In recent years, Swatch has made a splash several times by perusing the aisles of the most prestigious museums in the world, with collections inspired by the MoMa and the Pompidou Centre. We have also been treated to the watch in the colours of the Café de Flore, but it is especially thanks to its collaborations with Omega and Blancpain that the Swiss brand has made a name for itself all over the world.
For 2024, Swatch is riding the gorpcore trend and offers a real breath of fresh air with its new Power of Nature collection. Waterfalls, deserts, forests, and mountain glaciers have inspired the brand’s creatives to give birth to 8 new models. And what better setting than the Val Thorens resort to discover these 8 watches up close in their natural element?
Watches designed “for outdoor activity enthusiasts ready for adventure”. That’s how Swatch introduces its new collection named Power of Nature. The brand was inspired by various natural landscapes to showcase this power of nature. And notably its ability to “capture our attention and stop time”.
The meeting is set in Savoie, at the heart of the Val Thorens resort, to get hands-on with one of these new models. But before we talk about watchmaking, let’s focus on the adventure! On the agenda: dog hiking, fat biking, snowshoe hiking, zip-lining, and dinner in an igloo. The cold is relative, the sky blue and sunny: in short, all the conditions are met to magnify the Swatch collection. Particularly the Frostbloom (Big Bold Irony) and Good to Gorp (New Gent Bioceramic) watch duo, whose textured blue dial recalls the rocks and walls of the mountain glaciers.
Yes indeed, as its name suggests, the Power of Nature collection highlights various landscapes. In addition to glaciers, it is waterfalls, deserts, and forests that have thus inspired Swatch’s creative teams. And for these 4 natural wonders, two watches reveal this power of nature, one in steel, the other in bioceramic (available from March 2024). Moreover, the variety of models offered is one of the major strengths of this collection: you might like it or not, but everyone should find something to their liking!
To illustrate nature, Swatch highlights “innovative textures and details” in their watch bands and dials. As their names suggest, the Skin Irony Splash Dance and Gent Frozen Waterfall feature a watch face adorned with vertically falling water droplets. At first glance, one might simply think of them as points or wavy lines, but Swatch prefers to evoke “a cascade that flows quickly and freely”. Could this collection be more subtle and poetic than it seems?
The impression is confirmed upon discovering the New Irony Chrono By The Bonfire and the Big Bold Bioceramic Fall-iage. This time, it’s the forest that comes to life on the two watches: the cases are wide, the straps take on earthy tones and on the dial seem to bead tiny drops, like morning dew on dead leaves …
Finally, we radically change the register and climate with the models Skin Irony Sunbaked Sandstone and Skin Classic Bioceramic Coral Dunes, straight from the desert. Here, a beige textile strap adorns the two watches, whose dial has a grainy texture. The evocation of large expanses of fine sand is simple but effective.
From frozen summits to the spirit of the forest, via warm sand dunes and impetuous waterfalls, Swatch has made it a point to capture the power of nature in its own way through this collection. The result is eclectic, colorful, dynamic… typically Swatch! Presented in special recyclable packaging, the Irony watches in steel are already available in stores and on swatch.com with prices ranging between 215 and 265€. We will have to wait until March 2024 to see the bioceramic models expand this Power of Nature collection.
