Rafael moneo designs first watch for cauny

 

The 1996 Pritzker Prize awardee Rafael Moneo designed his first-ever watch for Cauny, reminiscent of the clocks he drew for the towers of Logroño and the Atocha Station in Madrid, Spain. The perfect square for the watch’s body captures the symmetry of the clocks, and the tall and very thin Roman numerals evoke the ancient sundials and stand out on the dial. Rafael Moneo also chose to link the bracelet inside his first Cauny watch to avoid disrupting the perfect square’s design. His first Cauny watch evolved into a series, prompting a collaboration with Museo del Prado.

rafael moneo cauny museo del prado watch
sketches of Rafael Moneo’s Atocha station clock and the Cauny watch | images courtesy of Cauny

 

 

Museo del prado in rafael moneo’s watch for cauny

 

A few months later, after the first watch model came out, the opportunity to collaborate with the Museo del Prado arose for Rafael Moneo and Cauny. This time, the Pritzker Prize architect drew a design influence from the museum onto his already-designed Cauny model. The result comes through the appearance of Rosso Pompeyano as the hands of the watch, the color used by Francisco de Goya in his painting ‘Familia de Carlos IV’ and the shade of red that brings the ancient marble statues to life inside the museum. Here, Rafael Moneo and Cauny bring out a tailored watch dedicated to Museo del Prado, which is forged in stainless steel and topped with sapphire glass for the dial. Italian Horween leather straps around the wrist of the wearer, and silver is the primary color chosen for the casing. 

rafael moneo cauny museo del prado watch
Rafael Moneo wearing his Museo del Prado Cauny watch

 

 

Sundials from tower walls to wrist

 

When Cauny asked Rafael Moneo to design a watch, the architect recalled the clocks he drew for the Logroño City Hall and for the Atocha Station. They allude to the meaning of the hours associated with the passing of the day, with twelve as the summit of the day and night. ‘And the hours in Roman numerals and on the axes of the square, something that we so often see in sundials on the walls,’ says the architect.

 

While it was surprising for Rafael Moneo to have designed a watch, he considers it a warm welcome, knowing that both the clocks and the watch series came from the same hand. As of publishing the story, the Moneo Prado, a special numbered edition of the architect’s designs for the watchmaker, is priced at 195 EUR per piece.

rafael moneo cauny museo del prado watch
the red hands are a shade a Rosso Pompeyano, a color used by Goya in his Familia de Carlos IV

rafael moneo cauny museo del prado watch
Italian Horween leather straps around the wrist of the wearer, and silver is the primary color chosen for the casing

Cauny Moneo watch with Museo del Prado

 

rafael moneo cauny museo del prado watch
the original Atocha station clock was Rafael Moneo’s starting point for his first-ever Cauny watch

 

 

project info:

 

name: Cauny Moneo x Prado

architect: Rafael Moneo

watchmaker: Cauny

museum: Museo del Prado

 

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

 

edited by: matthew burgos | designboom