Imagine a world without colours. It would probably look quite gray and dreary, similar to an old black and white film. Colour gives life to our world and character to our objects. For designers, colour is a fundamental tool of design and as such it has always been an object of perception theory. Our current understanding of colour was decisively influenced by a famous German design institution: the Bauhaus.
The new TRES colores from BOTTA puts colours in the spotlight, representing the connection between Bauhaus teachings and BOTTA's design philosophy.
"To lead a person to his colors is to lead him to himself."
This quotation comes from the Bauhaus teacher Johannes Itten. He led the preliminary course at the revolutionary school of design in the early years. In this role he had a decisive influence on the philosophy and values taught at the institution.
At the Bauhaus, the human being was placed at the centre of every design
Johannes Itten's sentence reveals a lot about the ideals of the Bauhaus, which existed only from 1919 to 1934, but still has a great influence on the design of our products and buildings today. At the Bauhaus, people were placed at the centre of every design. This was connected with the negation of previous styles. The new society after the war was to be more liberal, it was to be free of representation - in short: it was to be more human. Following this ideal, the products were radically new. They did not quote past times. They were clear, reduced and ultra-modern in aesthetics and materiality. The latest raw materials and processes were used to offer fundamentally different solutions to problems. Impressive witnesses of this approach are cantilevered steel tube or glass curtain walls. These and other innovations have survived to this day. This is because they were answers to very fundamental questions. The aim was not to design a new armchair, otherwise it would probably have looked like conventional armchairs. They asked for possible solutions to the question of sitting.
The Bauhaus products are so successful in the long term because they pursued contemporary ideals that are still valid today. They are philosophy turned into products - philosophy of practical life.
Bauhaus and above all its values are an important foundation for our work at BOTTA. We too are constantly confronted with new design questions that demand answers. With our watches and our products, we always ask ourselves how we should design their innermost essence. The innermost essence of every Bauhaus watch is the time and its graphic representation. At BOTTA, this procedure is called "genetic design" because products are designed from scratch.
BOTTA watches, as a result of this process, are therefore conceptually and aesthetically unique products in the advanced spirit of the Bauhaus.
The TRES colores is our latest model, which represents the BOTTA design philosophy and pays special tribute to Bauhaus as a source of inspiration.
A watch for time-designers
BOTTA watches are originals that transfer the fundamental Bauhaus values to the present day, instead of simply copying the Bauhaus aesthetics. Originality was of great importance at the Bauhaus, where a new aesthetic was sought.
BOTTA adds symbolism and sophistication to the Bauhaus values to create an "Extended Functionalism of the 21st century". This is particularly evident in the extraordinary display principles of BOTTA models. At BOTTA, time is perceived above all in its emotional-sensual dimension and is made tangible in designs that are strong in character.
TRES colores shows this in its own way. It plays discreetly with the theme of colour. The hands in the Bauhaus colours red, blue and yellow turn playfully over the deep black dial in the typical TRES layout. Its raised numerals provide an elegant play of light when light falls on them. These details, which are sometimes only visible at second glance, distinguish the TRES colores and underline their high design standards.
The design concept is also consistently continued on the back of the TRES colores. The automatic version presents its ETA automatic movement through a second sapphire crystal. The colors of the three hands are repeated here as a technical metaphor in the red of the bearing ruby, the gold color of the balance and the metallic shimmering blue of the rotor.
The automatic version with its stainless steel case has a particularly fine DLC (Diamond-Like-Carbon) coating
The quartz version is sealed by a metallic blue ion plated base. It has a tri-titanium housing which is coated by PVD (Physical Vapour Deposition).
Both variants are equipped in the usual BOTTA manner with a double domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides, which is robust and highly transparent.
In addition to its aesthetic appeal, TRES colores is also a statement for conscious living in all its diversity thanks to its use of high-tech materials and components – in keeping with the Bauhaus spirit.
As a watch with a special design philosophy, the TRES colores embodies creativity like no other watch. This begins with the watch itself through its special details such as the coloured components, for example the rotor of the automatic watch coated in noble blue.
All customers receive the watch in an attractive bundle, in which the creative environment is carried along with it. Each copy will be sent with three Polychromos pencils in the Bauhaus colours red, blue and yellow, as well as a custom-made BOTTA sketchbook. This was embossed in the Königstein based master bookbinder's workshop Halbach und Viel. With this set, TRES colores invites all its wearers to be creative themselves.
BOTTA and Bauhaus - a special connection
BOTTA's idealistic relationship to the Bauhaus is not by chance. The Bauhaus was the first design college to bear the title "Hochschule für Gestaltung" (College of Design). Klaus Botta, owner of BOTTA and inventor of pioneering watch models, is a product design graduate of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach am Main. This is a successor institution to the Bauhaus and is closely linked to the world-famous role model in its orientation and teaching.
