.5 is actually the 3rd phase of your collaboration with the iconic Swiss watchmaker Rado. How did it all start back in 2007 and what project did you realize with Rado?

Ans: It began with a meeting at my Paris office and a request by Rado to design a dial for their 50th anniversary using the Ceramica case. A design for the packaging was also requested. The concept for the 50th anniversary model which I proposed was to issue the design in five different gold finishes as five separate editions of ten, fifty watches in total. The packaging idea was to present the watch in a wrist shaped leather case with a strap and hoop closing derived from an ordinary watch strap.

2.          What were the decisive values that convinced you to work with Rado and how did you discover the brand?

Ans: I've been aware of Rado and their use of ceramic in the watch industry for quite a while and it has always struck me as a highly innovative and unique manufacturer in a rather conservative industry. I like the experimental spirit of the company.

3.          What are your essential criterions and the level of creative freedom that need to be granted to you for you may take on a job? Did you get "carte blanche" from Rado?

Ans: I don't always need a carte blanche, in fact sometimes it's very helpful to have some direction from a company. After all they know better than I do what the customers are looking for, and this kind of input can be helpful. But in the case of the r5.5 I did have a carte blanche because I think Rado were curious to see what would come out of the collaboration.

4.          The r5.5 is the first watch you have ever designed fully, was it an easy task for you and how did you actually approach the creative process?

Ans: It wasn't easy at all, no. I had to quickly acquire the knowledge which others may have learnt over a number of years in the business. It had to be a convincing design or it would probably have been the only watch design I ever did.

5.          You have worked with numerous famous brands such as Cappellini, Alessi, Flos, Magis, Vitra and Sony. But what is the difference for you to work with Rado as a watch brand?

Ans: The biggest difference is the scale. In designing other products such as furniture when we say let's increase the measurement by 5, we mean millimeters, while in the watch industry 1 means 0.01mm. I would never have believed that a change of .05 would be visible to the human eye, but it is!

6.          What was your objective with the design of the r5.5, did you wish to make a statement and for whom did you actually design the watch?

Ans: I wanted to distance the design from the prevailing tendency of status, big watches with plenty of over detailing, and to create a watch for people with the confidence to wear something more elegant and discrete.

7.          Why is less more?

Ans: I think less is usually more because most watches are too much! I'm not interested in minimalism for the sake of itself, but I can't see any reason to add details which are not needed. That's why we took away the third counter. I don't believe it has a meaningful function. If you need that kind of accuracy you would use an electronic beam not a wristwatch! Adding the 3rd counter makes a dial less readable. As Dieter Rams has always said, "Less but better".

8.          Was it the first time you actually worked with the material Hi-Tech Ceramics? How did you experience and appreciate this material? Did it restrict you in any way?

Ans: Yes, I had worked with porcelain before, but never with it's more technical cousin. One of the first questions I asked was whether we could have a matt finish for it, and when the tests came back I was amazed by how beautiful it was. It's a very versatile material for a designer, as it's molded it allows a great freedom of form. It was the perfect material for the design although we had to make a lot of adjustments to make the case strong enough.

9.          What makes the r5.5 a typical Rado product?

Ans: I followed what I think of as the Rado 'manual' for design. That the strap should be integrated with the case, the use of ceramic, but otherwise it has it's own identity, which I believe is also typically Rado. They have never been bound to a single shape in the way that most watchmakers are.

10.      Do you personally design all products that are signed Jasper Morrison?

Ans: Yes, I like to generate the ideas, and then between my team and the manufacturer we are working with, to make the necessary adjustments along the way. I enjoy the discussion which is generated by the design process.

11.      You have called yourself as "Atmosphere Police" instead of a designer. How did you interpret such role in designing r5.5?

Ans: That's a good example. The watch industry recently started making bigger and bigger watches, as if there was a competition to make the biggest one. Seeing people wearing these giant watches I realized something had to be done to try and make things reasonable again. It's hard to take someone seriously if they're wearing a 50mm watch across the table! So the atmosphere is spoiled by watch marketing & competition. I feel it as a kind of duty to remind people that our wrists are still the same size as before, so no need to wear such big watches!

12.      What attributes do you see yourself with Rado in common?

Ans: Rado has always had the courage to try new technologies and new shapes, while most of the watch industry have maintained very similar shapes and technologies. That makes them a very attractive partner for a designer, and I think my design language fits the Rado brand very well.

13.      And given the over 100 years of development of watches, what do you think is the most important issue in designing a watch for today or even the future?

Ans: Always the same, to ensure that the design has all the qualities to be useful, beautiful and long living. I wanted to distance the design from the prevailing tendency of status, big watches with plenty of over detailing, and to create a watch for people with the confidence to wear something more elegant and discrete.

 

About Jasper Morrison:

1.          What is good design and why should it be relevant to the average person?

Ans: It's relevant to us all because good design makes a better world, and more specifically it makes better products, which get better with time and use.

2.          What is your approach and objective to design?

Ans: Always the same, to ensure that the design has all the qualities to be useful, beautiful and long living.

3.          What is the Super Normal movement all about and how did you develop it with Naoto Fukosawa?

Ans: That's not easy to answer in a short way but essentially it came about through observing that certain objects had qualities which others did not, which allowed them to get better through use and over time. These objects were usually not the most eye catching, but came to be valued for their modest usefulness and a beauty which came out not so much from an instant visual appeal as in their character and in the relationship which we develop through using them on a daily basis, often without even thinking about them. A doorhandle could be an example. We might use it for years without even noticing it, and then one day for whatever reason it needs to be changed, and the new handle, chosen maybe for it's visual appeal fails to satisfy us. We notice it too much!

 

4.          Generally speaking, what has contemporary design done for mankind and what does it still need to achieve?

Ans: In some respects I think it has done very little. It's a relatively young profession and it's still has a long way to go to understand what it should be doing, and to avoid becoming a slave to marketing and media who are always on the look out for the sensational!

5.          Haven't we already seen it all, can design still improve and bring us groundbreaking new ideas?

Ans: I think it can, and it does occasionally but not very often. I'm not even sure we need many groundbreaking ideas. We need to make better products and this should be the principle role of design. Then along the way their will be designs or technologies which change our way of living.

6.          How do you get new ideas? From your surrounding, from your every day life, in your dreams?

Ans: By looking at everyday life, seeing what's good about it and what's bad. By noticing when I use things what makes them work or why they don't. It's really a game of common sense, then for whatever reason (I tend to think of it as a miss-wired brain) I am able to make random associations of all these practical and visual experiences and reprocess them into something new.

7.          Is it possible to create something for everybody all over the world or does design depend on cultural circles?

Ans: There are certainly cultural differences in different parts of the world which make products more successful in some international markets than in others, but there is also a common understanding of what is beautiful which helps to balance the problem.

8.          Is it a must for you to take part in urban life or could your creativity also take place at a silent site?

Ans: No, I need contact with everyday life. I have to see it happening, on the way to work, at lunch time, on the way to the train station or the airport. It's a very important part of the job. Looking at the watches people wear has become a habit too.

9.          On which topics are you working currently?

Ans: As usual,  a wide variety of projects. New watches for Rado, 2 shoe projects for different manufacturers, several chairs, a subway station, a book, an exhibition…

10.      What is your prefered scale in your work?

Ans: As you can tell from the projects we're working on now I like working in different scales.

11.      What type of product would you still like to design?

Ans: I feel like there are a lot more watches to come, I would still like to design a city bicycle one day, but generally I am content to see what offers land on my desk.

12.      What motivates and drives you?

Ans: Mostly it's the satisfaction of designing things which people enjoy using, but it's also nice feeling that you are shaping the man-made world.

13.      Do you personally use the products which you design?

Ans: Absolutely, that's a very important part of the process, it's the only way of knowing if what you designed really works in every sense or if it fails, to understand why and make sure you get it right the next time. It's a learning process.

14.      How did you define your own signature style?

Ans: I don't think about it at all, I have a sense of when something is right and the whole design process is taken up with getting to that point. If I have a signature style it's probably easier for others to describe it.

15.      When did you start thinking about shapes, has there been a key moment in your life ,when you decided to become designer? Was there a mentor in your professional life?

Ans: I think I knew I wanted to be a designer from quite early in my life. My parents had an early Braun record player which I remember looking at all the time. It' was the one with the wooden sides and the plexiglass lid, designed by Dieter Rams and Hans Gugelot. In that sense you could say Dieter Rams was my mentor, and continues to be one of them.

16.      How do you cope with failure and what's a failure for you personally?

Ans: Very badly. Failure is me noticing that one of my designs doesn't do what it should do. It's a terrible feeling knowing that all the effort that went into making it happen has been wasted, not just mine but everyone else involved.

17.      When something did not succeed, do you quit this idea or do you think it's not the right time/ the right manufacturer..?

Ans: Sometimes it's the fault of the manufacturer and sometimes it's the designer which is not right. In both cases I think it's best to learn the lesson and move on.

18.      What do you feel when you see someone using a product you designed?

Ans: That's what it's all about! I feel good!

19.      You won many awards in design, which one was a big surprise for you?

Ans: I never pay any attention to awards, they're always made of plexiglass and all I can think when I get them is that the material is wasted. They should make them in the shape of something useful, an ashtray or something!

 

About RADO

Launching its first watch collection in 1957, Swiss watch brand RADO is renowned as the leading technologically-innovative watch brand focused on design. For years, RADO, with its daring style, unlimited spirit and endless creativity, has achieved unlimited breakthrough in the watchmaking field, being especially outstanding in using innovative materials in its watch creations. Highlighted examples in the past include the DiaStar, the world's first scratch-proof watches launched in 1962, and also the Integral, the world's first high-tech ceramic watches presented in 1986. RADO is also remarkably experienced in using cutting-edge materials such as high-tech diamonds, high-tech lanthanum, sapphire crystal and hard metals to manufacture watches. With its products all featuring top-quality resistance to scratch and wear, RADO has successfully opened up a trend of using innovative materials in watches. For more information, please access: www.rado.com.

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