Forty years on from opening its first store, The Hour Glass business has expanded across Southeast Asia to Japan and Australia but more than that, the Singapore watch emporium has had an influence on the region’s tastes and buying habits that few stores could match.
The Hour Glass was an early champion of independent watchmakers such as Urwerk and de Bethune and became the first port of call for both collectors and emerging brands – too many to list, but NOMOS Glashütte and MB&F are just two that have made their debut in Singapore at The Hour Glass.
It’s an eclectic mix, with Daniel Arsham re-interpreting the hourglass and Nendo’s Oki Sato showing a cuboid monolithic clock
To mark the anniversary (and there’s no business more obsessed by them than the watch industry), Michael Tay, the group MD, worked with Sir David Adjaye and the watch auctioneer Aurel Bacs to put together a horological exhibition, ‘Then, Now and Beyond’.
Daniel Arsham, Marc Newson, Nendo, and Studio Wieki Somers have all created works for the exhibition which will be shown alongside specially commissioned watches from Audemars Piguet, Chopard, De Bethune, Franck Muller, MB&F, NOMOS Glashütte, Sinn, TAG Heuer, Urwerk and Ulysse Nardin.
Hourglass, 2019, by Daniel Arsham, in bronze.
It’s an eclectic mix, with Daniel Arsham re-interpreting the hourglass and Nendo’s Oki Sato showing a cuboid monolithic clock. Wallpaper* Handmade collaborators, Studio Wieki Somers, have produced the ‘Beetle Clock’, a proxy for the global decline in insect numbers and species.
Marc Newson, whose history in watch design goes back to the Nineties, has produced a thoroughly modern take on the klepsydra, the water-clock idea that dates back to the earliest known civilisations.
Milan-based design studio JoAnn Tan Studio, who specialise in window displays, installations, scenography and set design, were brought in to create a look and feel for the exhibition which will be at The Hour Glass’ Napoleonic-themed Malmaison concept store on Singapore’s Orchard Road in Singapore until the end of February
Klepsydra, 2019, by Marc Newson, in aluminium and silver-plated nanoballs. Courtesy of The Hour Glass
INFORMATION
-
In Helsinki, Pauline Curnier Jardin has created the grotesque amusement park of her dreamsFrench artist Pauline Curnier Jardin celebrates otherness at Kiasma, Helsinki’s Museum of Contemporary Art
-
A celestial New York exhibition showcases Roman and Williams’ mastery of lightingLauded design studio Roman and Williams is exhibiting 100 variations of its lighting ‘family tree’ inside a historic Tribeca space
-
‘He immortalised the birth of the supermodel’: inside Dior’s career-spanning retrospective of photographer Peter LindberghOlivier Flaviano, curator and head of Paris’ La Galerie Dior, talks us through a new Peter Lindbergh retrospective, which celebrates the seminal German photographer’s longtime relationship with the French house
-
Take a look at the big winners of the watch world OscarsThe Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève is the Oscars for the watch world – get all the news on the 2024 event here
-
Design, culture and jewellery: Cartier in SingaporeCartier is celebrating 100 years of Trinity with a series of pop-ups around the world
-
Why are watch designers so drawn to brutalism?Watch brands looking for ways to break the conservative mould look to brutalist architecture and 1970s design codes
-
Hublot and Daniel Arsham unveil a futuristic pocket-watch-and-table-clock hybridWatchmaker Hublot and artist Daniel Arsham reveal the Arsham Droplet – a pocket watch, table clock and titanium-chain pendant in one
-
Classic watch designs to last a lifetimeWhen considering which watch design to invest in, disregard trends and consider classic pieces characterised by timeless design
-
Tiffany & Co and Daniel Arsham mark the new Lock collection with a limited-edition sculpture and bangleThe Bronze Eroded Tiffany Padlock sculpture from Tiffany & Co and Daniel Arsham conceals a Tiffany Lock bracelet studded with diamonds and tsavorites
-
Browns and Mad Paris rethink Audemars Piguet Royal OakWatch customisation specialist Mad Paris has developed two new versions of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak for Browns
-
Time for an eco-friendly watch?Some of the more eco-friendly watch materials being embraced by sustainably-minded watchmakers include recycled steel, bioceramic and cork
