Eterna has secured the services of Christian Gafner, a leading industrial designer, to style its watches. Christian Gafner recently caused a furore in the watch branch with his design of the MIH watch for the Musée International d’Horlogerie. In future, his creative exploits will be embodied in the timepiece collections by Eterna and its Porsche Design brand made under licence.
Christian Gafner
“Product styling does not stop at the product itself – the design must tell customers the story of a product and the idea behind it”, Christian Gafner says about his own work. “I have a personal vision of the way in which Eterna can adopt a distinctive profile which sets it apart from other watch brands in future”.
Eterna is not moving into uncharted territory with Christian Gafner: the MIH watch attracted wide attention among professionals. Gafner was responsible for its design concept. MIH stands for the Musée International d’Horlogerie, the watch museum in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, which is the birthplace of an unconventional idea: the museum curator, Ludwig Oechslin, himself a talented watchmaker and inventor, made an ambitious dream come true with the MIH watch. The self-winding movement of the Valjoux calibre 7750 was adapted to satisfy stringent technical criteria by watchmaker and designer Paul Gerber. “An excellent, sensitive design” is how Ludwig Oechslin enthusiastically describes the stylistic execution of his idea by Christian Gafner. (www.mih-watch.ch)
Christian Gafner trained as a general mechanic. A few years after completing his apprenticeship, he studied at the School of Innovation and Design with Hans Zaugg in Solothurn. He completed his studies in 1999 by creating the official military eyewear for the Swiss army. A number of projects followed, including traffic control systems for the cantonal police forces in Zurich and Solothurn, capital goods, product and furniture design, corporate and interface design as well as Internet sites.
The Eterna company, based in Grenchen, has been making high quality mechanical watches since 1956. In its long history, the company has been a pioneer of the watchmaking art with a great many significant developments. Revolutionary innovations, such as the ball bearing rotor and the first mechanical wristwatch with an alarm function, originated in the House of Eterna. Today, the traditional Swiss brand is owned by Ferdinand A. Porsche and is one of the world’s last big manufacturers to remain independent from a group. As licensee Eterna is responsible for the successful Porsche Design watch collection.
Source : Eterna
www.eterna.ch
Contact: a.tobler@eterna.ch
(Please credit europastar.com)
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