Worn & Wound
The New Bremoir South Beach, and the Influence of Art Deco Design
Virtually every watch enthusiast is familiar with Art Deco, even if they don’t know it. Art Deco, short for Arts décoratifs, first appeared in Paris in the 1910s and spread across the globe over the following two decades. You may not be familiar with Art Deco’s principles - bold geometric forms and streamlined, mechanical aesthetics, among them - but you are almost assuredly familiar with some of its most famous designs, like the Cartier Tank and JLC Reverso. Worn & Wound contributor and Art Deco enthusiast Christoph McNeill considers Art Deco “the pinnacle of design,” and says he loves the beauty of the Machine Age design movement’s expression of curves and lines, obsession with mechanical aesthetics, and “streamline” nature. Wristwatches, which became popular about the same time Art Deco came onto the scene, was a natural medium for Art Deco design. “Because they’re little, tiny machines, right? said McNeill. “It sort of went hand-in-hand.” Vintage Art Deco watches from Christoph’s personal collection So, what does Art Deco design look like in watches? “It means clean lines, very specific fonts,” said watch collector and seller extraordinaire Eric Wind. “I think of a lot of rectangles, squares, things like that. Less round, unless it’s round within a rectangle. A lot of black on silver. I think of that kind of high shine chrome when I think about Deco as well. More silver than gold.” Wind cites “a lot of Pateks from the 20s and ...
