Victorinox 携手 ECAL 推进 I.N.O.X. 腕表材料的创新

为了探索不锈钢在腕表行业的可能应用，我们希望下一代的设计师能够沿用这种传统材料。瑞士洛桑艺术大学（简称为 ECAL），是全球最知名且最具创新性的设计院校之一，我们很高兴与之合作。来自世界各地的学生借鉴医学手术、纳米技术或仿生学等领域的知识，并将此知识应用到腕表领域。

传统与创新的故事

多年来，我们在不锈钢的处理方面积累了丰富的经验。大约一个世纪前，我们是全球首家使用这种材料制作刀具的公司。这一创新标志着我们产品质量的转折点，在 1921 年，我们在品牌名称中加入了不锈钢“inox”。

从那以后，不锈钢成为我们工作的核心。此专业知识引导我们涉足腕表领域。鉴于我们的发展经历，开始钟表制造似乎是件自然而然的事情。传奇的 I.N.O.X. 应时而生：向以自身独特性不断带给我们惊喜的不锈钢材料致敬。

与我们一起发现不锈钢应用的新的可能性。

不锈钢 – 1 种材料，11 种创新

Cold Spraying – reinterpreted by Maxime Augay, France

With a supersonic nozzle, metal powder is pressed onto a surface such as metal, ceramic or even plastic. Innovative material combinations can thus be achieved – leading to better quality or new visual effects in watch design. Image: Digital rendering by student

Explosive cladding – reinterpreted by Christian Hollweck, Germany When combining two different metals such as stainless steel and titanium through an explosion, super metals are created. The visual result on the surface of such explosions is stunning for watch design. Image: Digital rendering by student (based on VI original picture)

Explosive imprinting – reinterpreted by Christian Hollweck, Germany Through the pressure built up in an explosion, a hologram can be applied onto a metal surface on a nano-scale. Used for micro engravings on a watch, the images are extremely small and rich in detail. Image: Picture taken by the student, production by Bernhard Rieger

Stitching – reinterpreted by Nicolas de Vismes, France Stitching in stainless steel is a craft which was honed by its use in medicine. Rasps are tailor made for surgeons to carve out a recess in the bone in which to place an implant. Applied onto watches, stitching provides a surface sensuality and a handcrafted touch. Image: Digital rendering by student

UV Printing – reinterpreted by Sara de Campos, Portugal UV printing uses light instead of evaporation to fixate paint. That makes printing extremely fast, environmentally friendly and precise. The precision aspect is interesting for watch design: it allows fine gradients, patterns and high definition imagery. Image: Digital rendering by student

Honeycomb Tubes – reinterpreted by Hiroyuki Morita, Japan Inspired by nature, honeycomb tubes are rigid and at the same time flexible and lightweight. Its use in the watch industry not only has functional advantages. The geometric set-up is also attention catching in its design. Image: Digital rendering by student

Roll Bonding – reinterpreted by Adrien Cugulière, France Layers of different metals are passed through a pair of flat rollers to bond the layers, for example aluminum and steel. Punching and milling the top layer reveals the layer underneath creating new functional and ornamental qualities. Image: Digital rendering by student

Light Caustics – reinterpreted by Sumegha Matri, India

When light beams get focused and then diverted by a reflective material, caustics are created. For example the light reflection in a swimming pool. Applying an engraving according to the principles of light caustics on a watch surface, adds an almost “magical property”. Image: picture taken by student, Rayform SA

Tubular Laser Cutting – reinterpreted by Yen-Hao Chu, Taiwan A stent is a metal structure that is inserted into a blood vessel and afterwards expanded to open a narrowed artery to improve blood flow. By transferring the purely functional stent structure to design, an innovative look and feel is created and can be used for example in a watch strap. Image: Digital rendering by student

Inox Embroidery – reinterpreted by Aleksandra Szewc, Poland Embroidery techniques combined with stainless steel thread technology celebrate the qualities of stainless steel threads: safe to wash, corrosion resistant and durable, yet soft and flexible. This opens up new possibilities for applications in watch manufacturing. Image: Digital rendering by student

Micro Stamping – reinterpreted by Sara Regal, Spain Micro manufacturing offers new ways of working with steel. For example, piercing and bending metal sheets with Micro Stamping can be used for watch bracelets to create new patterns as well as functional forms that are stable and flexible at the same time. Image: IMP (industrial machine products)

The project was headed up by Alexis Georgacopoulos, Director of ECAL, and Thilo Alex Brunner, Head of Master in Product Design at ECAL. Under their initiative, designer and ECAL professor Alexander Taylor led students from all over the world through a three month project on discovering new possibilities for the use of stainless steel.

What is the future of stainless steel in the watch industry, Alexander Taylor?

Why didn’t you design watches in this project but focused on material?
I believe the students and designers should learn skills enabling them to be multifaceted in approach and work not only with the finished object, working in a way exploring first the ways in which we can work without the parameters of the object. The character of the object and the opportunity to create something new in both terms of aesthetic and production will come from a collaboration with makers and understanding of the designer to tailor the technologies to a particular need. During this process opportunities will inevitably present themselves beyond the original brief. By not focusing on a particular design of a watch it allowed us to let the process really inform and influence the formal outcome.

What makes stainless steel such an interesting material to work with?
It has such a beautiful and highly functional industrial quality, somehow hi-tech yet so familiar! It is a material with the ability to stimulate the senses and is associated with pioneering product / structures and performance. With this project however we illustrated how you can take a material which is so familiar and still propose absolutely new ways in which it can be fabricated or processed.

Will we still use stainless steel in the future?

Stainless steel will be a material we use long into the future. Like all materials it is constantly evolving as are the ways in which to work with it and the application with which it is used. It will be engineered and adapted to suit many new demands however as a core material it has a quality associated which now more than ever relates to the consumer and values of quality.

Everything is going digital. Are your students interested in working with a material as sturdy and traditional as stainless steel?

We are industrial designers who like to work on physical objects and with physical materials. In this digital era and into the future I think it is interesting how there is an important emotional attachment to the physical object which stimulates the senses and carries an inherent value and quality. A connection to natural materials and craftsmanship as an offset to balance against the digital world.

At Victorinox, lots of craftsmen work on details and quality improvement of our products. Yet we have some of the most cutting edge machines producing our products. When it comes to craft versus digital – what skills does a designer need?

With something like a watch which is about the human connection, the designer has an opportunity to create a product with a connection beyond the function. The designer has a responsibility to search out new ways and collaboration to innovate and push the physical boundaries of what is possible. The roles of the craftsman and designer are evolving and together working alongside cutting edge technology, have the ability to produce exciting and powerful results.

About Alex Taylor, Awarded British Designer, Professor at ECAL

Alexander is a product designer working for companies such as Zanotta, Established & Sons, ClassiCon and adidas. He’s been awarded “Designer of the Future”, with his “Fold” lamp, he also is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Alexander follows a transdisciplinary approach, working with some of the best craftsmen and industrial technology in the world.