Interview with Designer Yves Béhar / Part 1/2: Issey Miyake Watch Series VUE

On the occasion of the presentation of Seiko’s Issey Miyake watch series VUE at Baselworld 2010 in Basel, Switzerland, VernissageTV met with the designer of the watch, Yves Béhar.

In the first part of the interview, Yves Béhar talks about the new Issey Miyake watch series called VUE: the basic idea, the materials, and shows us the watch and an animation that visualizes the concept behind VUE.
In the second part of the interview, Yves Béhar talks about his work and his studios in New York and San Francisco, his involvement in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project for which he designed the XO laptop, the future of design and the role design can play in making the world a better place, and the projects he is working on at the moment.

The complete interview is also available on our HD page.

Since 2001, under the direction of ISSEY MIYAKE, Seiko Instruments Inc. has collaborated with designers such as Shunji Yamanaka, Harri Koskinen, Tokujin Yoshioka, Naoto Fukasawa and Ross Lovegrove. This time, Yves Béhar was commissioned to design a new watch series.

Designer Statement by Yves Béhar: “A watch is a Mindset about the idea of time. When considering reading the time of day, my main question is: why do I need to see all twelve numbers when only one is needed? The watch’s unique approach is to present one number appearing only, while the previous hour slowly fades out of view, and the next one fades into view. This magical appearance reminds me of the time just passed, and the future incoming…it says, ‘time is precious, yet always presents us with a surprise ahead. The mindset of the watch is to let the mystery of time be experienced: the watch is a way to feel time’s appearance and disappearance in our lives. By seeing only the current hour, while the last hour representing the past and the next one representing the future subtly fade in and out, we can live a new view of time.”

> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.

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