Swatch’s latest Art Journey stops at the Guggenheim — twice. The Swiss watchmaker has unveiled its new collaboration with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, translating four pieces from their permanent collections into wearable art. The collection includes pieces inspired by works from Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock.
“This collaboration was inspired by a long-standing shared belief between Swatch and the Guggenheim: art should be accessible, lived with, and experienced beyond museum walls,” Swatch’s CEO Vivian Stauffer told WWD via email. With this release, she explained, the brand takes that idea further by creating a real dialogue between New York and Venice.
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The four watches interpret works that span artistic movements from Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism. The collection begins with Degas’s Dancers, reflecting the painter’s fascination with the motion and poise of ballerinas, expressed through the watch’s curved shapes and lively color palette. Monet’s Palazzo Ducale centers on the Venetian landmark rendered in diffused brushstrokes, with a dial that glows orange under UV light — a nod to the interplay of light and reflection in Monet’s work. Klee’s Bavarian Don Giovanni, drawn from the artist’s 1919 composition, introduces an inventive daily color-shifting calendar window, while Pollock’s Alchemy channels the expressive splatter of mid-century abstraction through bold, layered prints.
“The artworks were chosen in close dialogue with the curatorial teams in New York and Venice,” Stauffer said. “Each piece was selected for its emotional impact, its importance within the Guggenheim collections, and its ability to translate meaningfully into the intimate format of a watch.” The approach, she added, avoids simple replication. Instead, the aim was “to reinterpret them in a way that feels spontaneous, joyful, and very much of today.”
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Beyond design, the project continues a decades-long relationship between Swatch and the Guggenheim. The partnership began in the 1990s and previously included collaborations such as the 1997 Swatch Irony Special created with sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro. “The Guggenheim sits at the intersection of innovation, modernity, and cultural influence—values that are deeply rooted in Swatch’s DNA,” Stauffer said.
The watches will be available globally on Thursday, each carrying a subtle unifying motif: a double-length second hand, symbolizing the cultural bridge between New York and Venice. It’s a detail that turns timekeeping into a “symbolic journey through artistic movements, cities, and emotions,” as Stauffer explained it.
“By making iconic artworks wearable and playful, Swatch removes the distance that can sometimes exist between people and cultural institutions,” she said.
