Innovative integration of metal aesthetics and sports car elements
Luca Portman, the co-designer of big bang series, is from Australia. In his more than 20 years of design career, he has designed the products covering furniture, automobiles, digital electronics, daily necessities, tools and equipment; he shows special preference to anodizing effects and heavy metal styles. The watch design is his latest attempt. Luca Portman joined AGELOCER’s co-creation project in 2018, leading the design of Big Bang series of watches. His design is a long-simmering exploration for AGELOCER.
“Explore the subtle relationship between speed and time”
The design inspiration of the Big Bang series watches is from the roaring engine, speeding sports car, and staggered track, all of which are the symbols of adventure and ambition. The appearance design of the watches is proud and rebellious. The design of dial is different from traditional one, which integrates the elements of the dashboard of a sports car with the time scale, to form a dynamic mechanical dial with a multi-layer structure. The unique way of timekeeping reflects the delicate passage of time, allowing people to feel that they have entered a cool, dangerous and novel world, creating free and stylish experiences for wearing mechanical watch.
The dial structure is composed of multi-dimensional spaces. Many people don’t know how to read the watch when they see it for the first time. Its layered design allows people to see the rotating balance wheel through the three-dimensional dial. By strictly controlling the thickness, height and pointer height of each layer of the dial and reserving enough space without interfering with each other, the interspersed design of the multi-layer dial and the pointers is adjusted repeatedly. With the well-distributed dial and pointers, the watch can achieve timekeeping and interworking in a unique manner. The hour hand derived from the design concept of the car steering wheel is matched with a 24-h double-wheel scale. The minute hand is located below the scale and is aligned with the wheel-shaped small second dish at 6 o'clock, breaking through the limitations of traditional mechanical watches.
In order to avoid the discomfort caused by the crown against the back of the hand on the dial, the crown is moved between four o'clock and five o'clock according to the ergonomic design. The 24-hour dial design intuitively displays the time, helping users to accurately distinguish between day and night. The Big Bang series watch adopts the Swiss Super-LumiNova luminous system, which can be recycled to ensure the readability at night. The 50M water resistance meets the needs of daily life, allowing users to wear the watch without fear of rain.
The multi-layered combination between the square and the circle, the hard-core watch case and multi-dimensional dial are very different from the shape of previous watches, and they represent breakthrough in thinking. The breakthrough of creativity requires abandonment of previous inherent achievements, with different challenges. Therefore, the BIG BANG series emerge, which have bold exploration and integration and are different from the applications of traditional watch hands. The perfect combination of steampunk design style and precision mechanical movement is a brave attempt of roughness and fineness.