With a final identify similar to Pantone, sure, the founders of the Color Matching System®, you’ll think about the quantity of confusion, or worse, mistaken identification, Argentinian-Spanish artist Felipe Pantone has skilled. The truth that the artist dabbles in colors — right here, we quote his profile: “He [Pantone] explores how the displacement of the sunshine spectrum impacts color and repetition” compounds the conundrum manifold. For the document, any point out of Pantone from hereon refers back to the artist.
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Zenith and Pantone just lately unveiled the most recent chapter of their collaboration — the DEFY Skyline Tourbillon Felipe Pantone. It marks the fifth challenge the 2 disruptive minds have conceptualised collectively and produced, the primary being a customized color gradient tarpaulin for Zenith’s Le Locle manufacture façade in 2020. Subsequent collaborations — together with the most recent launch — manifested by Zenith’s DEFY vary of watches. The primary DEFY 21 Felipe Pantone was adopted up by the extremely profitable and piece distinctive Zenith x Felipe Pantone DEFY 21 Double Tourbillon Solely Watch version (each in 2021) earlier than 2022’s DEFY Excessive Felipe Pantone paved the way in which for this yr’s 100-piece restricted version launch.
In contrast to its two different business predecessors, this yr’s version swaps out Zenith’s famed high-frequency chronograph in favour of a tourbillon, with its tourbillon bridge common in Pantone’s emblematic lightning bolt form. Different nods towards the artist’s works embody the sapphire dial with concentric circle micro-engravings on the entrance and a mirrored metallic end on the rear to evoke the colors of a CD. An analogous gradient color execution occurs on the distorted watch palms and hour indices.
Whereas the DEFY Skyline Tourbillon Felipe Pantone will solely arrive in chosen Zenith boutiques on 12 September, we had the chance to talk to Felipe Pantone about his newest collaboration with Zenith.
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Hola Felipe, congratulations in your newest challenge with Zenith! This launch marks your fifth challenge with Zenith, the primary on the manufacture facade and 4 others targeted on the watches. How would you describe your relationship with Zenith?
Gracias! My relationship with Zenith has been one in all mutual respect and shared imaginative and prescient. From the very starting, there was a pure synergy between us. Zenith’s dedication to craftsmanship and innovation aligns completely with my method to artwork. Through the years, our collaborations have advanced from large-scale murals to intricate timepieces, every challenge deepening our artistic partnership. It’s been a journey of exploration, pushing the boundaries of what will be achieved when watchmaking meets up to date artwork.
Staying on the subject of relationships, have you ever typically been mistakenly affiliated with the Pantone firm, given your names and each your relationships with color?
The similarity within the identify is coincidental, although I admire the humour within the mix-up. It’s all the time attention-grabbing to see how individuals make these connections. I used to graffiti and selected the identify PANT1 as a child. Rising up, I learnt concerning the Pantone firm, and just lately, I came upon that they adopted me on Instagram. I assume they’re not mad at me, so I adopted again.
Is there a specific color that greatest represents your persona?
I’d select to be a gradient reasonably than a single hue. My persona, very similar to my work, is continually shifting and evolving. I’m drawn to the spectrum of colors as a result of it represents motion, transition, and mixing totally different parts into one thing cohesive but fluid. If I have been to select one, it might in all probability be a vibrant blue — a color that symbolises each tranquillity and depth, very similar to the steadiness I attempt to preserve in my life and artwork.
After months of engaged on the DEFY Skyline Tourbillon Felipe Pantone, how thrilled are you to see the watch in particular person?
Seeing the DEFY Skyline Tourbillon in particular person was exhilarating. After months of conceptualising, designing, and fine-tuning, holding the completed piece in my palms was extremely satisfying. The transition from thought to tangible object is all the time fascinating, and this watch, particularly, exceeded my expectations. The best way it interacts with gentle, the precision of the mechanics, and the general presence of the watch — all of it got here collectively in a method that actually captures the essence of the collaboration.
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That is a type of creations for which footage don’t do justice. It needs to be seen in particular person, the place gentle brings the intricacies of the watch to life. Do you agree with this assertion?
Completely. The DEFY Skyline Tourbillon is a watch that reveals its true magnificence when skilled in particular person. Images can seize the design however can’t convey the play of sunshine on the prismatic dial or how the colors shift as you progress your wrist. The depth, textures and delicate particulars — all of those parts come to life once you see the watch in particular person. It’s a chunk that engages with its setting, which you’ll solely absolutely admire when holding it.
The watch design touchpoints just like the Deliberate Iridescence dial, the gradient colors, and the bolt-shaped tourbillon bridge replicate your work and prolong your persona. What message do you need to share with individuals, or what emotion do you need to evoke once they see the watch?
I need individuals to really feel a way of power and curiosity once they see the watch. The design parts, just like the iridescent dial and the gradient colors, are supposed to evoke a sense of dynamism and alter. The bolt-shaped tourbillon bridge is a nod to the concept of pace and energy, parts central to each my artwork and the idea of time itself. Finally, I need the watch to encourage a way of motion — each visually and emotionally — reminding the wearer that point is continually in flux and that there’s magnificence in that perpetual movement.
Roger Gastman is quoted as saying, “Felipe Pantone evokes a spirit in his work that looks like a collision between an analogue previous and a digitised future the place human beings and machines will inevitably glitch alongside each other in a prism of neon gradients, geometric shapes, optical patterns, and jagged grids.” Have you ever thought of the profound impression that point has on you and your artworks after working with Zenith?
Working with Zenith has definitely deepened my appreciation for the idea of time and its affect on my work. Time is a central theme in watchmaking and artwork — one measures it, the opposite captures it. The concept of a collision between the analogue previous and a digitised future is one thing I discover continuously, and watchmaking sits on the intersection of these two worlds. The extra I’ve engaged with the mechanics of timepieces, the extra I’ve mirrored on the function of time in my artistic course of. It’s made me much more conscious of how fleeting moments are and the way vital it’s to seize that power in my work. Each piece I create is a snapshot of a specific second in time, nevertheless it’s additionally half of a bigger continuum, very similar to the ticking of a watch.
This story was first seen on MensFolio.com
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