Keeping time: Mondaine's latest model pays tribute to the New York City subway
As a home-from-home, New York City has always had a special place in Wallpaper's (and countless others') hearts. The Swiss watch company Mondaine clearly feels the same way. The design stalwart recently released its tribute to the Big Apple: three new styles of its Helvetica watch in colours that nod to the New York City subway.

As a home-from-home, New York City has always had a special place in Wallpaper's (and countless others') hearts. The Swiss watch company Mondaine clearly feels the same way. The design stalwart recently released its tribute to the Big Apple: three new styles of its Helvetica watch in colours that nod to the New York City subway.
The range’s light, regular and bold watches have been given the true New York treatment: all black faces and cases paired with minimal white dials and numerals. A flash of colour appears on the underside of each watch’s strap: red, blue and green to represent three of the city’s most popular subway lines.
Mondaine’s selection of the Helvetica watch for this purpose is no coincidence. In the 1960s, after years of using a confusing blend of different signage, typefaces and styles, the City of New York hired the firm Unimark to create a standardised design for the subway, allowing commuters to clearly navigate the underground. After extensive research, Helvetica was chosen as a typeface and the black and white model that still reigns today was formed. The changes were swiftly implemented by the creation of Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda’s style guide, ‘New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual’, and by the 1990s, Helvetica ultimately became the sole font to be used on the subway.
In honour of these landmark design events, each Mondaine watch comes wrapped in a special giftbox featuring the iconic Vigenlli subway map and including a set of vintage postcards – a perfect gift for true New Yorkers.
The Helvetica range’s light, regular and bold watches have been given the true New York treatment: all black faces and cases paired with minimal white dials and numerals, embellished with restrained flashes of colour that represent three of the city's subway lines
Each special edition is packed in a special giftbox featuring the iconic Vigenlli subway map, which also includes a set of vintage postcards
An example of the New York City subway's eye-catching visual language, which is also reflected in Mondaine's gift box
INFORMATION
The ’No. 1 New York’ Helvetica, $540. For more information, visit Mondaine’s website
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Pei-Ru Keh is a former US Editor at Wallpaper*. Born and raised in Singapore, she has been a New Yorker since 2013. Pei-Ru held various titles at Wallpaper* between 2007 and 2023. She reports on design, tech, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the United States, both in print and digitally. Pei-Ru took a key role in championing diversity and representation within Wallpaper's content pillars, actively seeking out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive.
-
Prodrive updates its sleek racing simulator with new craft and fresh tech
Race at home in style with the latest version of Prodrive’s racing simulator, now equipped with Bang & Olufsen sound
-
A local architect’s guide to Joshua Tree
Mirtilla Alliata di Montereale shares her favourite things to do to slow down, look closely, and discover Joshua Tree through a more intentional lens
-
Art meets perfume in cross-disciplinary fragrance series Nez 1+1
Talents from film and fragrance come together to create Ansongo, the latest scent resulting from a creative matchmaking project by perfume revue Nez
-
Five things we loved at ICFF this year
From ceramic sconces to inflatables, here's the furniture and lighting that caught our eye
-
‘Boom: Art and Design in the 1940s’ explores the creative resilience of the decade
Noguchi and Nakashima are among those who found expression and innovation in the adversity of the 1940s; take a walk through the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition
-
Ludmilla Balkis’ organic, earthy ceramics embody the Basque countryside
The sculptor-ceramicist presents a series inspired by and created from found natural objects in a New York exhibition
-
Designer Danny Kaplan’s Manhattan showroom is also his apartment: the live-work space reimagined
Danny Kaplan’s Manhattan apartment is an extension of his new showroom, itself laid out like a home; he invites us in, including a first look at his private quarters
-
New Superhouse show captures the rebellious spirit of Dan Friedman’s Manhattan apartment
In the late 1970s, graphic designer and artist Dan Friedman transformed his apartment into a Day-Glo laboratory of ideas. Now, a new exhibition at Superhouse in New York revisits his vibrant, rebellious world
-
From migrating elephants to a divisive Jaguar, was this the best Design Miami yet?
Here's our Design Miami 2024 review – discover the best of everything that happened at the fair as it took over the city this December
-
Design practice Astraeus Clarke is inspired by cinema to tell a story and evoke an emotion
In a rapidly changing world, the route designers take to discover their calling is increasingly circuitous. Here we speak to Chelsie and Jacob Starley the creative duo behind Astraeus Clarke
-
California cool: Studio Shamshiri debuts handmade door handles and pulls
Los Angeles interior design firm Studio Shamshiri channels the spirit of the Californian landscape into its handcrafted hardware collections. Founder Pamela Shamshiri shares the inspiration behind the designs