Own a ‘Monet’ for $152? Swatch is turning iconic masterpieces into ‘portable art’ you can wear

SHANGHAI – On the Bund in Shanghai, inside a stately heritage building crowned with a red-tiled roof and anchored by a watch boutique at street level, Mr Carlo Giordanetti is imagining a big bang. Not literally, of course. He is an Italian designer, not a demolition man.

“If I could, I would use the facade of the building to show every single piece of art created here,” he says, eyes sparkling. “I’d make it the biggest art collage in the world.”

He laughs, then shrugs. “But this building is very special. You can’t do whatever you want to the facade. Outside, it has to stay iconic. Inside, it’s completely crazy.”

The building is the Swatch Art Peace Hotel, a 1908 landmark that Swiss watchmaker Swatch transformed into one of the art world’s most coveted residencies, and which Mr Giordanetti has led since it opened 15 years ago.

Today, it houses not just a Swatch flagship on the ground floor, but also a full-blown creative ecosystem above it, with 18 studios occupied by painters, photographers, performers and digital artists from around the world.

That tension between order and chaos, history and reinvention, is precisely where the 66-year-old likes to operate.

And on this crisp and cold January morning, the ebullient man is looking extra chuffed as he stands in the lobby. Swatch is unveiling the Swatch x Guggenheim Collection here, as the Art Peace Hotel marks its 15th anniversary, a celebration of art, time and the beauty of creativity.

The Guggenheim collection captures that spirit elegantly. It brings together four museum masterpieces, three from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and one from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, distilled onto watch dials barely 34mm wide: a dreamlike Claude Monet, a kinetic Jackson Pollock, a graceful Edgar Degas and a whimsical Paul Klee.

It is the latest chapter in Swatch’s long-running romance with the art world and, for Mr Giordanetti, a chance to show that a plastic watch can carry as much emotion, imagination and soul as any gilt-framed oil hanging on a museum wall.

Choosing which “fabulous artists” to turn into “a portable museum with a buckle” is anything but a quick mood-board exercise, he says.

“Usually it takes at least one year, sometimes one and a half,” he says. “First, the curators propose works they feel represent the museum. They know their collections in and out.”​

Swatch then adds its own filter. Big names are good, but there are limits.

“The Guggenheim has a beautiful selection of Kandinskys, but we’ve done Kandinsky before,” he says, referring to an earlier Art Journey collaboration. “So, we had to cross them out.”​​

Then come the estates, foundations and families who guard the copyrights. Some artworks fall away. What remains is a shortlist that Swatch promises not just to reproduce, but also to reinterpret.

Mr Giordanetti says: “There is a degree of surprise, sometimes a little tongue-in-cheek. Maybe not disrespectful, but on the verge.”​

On the Monet watch, Swatch pushes the texture of the oil painting to a hyper-detailed level, then adds a glow-in-the-dark dial so the piece changes completely at night, a quiet commentary on the painter’s obsession with shifting light.

On the Klee-inspired Don Giovanni piece, the dial features a little window. What appears “outside” changes, echoing the painting’s story of a man climbing ladders in pursuit of women.

“There is always a story related to what happens in the watch,” Mr Giordanetti says.​

The whole process takes patience and nerves.

“For the Monet bracelet, we probably did 12 or 15 different variations before we got it right,” he says. “Then comes the moment where you put it next to the painting. You have to make sure it’s the same. That’s usually very emotional and a bit heart-stopping.”​

Launching the collection in Shanghai is not just a marketing decision. It is also a homecoming of sorts. Upstairs from the Swatch boutique and the grand lobby of the former Peace Hotel South Building sits one of contemporary art’s quieter success stories: the Swatch Art Peace Hotel artist residency.

Since 2011, more than 600 artists from around the world have lived and worked here, in 18 studios facing either the Bund or a warren of old rooftops. They cook together, argue over ideas, share materials and, occasionally, fall in love.​​

People have called Mr Giordanetti the “captain” or “mayor” of this island. 

He smiles at the titles, then reframes his role.

“The creativity is in their hands,” he says. “What I do, with my team, is encourage them to stay true to their project. We really step to the side.”​

Most of his work, he says, is conversation.

“I talk to them and I listen to them a lot. By my DNA, I sometimes help them find new ways or conceptualise differently. Then I have the pleasure of curating the exhibitions we do.”​

He reaches for a word that fits.

“It’s an editing job,” he says. “I’m not a curator by profession – ‘curator’ is a profession. But I think I have a good eye and a good way to put things together.

“First, there is research and building relationships, then there is the editing. You help the project become the best version of itself.”​

Sometimes the “editing” is also gentle tough love. In a city as fast and tempting as Shanghai, artists can easily lose focus. 

“They lose their compass because there are so many opportunities,” he says. “Sometimes, you need to bring them back, but mostly by encouraging them. The most fascinating part is when you see the potential and think, ‘This guy could go so much further’.”​

Not all residents end up on a Swatch dial, but some do. The criteria are not just about aesthetics.

“It has to be a combination of their work and their personality somehow resonating with Swatch,” says Mr Giordanetti. “There has to be a little rebellious side, a humorous side, something unexpected.”​

He recalls the first time an Art Peace Hotel resident designed a Swatch in 2013.

“He was a super serious guy who moved to New York wanting to make it there,” he says, referring to Spanish multimedia artist Jose Carlos Casado. “But his concept was crazy. Within a colourful environment, he created a black segment on the dial, with black hands, so for those five minutes every hour, time doesn’t exist.”​

That single idea sparked many others. Yet, Mr Giordanetti is at pains to point out that the residency is not a factory for watch designs. Many projects never become products and that is by design.

“It goes beyond the product,” he says. “It’s the brand being an ambassador of the arts.”​

To mark the 15th anniversary, Swatch is taking the Art Peace Hotel on tour, with exhibitions in 15 Chinese cities that present installations and interactive experiences, not watches.

Back in Shanghai, an exhibition ties the Guggenheim masterpieces to works by residents: abstract pieces echo Monet’s light and water; video and photography respond to Degas; and a Power of Women section reinterprets Klee’s story from a female point of view.​​

Mr Giordanetti’s own story with Swatch stretches back to 1987, when he joined as a sales executive in Italy, designing shop windows by day and absorbing design instincts by night.

He later ran international marketing, opened design labs in Milan and New York, and helped organise events for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Along the way, he took detours through Piaggio – maker of the Vespa – and German luxury brand Montblanc before returning to Swatch in 2012.​ A member of the Swatch AG management team, he has worn many hats at the company over the years, including head of international marketing and creative director.

Asked for career highlights, he does not hesitate. First: 1992, when Swatch commandeered the Swiss mountain village of Zermatt to celebrate its 100-millionth watch, less than a decade after the brand’s birth.

Second: the 2022 MoonSwatch launch, when police had to be called to stores from Melbourne to Milan after crowds turned unruly.

“We couldn’t open some stores because people were fighting,” he recalls, still sounding faintly amazed.​​

In a world of smartwatches and smartphones, he is under no illusion that anyone needs a Swatch. Which is precisely why they still matter.

“You said it: They don’t need it,” he says. “But Swatch has a side that is not rational. It’s a very emotional brand. You switch from a primary need to a moment of pleasure. It’s something that expresses who you are without burning a deep hole in your pocket.”​

Art, he believes, has been crucial to that appeal.

“You can own a Monet or a Keith Haring that costs millions, for a hundred bucks,” he says. “You can live with it, wear it. And if you lose it, you think, ‘Okay, I’ll buy another one’. There is a proximity between Swatch and people that is very special.”​