The Collector's Wall displays Swatch watches from throughout the company's history.

The architecture and interior design of the Swatch Timeship, the Swiss watchmaker’s 5,000 sq. ft. flagship store in the heart of midtown Manhattan, conveys the message of Swatch timekeeping: equal parts emotion and accuracy. Visual creativity and mechanical precision are expressed throughout the dynamic store design, a spectacular environment full of original display and customer-service ideas. Like a Swatch watch, the store is “machinery with personality.”

The facade of the Swatch Timeship features a watch face over 12 feet in diameter.

An active design treatment reflects the designers’ idea that nothing renders time more accurately than movement. A glass pneumatic tube system through which Swatch watches are displayed and delivered throughout the store interconnects the three distinctive floors of the Swatch Timeship. The sense of motion is reinforced through the use of transparent and reflective materials, changing projected images, and video and lighting installations.

Clear pneumatic tubes carry watches throughout the store helping to create a dynamic environment.

Dominating the storefront window is a mammoth Swatch model GK209 (“Jelly”), a giant watch/clock over 12 1/2 feet in diameter, that has become the landmark timekeeper of 57th Street. The building’s facade is clad in bright blue Rigidized Metal, a brand of textured stainless steel. Such dramatic visual and tactile elements—dazzling color, shine and dimension—have been carried throughout the interior design. Optical and textural materials such as custom-designed glass mirrors and burnished aluminum were deliberately selected so that the visitor’s eye settles on the watches.

The use of dazzling materials are a highlight of the design.

The ground floor is a long, narrow continuous space with a retail area in front and a “Club Chamber” at the rear. The terrazzo floor is dyed blue—the color of time, pure sky and water—and on this sea of blue, long display counters float like ships. The Club Chamber, that introduces the Swatch Club concept to customers, is a double-height area that includes a Collector’s Wall display of classic Swatch designs. Visitors can also sign-up to become Swatch Club members and receive notice of special events and limited edition products.

The gap between the treads of the ground floor staircase is used as a projection surface, so that enormous, illuminated, constantly changing images of Swatch inspirations are visible from the street. As visitors climb the stairs to the mezzanine level, they are accompanied by these images and overtaken by actual Swatches moving up and down inside the clear pneumatic tubes. New to the mainstream commercial environment, the ATC tube system (Air Tube Conveyers, UK) was adopted from the industrial world, where it is commonly used to send cash within buildings and product samples within manufacturing plants.

The open stairwell allows for video projections that can be seen from the street.

The mezzanine level is the home of Dr. Swatch, where visitors can purchase batteries, new straps and accessories. While services are performed, customers can pass time by watching video monitors that have been installed among the pneumatic tubes to display stories about the manufacturing of Swatch parts and components.

Video monitors between the pneumatic tubes on the mezzanine level.

On the third floor is a Swatch Gallery, where the work of artistic collaborators such as Keith Haring, Annie Liebowitz and Yoko Ono are exhibited. Also on this floor is the Swatch Runway, where customers can sit at a bar/counter and order from a selection of watches, as well as a beverage menu. While relaxing at the bar, customers can watch flickering numbers installed behind the counter that announce the retrieval and arrival of their new watches through the tube system. Another feature of the third floor is the Worldwide Table, where visitors can view video clips of current and historical ad campaigns and Swatch-sponsored events.

The counter from which customers can order a watch or a drink.

We have been Swatch's design consultant since 1994, producing such projects as the packaging for the Irony series of metal Swatches as well as the Coastline shop-in-shop display system.