This year, from April 8th to 14th, the Fuorisalone or Milan Design Week takes place. The Design Week includes a long list of events that surround the Salone del Mobile and is held in the same period as the Salone del Mobile. Unlike the trade fair held outside Milan, the Milan Design Week area groups a series of events held downtown, in an area that spans from luxury districts like Brera and Montenapoleone to popular areas like Via Tortona. During this week these districts turn to design exhibition areas and are officially nicknamed as Isola Design District or Brera Design District, whereas Via Tortona is home to the Tortona Design Week.
The Salone and Fuorisalone involve not only design and furnishing companies, but also sectors that are synonymous with cutting-edge design and technology like cars, motorcycles, and watches for example. Many watch brands are attending the Fuorisalone with their installation, and are filling in a list of participants that is rapidly growing year after year.
The Milan Design Week keeps attracting high-end and low-end watch brands; some of them have their installations, others attend with “one–off” events that allow the participants to take a look at the latest novelties in the world of luxury watches. Let’s make a list that includes some of the most relevant events for watch lovers and design addicts alike.
Grand Seiko at the Milan Design Week
Seiko Group‘s luxury watch brand is attending for the second year in a row the Milan Design Week with an installation entitled “The Nature of Time,” set up at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Via Manzoni. The exhibition will focus on Spring Drive technology, which celebrates its 20th Anniversary in 2019.
It is no coincidence that the brand released at Baselworld 2019 an entirely new range of products, both time-only and chronographs, equipped with Seiko‘s proprietary technology that combines the very best of mechanical and quartz watchmaking. Toshiki Kiriyama of Trunk Ltd. has curated the Grand Seiko exhibition for the second consecutive year, along with the contemporary design studio “we+,” and Shingo Abe, computer graphics director.
Montblanc
The German brand is attending with a thematic installation located inside the Brera Design District. It is named # Reconnect1858, and is located in Via Statuto 2 and offers an immersive experience into nature, a topic that is the source of inspiration, along with exploration, to the 1858 collection. A collection that, as I wrote in a post on my way back from Geneva, is a stunning success for the luxury watch division of the brand, whose 1858 Geosphere Limited Edition is its hero product.
Panerai and Turri
One of the most exciting innovations launched by Panerai in the last two months was the Panerai Submersible Bronzo, a limited edition watch that made Panerai fans get crazy.
This timepiece and other collections are showcased at the Show Room Turri (a renowned Italian luxury furniture brand) located in Via Borgospesso 11 (halfway between Via Della Spiga and Via Montenapoleone).
Attoverticale by Masera Design
Masera Design is also attending the Milan Design Week. It is, of course, participating with its watch brand Attoverticale that we recently covered with a dedicated post. The brand showcases its collections at Zone K inside the Isola Design District, in an area set up by Uozu Lighting, a leading lighting company.
The area hosts a special exhibition dedicated to the exploration of spatial perception related to the presence of light and color; along with the design studio founded by Tommaso Masera in 2011, there will be a group of talented artists and designers, such as Liz West and the Danish Kinetic Mobiles Copenhagen.
(Photo credit: courtesy of the respective brands)
Gaetano C @Horbiter®
Instagram – Gaetano Cimmino
