New York-based artist and designer Phillip Toledano and Hong Kong-based designer Alfred Chan continue to reinvent the world of watchmaking by creating a new version of their inaugural B/1 watch, inspired by brutalist architecture.
The designer-collector duo is already back in top form at the start of 2025. After making a splash last year with their first B/1 watch featuring a lapis lazuli dial, nicknamed the "galaxy dial," they seem to be following the same path with their new model. The B/1.2 remains an exploration of form and material, this time showcasing Tahitian mother-of-pearl set beneath an asymmetrical sapphire crystal. The young brand Toledano & Chan thus adds another sculptural piece to its collection in a play of glass and light, maintaining its commitment to developing its own design language.
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Brutalist architecture
It's no surprise when you know that Phillip Toledano, artist and entrepreneur, and Alfred Chan, a former automotive design graduate, are admirers of watches with integrated bracelets from the early 1970s. Since they bonded on Instagram over this shared love, they have both continued to draw inspiration from two other sources: the Rolex King Midas, launched in 1962, and the brutalist architecture of the 1950s.
Their minimalist, geometric and angular watch is inspired in particular by the shape of the trapezoidal windows of the mythical Breuer Building in New York, designed by Marcel Breuer, associated with the Whitney Museum and acquired by Sotheby's in 2023. The result is a surprising collision of all these ideas.
Shaped Watches
The B/1.2 subtly distinguishes itself from its larger sibling. While it retains the same dimensions (33,5 millimeters wide and between 9,1 and 10,4 millimeters thick due to the case's angled surface), the addition of sapphire crystal enhances the dial's iridescence with flashes of light through refraction. The angular hands are also similar to those of the B/1, featuring neither numerals nor symbols, but the bracelet and clasp have been redesigned to complement the new dial.
The overall effect is enhanced by its asymmetrical design, which reverses the angle of the steel case. To play with the brutalist aesthetic, each model is delivered in a hand-molded concrete box, similarly echoing the shape of the watch.
From the B/1 by Toledano & Chan to the Audemars Piguet [RE]Master02 and the surrealist “Mirage” collection by Frenchman Sylvain Berneron, shaped watches focused on design seem to have seen a resurgence of interest in recent years.
At the time of success
Today, Phillip Toledano and Alfred Chan have three watches produced. The inaugural edition of the B/1, released in 2024, sold out in under an hour. Another unique piece, infused with carbon fiber and copper, was acquired at Sotheby's for $24,000. A prototype of the B/1M, sculpted from a meteorite fragment, fetched $35,560 at Phillips' "TimeForArt" sale last December.
While the B/1.2 will be available for sale and order from March 2025 at a price of 5,530 euros (5,700 dollars), the design duo is already working on a B/2, which should be released in 2026.
