Avant-garde is a slippery category. The experimental of today becomes the archaic of tomorrow. When I was a kid, AOL Instant Messenger felt revolutionary. Today, AI composes symphonies and writes novels. My own notion of avant-garde echoes the Supreme Court’s view of pornography: we can’t quite define it, but we know it when we see it. While I lust most for European beauties with names like Patek, Cartier, and Jaeger, I can’t deny the sex appeal of iconoclastic wrist candy. Avant-garde timepieces both captivate and bewilder me—like free jazz, Neoplatonist metaphysics, or Gen Z slang. I sat down with Allon Zohar, owner of Iconic Timepieces, an invitation-only showroom in Midtown Manhattan, for a deep dive into horology’s wilder waters.
Some avant-garde watches could pass for artifacts salvaged from a UFO crash, but traditional designs often conceal dizzying innovation, Allon explained. The Rolex Deepsea is avant-garde not for any unorthodox design, but rather for novel materials like aerospace-grade titanium. While financiers and captains of industry typically favor classic watches, artists and athletes gravitate towards boundary-pushing showpieces. In recent years, Richard Mille, a brand flaunted by the likes of Jay-Z, Rafa, and Shaq, has propelled avant-garde watches into the cultural mainstream. Some avant-garde watches are as expensive as an original Basquiat, others as affordable as a MoMA gift-shop reproduction. Price aside, experimental timepieces exude edgy charisma—or, as Joyce might say, a touch of the artist.
Camden Watch Company – No. 253 Memento Mori
Proudly based in Camden, a London enclave of railmen and machinists, The Camden Watch Company takes design cues from railroad clocks and Victorian pocket watches.
Memento Mori, “Remember You Must Die,” is a chilling yet life-affirming reminder to make the most of your precious hours. Like Keith Richard’s iconic ring, the watch’s central feature is a deathhead. With rose gold trim and a case flank engraved with ornate scrollwork, No. 253 Memento Mori is a comely and edgy dress watch.
Bulova — Snorkel Collection
Founded in 1875 by a Czech immigrant, Bulova epitomizes the American Dream and the giddy optimism of New York City. The Snorkel, with its teal-and-white palette and wave-patterned dial, is a sartorial hymn to the ocean. Bulova crafts the case from a proprietary ceramic—hard as steel yet light as sea foam—while the caseback showcases colorful nautical art reminiscent of vintage postcards. Recently, Bulova unveiled a Snorkel edition honoring New York City’s skyscraper-lined waterways.
Shinola — The Runwell Petoskey
The Runwell Watch is an American icon—a design as clean and masculine as the façade of the Guardian Building in Detroit. This special-edition Runwell features a dial hewn from Petoskey stone, fossilized coral that thrived in the Great Lakes 350 million years ago. No two dials are identical, but the wafer-thin polished stone displays a honeycomb pattern reminiscent of Islamic sacred geometry. Straps come in leather from Shinola’s partner tannery or in brushed stainless steel.
Ciga Designs – Moon Walker
Founded by industrial designer Zhang Jianmin, CIGA Design became the first Chinese watchmaker to win a Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, horology’s most prestigious award. Aficionados hail Ciga for its skeletonized cases, daring aesthetics, and unorthodox materials like ceramic jade and stone from Mt. Everest.
The sidereal sister of the Blue Planet, the model that clinched a GPHG award, the Moon Walker is an homage to the Apollo missions. Its centerpiece is a glittering silver orb engraved with minute craters, ravines, and lunar fields. Instead of traditional hands, a pinhead-sized astronaut orbits the dial, pointing to the minute and hour. With a black strap and polished silver case, the Moon Walker elevates tuxedos and motorcycle jackets alike.
Artefkt – La Pointe
Artefkt is a boutique brand founded by Brandon Little, a watchmaker who cut his teeth at Shinola and Jaeger-LeCoultre. His creations are rugged tool watches bedizened with playful artistry.
The La Pointe’s moss-green tones and military silhouette evoke the bayous of southern Louisiana—a timepiece you might see on the wrist of a high-ranking officer in the Cajun Navy. The Grade 5 titanium of the case is ultra-light and damn-nigh indestructible. The C3 Super-LumiNova on the top ring glows in the dark like lightning bugs over a Louisiana swamp in August.
Richard Mille RM 27-04 Tourbillon Rafael Nadal
Finally, the watch God would buy—if He had the money. Mille’s watches are, in his own words, “racing machines for the wrist.” Fittingly, he sources experimental materials from F1 racing and the aerospace industry. If Patek Philippe is the Platonic ideal of a dress watch, Richard Mille is a horological hallucination—a contraption stolen from the workshop of DMT machine elves. The skeletonized cases hold a galaxy of colorful, bejeweled gears—as hypnotizing to behold as the eyes of a celestial houri. If you favor avant-garde timepieces and have the funds to buy a small country, this, my liege, is your watch.
