The tourbillon is often presented as the king of complications. Originally invented to combat the negative effects of the Earth’s gravitational pull, it remains today a ubiquitous feature for all high-end brands as a demonstration of watchmakers’ capabilities to manufacture such small mechanisms.
The newest member of this complex family is The Mo’Ment, which combines a flying tourbillon housed in a tonneau
case. The tourbillon placed on the 6 o’clock regulators rotate in 60 seconds on their axis, while the dial is laser-marked for an original blue-coloured mosaic effect. The in-house, self-winding movement that integrates all these functions has also been highly skeletonised to reveal as much of its inner workings as possible. The model will be produced in two unique versions.
Memorigin is the first Hong Kong brand to only produce tourbillon watches, which are designed by some of the region’s top designers and collectors with innovative concepts.
“Macau Design Centre is the only platform to promote Macau design. We have already curated many different exhibitions and projects. In this special year, we hope to curate a special project we never did. That’s why we collaborate with Memorigin and Todot design.” Dirco Fung, CEO of Macau Design Centre.
To celebrate this important year, Macau Design Centre wanted to create a special gift that would be everlasting and provide an opportunity to showcase the power of Macau’s local designer, Bob Lei, who is also the founder of Todot Design and accessories brand Ultraworks.
“The design process took around two to three months. We proposed a few different designs, the final form which we can now see now truly fits our taste as well as the public’s,” Lei said.
“We made shaped of tourbillon as a lotus [Macau’s emblematic flower] and we carved the characters for ‘Macau, China’ on the top and bottom of the dial. We also used 11 emerald dotted-hour indexes on the dial, to represent our regional flag,” he explained.
The designer also put a lot of effort on the watch hands: “You can see there is a tiny circle on the tail end. When the time goes to 12 sharp, the two circles will meet and form the shape of Chinese character ‘Hui’, which means ‘return’.”
This special edition is priced at MOP 49,999 and is limited to only 100 pieces for the first batch order. Watch enthusiasts can order it at Memorigin Macau store.
Macau design power
In addition to the major contributor to the watch, Bob Lei is also the bellwether of local young designers. After graduating from Macao Polytechnic Institute, where he studied graphic design, he worked in Shenzhen and Hangzhou. “At that time, there wasn’t a real design company in Macau, most of the existing businesses also did production. I couldn’t find a place to work, so I went to Mainland China,” Lei recalled. Thanks to the opportunities there, he got the chance to explore different forms of design, such as product design and interior design. “Many people told me that Mainland China was unenlightened, but when I worked there I found that to be completely wrong! Even a sophomore-year at school knew more information than me. My early days there were very difficult, but I really learnt a lot.”
After working away from home for many years, Lei decide to return and set up his company, Todot, in Macau. “Many people asked me why I came back,” he says. “To be honest, at that time it wasn’t easy for a Macau resident to open a company in Mainland China. Luckily, the Macau government then started to support local cultural and the creative industry.”
Todot is the most recognised design company in Macau today. The team has already won several international design awards, such as Taiwan’s Golden Pin Design Award, the International Leipzig Poster Exhibition, the International Poster Triennial in Toyama, and more. “The first year after I set up the company, we only did graphic design. By the second year, we wanted to explore more interesting projects, which is why we launched our brand Ultraworks and started to do product design.” Ultratime 001 was the first product from Ultraworks, and in 2017 the watch won the Platinum A’design Award, a famous international design competition. It was the first time that a nominee from Macau won the title.
Ultratime 001 took inspirations from spacecraft speedometers. It is a unique and classy timepiece, perfectly balanced in design and function, resulting in a timeless look. “We came out with many different, interesting ideas for our first product. We found the watch to be the most exciting and the one we can improve upon,” Lei explained. “When I came back to Macau, I found most of my classmates had given up on working in design in the region and operated in casinos instead. They earned a lot of money but weren’t happy. At that time, I began thinking of the sprit of Macau people. I think we are a people that move forwards, not backwards, and time is ever moving forward. That is why the hour hand is fixed and the two circular discs move counter-clockwise instead. I want to let people know time does not wait. A boat sailing against the current must forge ahead or it will be driven back.”
Ultraworks has since launched Ultratime 002, Ultratime Zero-Blackhole, Ultratime G1 watches, as well as a stationery collection, which has been highly praised, so strike while the iron is hot.
