"Design must always remember function otherwise it becomes art or sculpture. It may become beautiful art or sculpture but if the function is lost, forgotten or neglected the design has failed."
- Sean Zoega
I am feeling really happy today. Not only because the sun is shining, the sky is blue and I had my delicious cup of coffee in the morning, but also because I love receiving presents and surprises and today was one of those days. I opened the door and there was a postman holding a small box. It was my new watch sent to me by Sean Zoega, the designer of these beautiful unique creations.
Sean Zoega is an unorthodox designer who has managed to synthesise the supposedly opposing disciplines of engineering and design. Originally graduating as an electronics engineer, Sean quickly employed his skills in the areas of meta art providing music synthesizers to major artists of the time (Jean Michel Jarre, Hawkwind, Brian Eno etc.)
“The interplay of science and art has always for me been the critical stimulation of human creativity, be it the invention of colour pigments or dyes that change art and fashion forever or the synthesizer that has made possible new music with sounds that have never before existed in human experience."
“The interplay of science and art has always for me been the critical stimulation of human creativity, be it the invention of colour pigments or dyes that change art and fashion forever or the synthesizer that has made possible new music with sounds that have never before existed in human experience."
Before the i-toc was born, Sean has been busy creating recording environments for international festivals such as Holders Season in Barbados to more orthodox recording studios for K-Klass and Ian Brown. He has also created audio/visual installations all over the world for large corporates such as Disney, Cable & Wireless, Wellcome Trust… even the NHS. His work on psychoacoustics also led to his developments in artificial intelligence which culminated in the HyperTeach AI learning engine.
“Through all my work with music, sound and visuals I came to realize I was always slicing time, applying textures (aural and visual) and then rebuilding the parts to create a coherent whole…art and design are all about time. This was what sparked my interest in redesigning the watch. This has taken over ten years of my life to develop and has culminated in the i-toc. The i-toc is simple, but it wasn’t easy."
“Through all my work with music, sound and visuals I came to realize I was always slicing time, applying textures (aural and visual) and then rebuilding the parts to create a coherent whole…art and design are all about time. This was what sparked my interest in redesigning the watch. This has taken over ten years of my life to develop and has culminated in the i-toc. The i-toc is simple, but it wasn’t easy."
I adore my new watch. Personally, I think this is one of those time pieces that won't go unnoticed. This gorgeous sample of minimalistic design has already been compared to EleeNo and Issey Miyake watches, but unlike its designery siblings does not cost a fortune.
It's unique, it makes you smile, it's unisex'y, it comes in 6 colours from classic black and grey to vibrant orange (that was my choice), red, blue and purple. The i-toc’s graduated circles present a more intuitive and beautiful way to view time, and the distinctive visual pattern is constantly changing and is super easy to read. Each colour is limited to 200 to 500 pieces, which makes the watch even more special and desirable.
So are you tempted yet? Then the best news are still to come because now one of my wonderful followers can actually receive an i-toc watch as a present from Sean Zoega himself! All you need to do is to visit his website to choose the colour and leave a comment here (don't forget to mention what colour you'd prefer). You have a week to enter. The competition closes on 30 September 2009 and the lucky winner will be announced on 2 October 2009.
If you don't win or prefer not to follow FashionTitbits ;) you can still buy your little treasure here and receive a 10% discount. The discount code will be sent to you via e-mail, so I'd appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to send me your e-mail address.
Good luck!
Images via www.i-toc.com
