Seiko and Giugiaro: A History of Collaborations

The Folded Paper Look

Asymmetry

Black and red lines

Elaborate but Functional

Sci Fi Aesthetic

Italian

Viewers of my channel asked me for this one - so strap in and lets dive into the world of car and industrial designer Giorgetto Giugiaro and his direct and indirect influence on watch design.

Early watch aesthetics

One part of the Giugiaro DNA that is manifested most clearly in the watches he and his company design is the influence of car design and driving more broadly. But I think it would be missing a significant longer term trend in the watch market to just hone in on that fact. Driving watches as a phenomenon go way back. When we think of styling to match with cars, a great early example is the Mido Bugatti, with the shape being based on the radiator of the Bugatti car - all the way from 1918.

Outside of just the aesthetic - a word that you will hear a lot that informs Giugiaro design is function - and we see that also from early with drivers watches from the 20s and 30s, but probably most iconically in the Vacheron Constantin 1921 American with the 30 degrees tilted dial being amenable to the reading of the time whilst your hand is on the steering wheel. Apparently there is some evidence that this driving origin is somewhat of a myth, but I like the story anyway - thanks @ckim4watches

This bridges nicely into another element of design that we often associate with Giugiaro - although as we will see its just one part of his broader work - which is quite jarring asymmetry in the design versus your more conventional look. But asymmetry in watch design has a long history across different brands - fantastically chronicled by a collected man article. Good examples include

This range of post WWII 40s-50s APs

The Gilbert Albert designed Patek Philippe options of the 60s

Cartiers 1936 Asymétrique

the 1957 electric Richard Arbib designed Ventura influcend by a bomb explosion - which is a style he also used in his car designs

but most pertinently I think is the influence - known or subconscious of Roger Tallon’s Lip Mach 2000 design and the various iterations of this same model - definitely a healthy dose of these in Giugiaro’s work - including across both analog and digital - with Tallon similarly having design contributions outside of the watch world of Lip and Certina. These - famously included the TGV train - also the initials of another watch you tuber who is a big Giugiaro fan with an Italian heritage - as well as the Derny 'Taon' motorcycle and the 1979 SX90 Salomon Ski Boot. Regular viewers and readers will also know my of my Lip obsession - second only to my cosmophase references - and them being one of the most prominent examples of bringing fashion designers into the watch sphere - which sets the platform for Giugiaro’s watch adventures.

But lets turn to the more direct influences on Giugiaro that helps contextualise his later watch work - Italian Car Design.

Italian Car Design and the Emergence of Giugiaro

Dante Giacosa was key to the design of some icons of Fiat’s history like the Fiat 500 or Topolino meaning little mouse as it was affectionately named. The Fiat 600 was a later addition, which is all good but the one that I think foreshadows a lot of Giugiaro later work is the 1956 fiat 600 multipla - which is one of the earliest if not the first people carrier cars and could fit 6 people over three rows of seats in it despite being super small. All about function rather than beautiful aesthetics.

The next move would be to another legend of the Italian automotive design sphere - Nuccio Bertone - the man pulling the strings behind the production of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta sprint in 1959, the Lamborghini Miura, Espada and Countach designed by Marcello Gandini and later my favourite the Lancia Stratos - which as well as being an awesome rally car, and featuring in the Michael Jackson movie, was the basis for a collaboration on a digital watch designed by Bertone. Giugiaro’s would work on cars such as the Fiat Dino Coupe and Chevrolet Corvair Testudo Concept - meaning turtle - no not the seiko one. Next he would move to Ghia designing cars like the De Tomaso Mangusta and Maserati Ghibli.

In 1967 Giugiaro would link up with partner Aldo Mantovani to form Ital Design. Adding into the mix of more functional inspiration from the previous Fiat days, and the glamour of sportier brands, a defining feature of Giugiaro’s design from this point would be his “folded paper” designs with sharp edges and a very geometric look. We can see this style in the British Lotus Espirit in 1972 featured in James Bond’s For Your Eyes Only an early coming together of seiko watches and Giugiaro design

, but also in the more functional realm of the 1974 Volkswagen Golf Mk 1 known as the rabbit. This car very much defined the sporty but affordable and compact look - which is key to the broad appeal of many of these designs.

One of the reasons behind this angular approach is the maximisation of space, and Giugiaro’s continued focus here is evident in the companies bid to try and win a New York taxi contract with this 1976 concept.

The focus on the affordable functional end of the market would remain with things like the 1980 Fiat Panda, one of his all time favourite designs and even the 1980 Morris Ital from the guys at British Leyland who brought you the Morris Miner.

The coming together with art was made very direct with the collaboration on the 1978 BMW M1 famously painted by Andy Warhol

and in film with the DeLorean DMC-12 - passion project of the superstar headline grabbing executive John DeLorean - for both positive and negative reasons - that would be so famously featured in back to the future.

Seiko and Giugiaro Collaboration - First Wave

Giugiaro would start to itch to have impact beyond the automobile space, and an early successful collaboration would be with Nikon in 1980 with the F3 and the famous “red line” - apparently just a bit of fun for flair and to make it easily identifiable in a bag whilst travelling .

This would mark the move into offering the companies services to all sorts of stuff and by 1983 we were seeing collaborations on pasta , clothing lines, sewing machines, Parker pens and many more. It was within this wave of broader collaborations in 1983 that the Seiko watch link up arose.

Seiko made watch history with the release of 1980s passion of many a collector - the fully metal A728 movement which was used in the worlds first quartz chronograph. Models using this movement included both the watch worn in A View to a Kill by Roger Moore, and it was also used by the British Royal Air Force.

But this is where Seiko bring in Giugiaro to add some extra spice to proceedings - like he was doing already for Nikon and Pasta - and the result was this awesome 1983 Seiko Sports Giugiaro Deisgn range. Lets take the analog options using the A728 first. The front cover watch is the SAY048 and screams Giugiaro with the asymmetric design with a functional purpose - to stick out from under the cuff, with the red accents - Nikon-style - and the folded paper angular style to the tapered bracelet. The racing link is clear with the chronograph function and the ease of pressing the buttons.

The other analog option was the SAY-058 in black with yellow pushers. You have to think that this was influenced by the Omega Seamaster 600 Ploprof - worn over the cuff by Fiat Boss Gianni Agnelli in 1979 - which he’d also do with his Hamilton pulsar. When you combine this with the fact that this range was called Speed Master by Seiko - Omega possibly have reason to be a bit annoyed!

It isn’t illuminating watches without digital watches - and I’m glad to say that the first batch of watches included the SBA022 Speed Master LCD models in two colour ways using the rotating bezel to switch between functions - easier for folks wearing gloves vs. Buttons. Drawing on the heritage of the analog driving watch - the display would be slanted at 20 degrees for ease of reading with a hand on the steering wheel. Presumably among the reasons why this model was a favourite of Aryton Senna as I covered in my recent driving digitals video.

The final Giugiaro designed model from this first batch which is lesser well known is the SBA018 which has the three dials of the A728 movement tilted further round than the others and a seatbelt like strap that was designed to be tied to either a handlebar or steering wheel spoke for ease of reading whilst driving with red and green accents and tron-like grid design. This watch was worn by Royalty - Prince Albert of Monaco in 1985 when participating in the Paris-Dakar Rally - and I believe may be a ralli art version with the white text - great research by the Wristorian.

Following the black and yellow SAY-058 - we would see the silver case with black pushers SAY-068 - it was on this catalog shot anyway - and in 1986 James Cameron would famously leap on these futuristic looking models and use within the film Aliens - sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 film alien that featured the equally iconic doubled up casio f-100. The SAY-068 would be worn by Lt. Ellen Ripley played by Sigourney Weaver - hence being forever after referred to as “The Ripley” with the Android Bishop played by Lance Henriksen wearing the original SAY-048 and therefore being called the “Bishop”. If you are reading this post I guess you knew that!

Second Wave

As well as continuing to design funky objects like this dentist chair and JVC stereo - 1986 was also the year where Giugiaro design added a bunch of additional collaborations with Seiko as shown within the 1986 catalog.

We start out easy with the more basic SBBM001 and SBBM003 described as representing sporty elegance

We then bring the Giugiaro effect from the race track to the ocean with the diver professional which looks very seiko but with a Giugiaro asymmetric twist with the SBBN003 in blue and SBBN005 in yellow - with nice rubbery grips around the case.

Next up - Giugiaro was a keen motorcyclist and he also designed some motorcycles - including the 1973 Suzuki RE-5 that apparently didn’t do so well and the MV Agusta Ipotesi , with the functional looking Tomos Colibri A5 apparently being influential within the development of the Moped. The most bonkers motorbike inspired option was the 1986 concept Italdesign 'Machimoto’.

With this in mind, its little surprise that the Seiko and Giugiaro collaboration would include one for motcyclists - the SBBJ005 and SBBJ007 with a 15 degrees dial rotation and 5 degrees slop inwards of the dial and a bracelet that tapers very dramatically - all very angular and Giugiaro-esque.

And last but not least from the 1986 crop - the SBBJ001 and SBBJ003 nicknamed the steering wheel - for reasons I’m sure you can guess! This took the previous idea of the SBA018 - and designed the strap to be even more suitable for attaching to a steering wheel with those rings - with the movement rotated 90 degrees to reorient the sub dials - and those bumpers on the outside operating a bit like bull bars. An absolutely mad watch and I love it - almost more aliens than the watches actually featured in the film. Possibly the coolest watch he designed.

Although not under the Giugiaro banner, the influence is very clear within some of Seiko’s sub brand Alba. The Alba Flap Duck in both white dial and black dial variation - is very much a bishop-esque - or indeed Lip Mach 2000-esque watch - with the collaboration being between Alba and the clothing brand which was very typical for this watch line as you may have seen in my recent deep dive into the Alba brands digital watch history.

Also from Alba there was the K2000 which mimics the pushers of the Ripley

Third Wave

It wasn’t until 1996 that Giugiaro design would link up again with Seiko - and this would be with the Macchina Sportiva range using sports car design cues, a slightly oval shape to the watch face and distinctive pusher design. These include the SBBP045 and 047 analog chronographs in orange and blue on a bracelet. On this ad you can see the BMW Nazca C2 sneaking into shot which was an Ital Design concept car from 1991 - and the hood of that car resembles the lug area and bracelet of the watch.

Also on bracelet would be two Ana-digi models - the SBCH001 and SBCH002 with white and gold colouring. WIth a few more options coming on straps - with the black and red stitch for me having tones of the Nikon black and red line - also seen on the Volkswagen GTI - and the blue speckled strap of the SBBP041 clearly having an influence from somewhere - if you know let me know in the comments.

In 1998 - as with the last range they would carry the collaboration over to the diving arena with the 1998 SBCW Air Divers Scuba Range with kinetic movements and similar colour scheme and bracelet design.

Talking of kinetic, although different stylings - I do see the influence of the initially ugly - but in a weird way charming due to its over focus on functionality with the separated dials in 1999s Seiko Kinetic Chronograph range. Worth a watch of my video on the Seiko kinetic range if you’ve not already had a look where I cover this in more depth.

Modern re-releases under Giugiaro Design

You know that Giugiaro was a big name still in this period when he was approached by Steve Jobs in 1997 - fan of a seiko digital - to try and persuade him to join as the designer at apple before he settled on Jonny Ives. Giugiaro did contribute to some concept ideas for the Apple Figaro tablet in 1989 an earlier predecessor to the iPad I am weiting this post on - everything is connected!

You know Ital design had made the big time when they were featured in Need for Speed 2 with their ItalDesign Cala as one of my subscribers informed me. There were even grander projects to come - with Giugiaro designing the new great organ of the cathedral of Lausanne in 2003. But control of the company would start to move to others with Lambourghini acquiring 90% of Ital Design in 2010, and Audi eventually owning the company in 2015 with Giugiaro then leaving - although the company still use the Giugiaro Design brand - and use it they have!

This would primarily start in 2013 as part of the 30th anniversary of the line from 1983 with re-releases of the Bishop range under the spirit line in 6 different colour ways - but sadly not with the original A728 full metal movement - with it being replaced by a cheaper plastic movement - the 7T12. The previous two crowns on the left hand side had now also changed to one crown on the right hand side. In a sign of things to come, there would be 4 mainstream models, and 2 models limited to a lower run rate that would only be available through Tic-Tac stores.

The following year in 2014 8 additional colour ways were released, with 5 more widely available ones. There were two more tic tac models - the SCED029 orange bishop and one of my grail watches with the SCED027 blue red and yellow - that has been taunting me from instagram for a while now - with on time store and white mountaineering each having their own limited edition.

In 2015, the most famous model the Ripley would have 9 different colour ways in the re-release, with two tic tac models, one white mountaineering model , and the version I have with black and green - the Beams model. One of the pride and joys of my collection bought for me by my wife - adjusting the bracelet on this one is not fun I must tell you!!

Continuing the re-releases in 2016/7 we would see the motorcycle range again with limited editions from White Mountaineering and Narifuri.

Also in 2017 we would have re-releases of the diving models as part of the Prospex range with the SBEE001 and SBEE002. A blog to watch make the comparison to the asymmetrical g-shock frogman design which I think is a good one.

And possibly my favourite - the 2018 re-release of the Speed Master LCD in silver and black regular models and 6 initial limited edition models from Nano Universe, Beams, United Arrows, Ships Limited, East Nation and Barneys New York - with an additional Barneys New York model in black and red releasing in 2019 - a colour scheme we come back to a lot with Giugiaro design. Apparently this wasn’t the first time this model was re-released , as Nobuhiro Kosugi - modern day designer for grand seiko and massive fan of Giugiaro states that he led the reproduction of this watch in 1999 which required some tweaks due to a larger movement.

I think the casio G-shock lung man model has echos of this watch and perhaps a left field call but I also think the casio G8000 has a bit of this without the tilt

Giugiaro design have developed new designs since their founder leaving with Seiko within the Astron GPS solar range in 2015 and 2017 - with the asymmetrical stylings and black and red accents being very giugiaro-esque on the 2017 version.

Similar themes would also be present in this slightly more expensive 2017 Roger Dubois collaboration linked to the Italdesign Zerouno car.

And that’s it for todays post! I hope you enjoyed!!