Swatch x NASA Space Collection

Swatch has long positioned itself deeply in the roots of popular culture through its countless collaborative collections. The brand’s first collaboration dates back to 1985 with Kiki Picasso, it consisted of just 120 pieces and now sells for around £20,000. The brand has since gone on to collaborate with a plethora of artists, musicians, sporting icons and brands. 

Their latest Space Collection see Swatch take design cues from NASA and it incorporate them into the design of 5 different NASA themed models. Both NASA and Swatch share an affinity, as NASA has established itself as the most highly visible symbol of American technological development, whilst Swatch is equally the most highly visible symbol of the Swiss Quartz movement. 

Swatch continues to push boundaries within the watch-world, as this collection is the first to feature Swatch’s new ‘Bioceramic’ material. This is an entirely new material that has been made by mixing ceramic with bio-sourced plastic. It consists of a mix of two-third ceramic and one-third bio-sourced plastics, uniting the best of both worlds and ushering in a new era of sustainability and design in watchmaking.

The Space Collection features five watches inspired by the garments worn by space shuttle crew members. The Big Bold Chrono Extravehicular is inspired by spacesuits the astronauts would us to perform spacewalks aboard the International Space Station. The Big Bold Chrono Launch is reminiscent of the famous ‘Pumpkin Suit’ that is worn by NASA space shuttle crews during the period of ascent on a flight. Elsewhere, the Big Bold Chrono Extravehicular bares a resemblance to blue flight suits worn by NASA astronauts during their daily activities.

The final two models in the collection are the ‘Take Me to the Moon’ and the ‘Space Race’ models which are less explicitly inspired by the garments of NASA’s astronauts, but are rather a more subtle nod to NASA.