Since making its debut in Switzerland and its subsequent rollout across Europe and Turkey, Swatch’s AI-powered design tool, AI-DADA, has gone live around the world, including Singapore, marking the next step for Swatch to make its design tool accessible worldwide so that everyone will get the opportunity to create their own watch.
Named after the norm-challenging Dada movement, which was an early 20th-century an international art movement, AI-DADA is a tool that enables you to create one-of-a-kind watch designs in under two minutes, that are uniquely yours, just by writing a prompt.
With this tool, traditional design barriers are removed, giving you the ultimate experience in product personalisation by allowing you to unlock limitless creative expression as you turn your own words into watch designs.
This is achieved through AI-DADA’s “artistic intelligence” which has been shaped by more than 40 years of iconic Swatch innovations that range from watches and design, to events, art and street paintings.
Each AI-DADA watch is not only unique but has a distinction reflected in the ‘1/1’ symbol on its caseback, making it an unmistakably Swatch timepiece.
Our Experience with AI-DADA
It is always fun when you can personalise something that becomes uniquely your own, and Swatch’s AI-DADA really knocks it out of the park with this online experience.
From the get-go, the portal was really user-friendly with a clear three-step guide that points out what the process was like, starting with inputting the prompt to customising the watch face, and previewing the entire design. Once you’re satisfied with the design you’ve created, all you have to do is add the watch to your cart and check out.
To begin the creation of our watch, we started off by thinking of a prompt that would best reflect NYLON Singapore. We wanted a watch that had a trendy and fashionable look while giving off an energetic and chaotic vibe, complete with a fun and goofy side.
We initially chose to create the watch with a black and hot pink strap with cats to reflect our fun and goofy side, but found that the designs were not as interesting or reflective of who we were. So, we decided to go with a more outstanding colour (the green), and chose dinosaurs to represent our unserious side instead; since dinosaurs are essentially timeless creatures that will always be associated with being cool and exciting.
As with most AI tools, we had an inkling that it might be difficult to get the right design with such a generic prompt on the first try. So, we ended up going through multiple attempts while we continued to refine our prompts, to generate a design that was closest to what we had in mind.
It is important to note that you are only allowed three prompts a day, which will automatically reset at midnight. Even though it would have been great to have more attempts to create the watch in a day, we did feel that this limitation created a creative challenge for us, and gave us time to create a good prompt that would help us to generate the original design of our dreams.
We also noticed that even if you do happen to reuse the same prompt that you sent in the last time, you won’t necessarily get the same design back.
However, to help ensure you don’t lose your designs each day, you are still able to view your past designs (from the 3 prompts of the day) in your daily history. The only catch is that they are not automatically saved so when the prompts are reset for the next day, you will no longer have access to your previous designs.
After looking at the three designs generated using the same prompt, we opted to go with the final design because it had the most unique-looking dinosaur print, and just embodied that quirky yet trendy feel we were seeking.
The chosen design of the watch is then reflected onto a New Gent watch, where you will be able to customise the watch face from six options available.
Our design took about a week to arrive, and when it did, we were very impressed with the make, feel and entire presentation of the watch. Packaged in a classic white box, the Swatch AI-DADA stood out in its vibrant black and green, and had a rather edgy feel to it, thanks to the silver skeleton watch face we chose.
There was also this premium feel to the watch, which made it look like it was part of a collection and not actually an individual unique piece that cannot be bought from the store. We also liked that all Swatch AI-DADA pieces came with a special ‘1/1’ print on the back of the watch, which helped to distinguish it as the only one available in the world!
Each AI-DADA watch is priced at $258, and we think that’s worth every cent for an originally designed watch that you cannot get anywhere else.
Swatch and Art
From its founding in 1983, Swatch has always been known as one of the leading watch manufacturers and the most sought-after brand in the world that has stayed true to itself, offering striking designs and numerous ways to surprise with regularly released new models and special collections.
An integral part of Swatch’s identity is its affinity with art. Over the years, the Swiss watchmaker has collaborated with countless artist across various disciplines and genres, including the world’s most prestigious art museums and institutions, to reinterpret iconic masterpieces as timepieces.
