French Fancy

Interior design buffs will be more than familiar with the name Philippe Starck. One of the most influential contemporary designers of the noughties era, Parisian-born artist Starck has wowed consumers with everything from super-sleek hotel designs to artefacts and interiors, and now he’s made his moved into the foray of watch-wear.

The son of an aircraft designer, Starck set up his first company in 1968 producing inflatable objects and since then, he’s continued to be influenced by the world of fashion and popular culture. To date, he’s created mineral-water bottles for Glacier, kitchen appliances for Alessi, luggage for Louis Vuitton and Samsonite and computer gadgets for Microscoft, as well as his most recent collaboration with Fossil watches.

Believing that all his products should be simple, efficient and durable – with stunning design and practicality, Starck’s watches are as far away from your traditional watch as you can get. Undeniably modernistic and striking to the eye, they all boast high-design features, but without taking anything away from the practicality of the watch, making them robust in both wear and stylishness. Offering men’s, women’s and unisex styles, choose from electroplated bracelet designs, cross shaped rubber cuff designs with digital time-telling and the O-Ring Digi watch to name a few. The latter, rather space-age style uses a see-through ring-shaped display, rather like a polo-mint to show the time with hours shown as numbers and minutes as segments. If a more standard-display watch tickles your fancy, there’s plenty of those too, although they still have one-off design elements guaranteeing your watch will still become the talk of the town.

Click here to visit our Philippe Starck Watches section