A poetic meeting of darkness and light as the ‘Queen of Watch’ Miss Christie Wo let’s the Rebellious Culture Collective boy’s of ROCK CANDY into her proverbial watch workshop to kick off a collaboration and partnership of opposites.
 
Hong Kong’s premier watch and lifestyle brand CHOUETTE partners with ROCK CANDY, Hong Kong’s contemporary jewelry, accessories and apparel brand to present a unique product collection. The collection debut’s with the premier at ROCK CANDY’s new boutique and CHOUETTE’S newly launched flagship store.
 
Coined “Beauty & the Beast”, aptly named after the respective brands and founders, the collection will deliver in three installments with a two watch pack being the first product release.
 
“Unlike most collaborations you see spat out with nothing more than a logo placed in said location, this project is true to form with CHOUETTE allowing us to work with a new unreleased case they had in development and basically create a new watch from scratch” said Mat Hayward of ROCK CANDY. “The original story of Beauty & the Beast dating back to the 1500’s conjured up spectacular visions of enchantment, desire and death and that naturally seemed to fit with the project and our two brands”.
 
“BEAUTY & THE BEAST” BLK EDITION
The “Beauty & the Beast” Collection launches a new CHOUETTE watch to their line and the first watch for ROCK CANDY. Two watches using the same case but polar opposites like the brands behind the collaboration showcase the true entwining of the design process.
 
The collection builds on the new case for CHOUETTE derived from their signature SPARKLE model. At the onset of the partnership with ROCK CANDY’s design brief asking for more trademark purity in design and form, Miss Christie Wo offered up the new case. This allowed the project to literally start from scratch and create clean and subtle aesthetics.
 
ROCK CANDY based the designs on their trademark ‘blacked out’ designs and use of black diamonds. It centres around the beautiful simplicity of CHOUETTES new case and the contrast to the more aggressive custom spiked bezel that ROCK CANDY brought to the table from recent jewelry collections. The spiked design is also carried through into the custom spiked crown completed with countersunk black diamond.
 
The development process also entailed the creation of a new strap, complete with dual debossed logo’s on facing sides. This allowed the watch to be clean of logo’s on the face that was key to the clean design language, where a new clasp with dual engraved logo’s finish the subtle package.
 
The collaborative timepieces are presented in special edition custom packaging that once again highlights the depth of the collaboration with Line Art Illustrations from both brands being intertwined on the outer box, with engraved metal plated inner wooden box. “Beauty” and the “Beast” come with the engraved casings, carrying the collection branding and individual limited edition numbering.
 
“BEAUTY” BLK EDITION
A contrast of darkness and light in one piece, “Beauty” has more of the original CHOUETTE design DNA from it’s parent watch SPARKLE. A beautifully clean and sparse stainless steel case has been blacked out, with fine brushed finish which creates a beautiful contrast to the full Pave dial with 502 black CRYSTALLIZED™ - Swaroski Elements. Custom molded black silicon strap with debossed dual logo’s on facing sides of the case and an engraved butterfly buckle complete this dark princess.
 
“BEAST” BLK EDITION
A completely blacked out model, the “Beast” version leans more towards the boys of the Rebellious Culture Collective. The elegant and clean brushed black stainless steel case is paired with a matte black dial to keep the super clean backdrop. This allows the spiked bezel and hot pink minute and hour hands to really stand out from the sedate foundation. Glossy black hour index’s give a subtle contrast to finish off this “beast”.
 
“I believe that the end result speaks for itself. Two very dissimilar brand personalities came together to create a unique product born from different ideals” said CHOETTE Founder and Chief Designer Miss Christie Wo. “The ROCK CANDY crew have very definite ideas as to their design and mixing that with my strong product direction for CHOUETTE proved challenging and rewarding at the same time.”.
 
The CHOUETTE & ROCK CANDY “Beauty & the Beast” BLK Edition will be followed by a second 2 watch pack and later a small limited piece jewelry collection. Stay tuned.