Behind the Scenes: Mispoes! Re-Issue
As the third week of July rolled around, so did a certain little cat… in the grass… on a certain little watch face…
You got it - the beloved Mispoes! has returned to the MJW collection and this time it’s back for good!
Mispoes! made its debut back in 2023 with a charismatic, creative design by Belgian Artist, Kaat Deceuninck.
Her teacher at the time of designing the watch was, in fact, the one and only Kristof Devos - designer of A perfectly useless afternoon, A perfectly useless morning and Enjoy the ride!
Since graduating, Kaat has continued nurturing her talent for art and has developed her own unique style. It was only right to incorporate this when redesigning her paw-some watch design (You can’t escape the cat puns in this blog… apologies in advance!).
The new design for Mispoes! has kept its playful personality and has remained fairly simplistic but has taken a much more organic, hand-drawn look to embody Kaat’s new design style - purr-sonally, we’re in love with it!
Just like the limited edition, the time can be decoded by looking at the position of the cat’s paw to see the hour, while the scurrying mouse marks the minutes.
Now, when it came to producing the refreshed design, we went through a whopping nine samples to get this one spot on. That might not seem a lot, but it’s the most we’ve ever made for a watch before…
We experimented with airbrushing the dial, like the limited edition, using sponges to create a more realistic grass texture, and even painting the grass on my hand to compliment the hand drawn illustration style.
We went back and forth through endless seas of blues and greens to get the colour just right for this design. We even toyed with the idea of disguising the rivet in the orange fur of the cat - but subsequently agreed the leaf was the better option.
One particularly difficult factor was the pose of the cat. It was challenging to get its proportions anatomically correct, particularly with the perspective of looking down on the cat from above (we didn’t want a watch depicting a slightly contorted kitty cat now, did we?).
Mispoes! overall is quite simple in its design, so all of these teeny-tiny details mattered to achieve the desired look and feel while maintaining this watches charming nature!
Kaat originally designed Mispoes! because she was inspired by watching her own feline friend play in the garden for hours on end:
“I often find myself spending time watching my cat play with his toys or even with the mice he catches.
“Although it’s really engrossing to watch, afterwards I always feel like I wasted all that time.
“When I got the assignment to create a watch design I wanted to tell a story that is relatable and easy to understand.
“To see the world through the cat’s eyes means we can understand that no time is ever really wasted - we just need to be more like the cat and fully live every moment!”
We can all relate to the feeling of time slipping through our fingers and the struggle of wondering where that time went and desperately trying to catch up - rather than simply enjoying the moment.
You can get your paws on Mispoes! by clicking here and be sure to tag us in any photos on social media @mrjoneswatches
