Designer Collector: Watches

Stüssy Tschudin RGD, Principal at Forge Media + Design, shares his exquisite collection of watches. 

What do you collect?

I am a watch collector and currently have a collection of 140+ watches. The collection varies from traditional Swiss watches to tech-inspired LED watches to Smart watches and everything in between. 

My collection is split between my office, where I have created a wall display to see them every day and my home, where I usually choose in the morning which watch I am going to wear that day.

Since when?

I started collecting watches in the early 90’s. During that time, there was a huge Swatch craze going around the world. In Switzerland (where I still lived back then), we had a Swatch Exchange, similar to a Stock Exchange, except it was held only twice a week and people would go in and bid on or trade Swatch watches. During that time I had up to 100 Swatches and ended up keeping about 20, which formed the basis and start of my collection. 

How does it inspire you as a designer?

Besides being Swiss (watches have been really close to me since birth), I love the details some of the watches feature. Some of my tech watches require you to do math to be able to tell the time, others have just such perfect tiny mechanics that work and have worked for many years, while others just add a nice colour splash as a fashion accessory. 

Ever since I moved to Canada, I’ve been wearing two watches. I started out by having Swiss time on my left wrist and Canadian time on my right wrist. However, this became cumbersome and confusing after a while, so now they are all set to local time.

Nowadays, I’m wearing my Apple Watch on my left wrist and I switch out the watch I wear on my right wrist daily

Your favourites? 

There are two favourites. 

On the one hand, there is a Philip Starck watch, which is and has been my favourite for many years. It’s a unique watch, as it has a hole in the centre (a little bit like a donut). What I love about it is its simplicity, its modern aesthetic and of course the fact that it’s designed by one of my favourite designers.

My other favourite I love for its colour and what it stands for. It is a Breitling Endurance watch. The yellow colour is just fun and brightens my day. And being an endurance athlete in my spare time, I like the fact that it is made for people just like me. 

An item you aspire to have in your collection?

At some point I would like to own an Omega Speedmaster “Dark Side of the Moon”. I think it’s one of the most beautiful watches. It has been worn by James Bond on numerous occasions, was the original watch astronauts used during the Apollo missions. Unfortunately it is just too expensive to make its way into my collection… but one can always dream!