Street artist Alec Monopoly has once again collaborated with luxury Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer to create two new magnificent timepieces that were released in February. Baroque Access has all the details
In 2016 world-renowned street artist Alec Monopoly became TAG Heuer’s Art Provocateur at Miami Contemporary Art Week. The avant garde artist tagged the TAG Heuer boutique in the Miami Design District to commemorate the event. A year later, he collaborated with TAG for the first time to create a special edition TAG Heuer watch that featured his iconic artwork. Now, once again the artist has worked with the Swiss watchmaker and the result is two brand new models in TAG’s product range.
The two new models were presented in February at a cocktail party at the TAG Heuer Boutique located in the heart of London’s West End. The walls of the store displayed original TAG Heuer inspired paintings and sculptures created by Monopoly. Guests also watched as the artist created a live painting customization across 50 of the watch boxes. Many TAG clients actually purchased the watch boxes that evening. TAG Heuer also presented an imaginative short video that tells the story behind the design on the dial of the new Carrera HEUER 01, one of the wristwatches unveiled at the event.
The two new models include one in TAG Heuer’s Formula 1 collection and a second, mentioned above, in the Carrera collection. Both timepieces are original and colorful and feature Monopoly’s signature character, the little banker called Monopi. In these new models, Monopi wears a red bandana over his face and is throwing green banknotes across the watch dial. The background of the dial features Monopoly’s iconic yellow, blue and red.
The sporty 41mm Formula 1 TAG Heuer Alec Monopoly edition features a black rubber strap as well as a stainless steel unidirectional bezel with a black PVD coating. It is engraved with a 60-minute scale. The bold black design of the watch is the perfect backdrop for the colorful artwork on the dial, which is, of course, the highlight.
The stylish 43mm TAG Heuer Calibre 01 has an eye-catching ALEC logo displayed on the sapphire case back – through this, the wearer can see the manufacture movement inside the watch. The timepiece features a case and lugs in brushed stainless steel and is presented on an H-shaped stainless steel bracelet that offers an alternating brushed and polished finish. The fixed bezel boasts an iconic tachymeter scale and is created from black ceramic.
Featured here too is the imaginative 60-second video that was conceptualized and created by TAG Heuer. It tells the story of how the watches came to be. According to the tale, one night at TAG’s HQ, a mural in Alec Monopoly’s studio magically comes to life. The iconic Monopi jumps out of the artwork and spends the night exploring the offices including the TAG Heuer museum, the brand’s lab and its factory. In the morning when the TAG employees arrive for work, Monopi has to find a hiding place. He sees a timepiece on a watchmaker’s work bench and dives into the dial just before he is about to be caught.
Whether you believe in magic or not, this video is proof positive that TAG Heuer has a powerful creative energy pulsing through its veins.