Hong Kong watch brand Void has launched two limited-edition watches – kicking off a series of unique projects. We spoke to founder David Ericsson about how the designs allowed him to experiment with new ideas.
The Hugin and Munin watches were produced as part of Void’s Research and Development collection, which was created to allow the brand to play with new ideas and receive feedback from customers.
“Making limited editions gives us a bit more freedom in exploring new expressions and is a good way to provide a more unique product to the user,” Ericsson told Dezeen Watch Store.
The names of the two watches are taken from folk tales about the Norse god Odin. “Hugin and Munin were Odin’s ravens in old Scandinavian folklore, they were Odin’s eyes and ears in Midgard (the world),” said Ericsson, who was born in Sweden.
“Since the watches came to be as part of our research and development, we thought of them as our ravens that we send out into the world to get some feedback from customers around the world to see if we’re working in the right direction.”
“Hugin and Munin are also quite familiar characters to most Swedes and Scandinavians so it felt like a fitting name for a pair of watches,” he added.
The packaging of each watch includes a short poem from a passage taken from The Lay of Grimnir – part of a well-known collection of old Norse poetry.
The poem reads: “Thought and Memory each morning fly over the vast earth: thought, I fear, may fail to return, but I fear more for memory.”
“Hugin and Munin symbolise thought and memory,” explained Ericsson.
The watches are both made of stainless steel with calf leather straps. Munin features a brushed gold case and a deep navy strap made of calf leather. Hugin features a sand-blasted black case with a black calf leather strap.
“The colour scheme of Hugin is all black like a raven,” Ericsson said. “We wanted to make an all blacked-out watch just to see how it would look like.”
“The gold, navy and white Munin sort of just came along. but looking at it now I also realise that we’re using the colours of the Swedish flag but that was not really the intention.”
Both of the watches include a graduation of finer markers to thicker markers – a unique feature of these designs.
“I really like this feature because it gives the passing of time a sense of urgency where it builds up at the top of the hour. Then it starts over,” said Ericsson. “It emphasises that time is a continuous cycle and that there are more and less intense moments.”
Void has made 200 of each watch, which are all individually numbered. Dezeen Watch Store is stocking a selection of the designs.
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