Introducing Swatch Marks 15 Years Of The Swatch Art Peace Hotel With A Commemorative Collection

For a brand that effectively invented the contemporary art watch, it’s no surprise that Swatch’s relationship with the arts goes deeper than almost any other watch brand. The Swatch Art Peace Hotel is one of the brand's largest projects, and it personifies their commitment to nurturing artists. It’s an artists' residency set inside the Peace Hotel, a landmark Art-Deco building in the centre of Shanghai that serves as a creative space for artists to submerge themselves in their work and create without limits. Since opening in 2011, it’s hosted over 600 artists from over 60 countries, and it’s not just painters; it’s open to photographers, dancers, musicians, film-makers, digital artists, and more.

This year marks its 15th birthday, so to celebrate the milestone, Swatch have commissioned a special collection of six Swatch art watches created by Chinese artists who have held residencies at the Art Peace Hotel. Each piece uniquely celebrates the vibrancy of traditional to avant-garde Chinese art, created in this cross-cultural melting pot.

Usually exploring contemporary Chinese culture through his ceramic paintings, BUND-ASTIC is actually Feng Bin’s second Swatch art watch, following his 2022 Lunar Zodiac collection. This time, the artist has created a Swatch that’s a love letter to Shanghai, and specifically the buildings that line the edges of the Bund River. 

The watch depicts twenty different buildings that all blend together in form, with the Swatch Art Peace Hotel positioned front and centre on the dial. Like his Lunar Zodiac watches, the art print covers the strap, case top, and dial to create a singular, unbroken canvas for the artwork. The handset complements the colour scheme of the buildings, and I especially appreciate the abstract nature of this piece - looking like a simple pattern from a distance before coming into focus as buildings when admired up close.

With a background in computer-generated animation, Lou Bi specialises in creating three-dimensional digital ecosystems that imagine what a world of nature would resemble beyond our human realm. The result is a cyber aesthetic that takes the form of inflatable, transparent flowers, and DIGI-BLOSSOMING applies a unique artwork to the watch's black dial and strap. 

It’s paired with a transparent purple case, buckle and keeper that matches the cyber-organic theme, and I especially like the yellow skeletonised handset that resembles the flower stems seen on the watch. It’s cased in Swatch's standard 41mm case, housing a quartz movement (as all these art watches do).

One of the smaller outliers in the collection, Han Feng’s FLOWERING PLUM is created around a smaller 34mm case, yet also draws inspiration from Chinese art. The artist usually works in paint and collage, drawing inspiration from both traditional Chinese ink aesthetics and the nation's contemporary visual language. Plum blossoms are also a key focus of Feng’s work, and in this instance have been rendered in striking red ink over the pale blue case, dial and strap.

I’m a big fan of the contrast in colours in this piece, and 34mm is the perfect size to subtly frame the striking design on the wrist without appearing too overwhelming.

Green Lava’s background is in street art and graffiti, and you can certainly see that influence in their art watch, STREET EYE. It has a positively chaotic energy, featuring a print that blends plants, animals, humans and city buildings in a graphically heavy artwork with a lot of 90s influence.

The matte black 41mm case features the turquoise pattern print spilling from the strap over it, and it’s complemented by matching hands with lume inserts and a contrasting neon-purple seconds hand.

Wang Shuai’s CURVILINEAR draws from the artwork Thirty Thousand Lines she created whilst in residency at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel. The piece is intended to remind us of our mortality: 30,000÷365 = 83 (years). 30,000 days, not much time when put that way.

It’s brought to life with a linework piece consisting of curves and straight lines (much like each of our 30,000 days) in a stark monochromatic black and white. Capped off with a black handset with luminescent inserts, it’s also created around a smaller 34mm case.

See that little guy on the dial and strap? That’s Guan Xiao Ye, the signature character seen throughout Yu Yang’s artwork. Yu Yang (who goes by YY) also has a background in graffiti and street art and blends Chinese eastern and western artistic influences, with the BLOW AWAY watch playfully celebrating Chinese messages and blessings.

It features three different depictions of Guan Xiao Ye, all set against the bright yellow background. The unapologetically bold design suits the 41mm case and is finished with a set of blue hands with luminescent inserts.

The Swatch Art Peace Hotel collection is available from Swatch now, priced at A$170 for the 34mm models and A$190 for the 41mm models. For more, click here.