Sébastien Perret wins the Mido Watch Design Contest

Here's the scoop, straight from Mido -

Courtesy of Mido

Designer Sébastien Perret’s proposal has been chosen for the new Mido timepiece inspired by Big Ben. He rose magnificently to the watch challenge set by Mido last March, when three designers were invited by the brand to create a new limited-edition timepiece inspired by London’s famous four-sided clock tower. Sébastien Perret was rewarded for his efforts on 15 October 2015 at a grand ceremony held at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai. This new Mido watch will be released as a limited edition of 500 pieces and presented at Baselworld 2016.

Courtesy of Mido

Squaring the circle

To tackle the challenge, Sébastien Perret started by closely observing London’s famous monument, then taking a step back. The founder of design agency Etude de Style (based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland) was primarily struck by the imposing, monolithic and slender silhouette of the Westminster clock tower. As you draw closer, an infinite array of details reveal themselves in successive stages. Full and fine features, the shadows of orifices, and the light of the clock face are laid bare in a circular vision of time contained within a square. The watch designed by Sébastien Perret is every bit as magnificent as London’s clock tower. The designer streamlined the neo-Gothic style of the monument, managing to square the circle by revealing the former within the latter. This was the challenge he set himself in order to stay true to Mido’s identity.

Courtesy of Mido

The Mido Watch Design Contest

Mido officially launched its Watch Design Contest on 20 March 2015 at the Baselworld international watch and jewellery show in Basel. Three designers were invited by the brand to create a new limited-edition timepiece inspired by London’s famous four-sided clock tower. In late April, the names of the three chosen candidates – Swiss architect and designer Eric Giroud, Italian founder and artistic director of Ultravision Design Studio Lorenzo Vallone, and Sébastien Perret – were published on the website http://contest.mido.ch. The three proposals were presented on 30^th July and the general public were invited to vote for their favourite model on the contest website until 30^th September. The Mido Watch Design Contest’s panel of judges was made up of Esa Mohamed, President of the International Union of Architects, Franz Linder, President of Mido, and, of course, the general public.

The winning designer was announced by president of the jury Esa Mohamed on 15^th October in Shanghai at the international ceremony held at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel.

Courtesy of Mido

Almost 100,000 participants

The public vote was a resounding success, attracting fans of the brand as well as watchmaking and architecture enthusiasts from around the world. In total, almost 100,000 people from nearly 100 countries helped choose the winner.