Marc Newson and the Atmos
The Atmos is one of the most poetic creations in watchmaking: a clock that lives on air. Yet even icons can be reimagined.
In 2008, renowned designer Marc Newson gave the Atmos a radical new face: the Atmos 561. Housed in a hand-blown Baccarat crystal bubble, the movement seems to float in space. It displays hours, minutes, months and the moon phase, a blend of science, art and sculpture.
Two years later, he went further with the Atmos 566: inside its crystal cocoon are an equation-of-time display and a sky chart. It became more than a clock, the cosmos in miniature.
In 2016, Newson unveiled the Atmos 568. Its moulded Baccarat crystal case with rounded corners creates the illusion of a movement levitating in mid-air. The moon phase is so precise that it will be off by only one day every 3,821 years.
Newson’s Atmos creations show that reinvention does not betray tradition but deepens it. They carry the soul of the Atmos into the 21st century.
