You can now personalise a Swatch watch with an iconic ESA space image
The designs are available from October 4 to December 17, 2023
The European Space Agency (ESA) and Swiss watchmaker Swatch have entered a commercial collaboration that allows space fans across the globe to design their space-themed watch using stunning images of deep space captured by two space-based telescopes.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope produce incredibly detailed images of the cosmos. These high-resolution images provide valuable information to space scientists, but they are also beautiful in their own right.
Timekeeping is essential to space science and exploration, so it makes sense for ESA to partner with Swatch to produce a watch for space fans.
Space fans are now being offered the opportunity to get creative with some of these iconic space images to create their personalised space watch.
Limited offer
For a limited period, Swatch is making a collection of ESA’s space telescope images available for customising its range of X You watches.
Six new Swatch X You designs are available for a limited period, each using a space image captured by one of the world’s most advanced space telescopes.
An ‘online configurator’ on the Swatch X You website makes creating and ordering a unique space image design easy. The finished ESA space watch will then be delivered, complete with an ESA-branded loop on the strap, a unique sleeve and a postcard featuring the space telescope image used for the design.
The designs are available from October 4 to December 17, 2023; the launch coincides with World Space Week, an international celebration of how space science and technology help improve people’s lives worldwide.
What ESA is up to
As well as letting people of all ages make a fashion statement about their passion for space, this collaboration shares some of the inspirational imagery produced by ESA’s space programmes more widely.
Images like the colossal stellar nurseries that Webb and Hubble revealed help spark curiosity about space science and ESA’s space ambitions.
Professor Carole Mundell, ESA’s Director of Science and Head of ESAC, said: “This is an excellent opportunity to share our fascination for space and science through these beautiful, inspiring designs.
“Astronomers were originally the keepers of date and time. Today, our telescopes look back thousands, millions, even billions of years. Whenever you check the time, these watches will also give you a breath-taking glimpse of time and space on a cosmic scale.” Mundell added.
Featured image: Each customised watch from the Swatch X You collection comes with a postcard of the space telescope image used in the design. Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Ferraro; CC BY 4.0/A. Jacobs/A. Di Giacomo
