The graffiti artist who became a watchmaker

Audemars Piguet is one of the big beasts of the haute horology world and also one of the most historic. But that doesn’t preclude the independent Swiss watchmaker from avant garde collaborations. Its dedicated arts programme, Audemars Piguet Contemporary, commissions international visual artists, while fostering partnerships with cultural institutions to present the artwork to global audiences. But it wasn’t until recently that the brand partnered with a renowned contemporary artist in the making of a timepiece. This was a challenge relished by the artist Kaws, aka Brian Donnelly. Kaws’s subversive cartoon characters started life as toys, have grown into big sculptures, have been blown up into gigantic inflatables and also incorporated into paintings that reach eight-figure sales at auction. Now the pop artist has worked at miniature scale on the new watch, displaying his dystopian figure Companion inside the titanium case. Kaws, aka Brian Donnelly Both Kaws and the watchmaking team wanted to have a 3-D Companion as the focus of the design Donnelly was known for his street graffiti in New Jersey and Manhattan, marking with his tag, Kaws, chosen because he liked the way the letters looked together. Soon he developed a style of “subvertising”, disrupting street furniture...