Behind the scenes: Beam me up!

We have been lucky enough to work with French Author-Illustrator, Xavier Broche, for a second time on our latest limited edition release, Beam me up!.

With its ‘out of this world’ design, Beam me up! is a celebration of those unexpected and unexplained moments in life. 

In fact, the first design Xavier created for us (Photobomb) was inspired by the same sentiment: the best laid plans often lead to the unexpected. 

We worked closely with Xavier to bring his design to life and start the sampling process. 

After reviewing his sketches, we knew the main focuses of the watch would be the alien in its flying saucer and the mischievous piglet, which led to us creating the time-telling mechanic and integrating it within the design. The beam emitted by the UFO marks the minutes and the pig marks the hours.

While most of us won’t be faced with a visitor from outer space hovering in our gardens like the piglet on the watch’s face, the watch design serves as a reminder that the best things in life can’t be planned. 

Xavier said: “I wanted to describe an alien encounter in a playful way. I imagined how it would be for a simple pig to be at the heart of this historic event. I found it funny to imagine the alien travelling endlessly across space searching for intelligent life, only to encounter a bewildered pig at the end of this epic journey! Don’t worry about the pig though - he’ll outwit the alien in the end!”

Once the design and the mechanics were agreed upon, our talented team went to work with mixing each individual colour in the design one-by-one before gilding the design by hand. The team then hand assembled 100 pieces of Beam me up! in our London workshop ahead of the release. 

On its release, Beam me up! became one of our fastest selling watches to date, with all 100 being snapped up within 41 minutes. 

If you weren’t speedy enough to get your hands on this intergalactic watch, you can sign up to our waiting list here.