Wearable Reliquaries for the 21st Century

No, it’s a watch.

Made by Romain Jerome in an echo of the Sand-Bangles that I like the idea of for some reason… only these watches are made out of AK47s, or bits of the Titanic or in this case… contain moon-dust

(via)

Which doesn’t grow on trees.

Does it? No. It doesn’t. It grows on the moon.

Normally I take a fairly dim view of watch-design-porn… it seems like a massive exercise in fluffing wealthy but insecure men… or still more neo-paleofuturistic design… which isn’t really cool until it is recognisably retro… but with these, I’ll make an exception because they remind me of reliquaries.

And I seem to have this enthusiasm for really long echoes across time… so long as they are echoes. When I was a kid I can remember this catholic priest (who used to teach me to speak French) showing me this little black box with a glass lid… and inside was a tiny fragment of bone, allegedly belonging to St Paul. That’s a bit creepy if you ask me… but a 21st century echo of that is quite cool – which is why I’ll let them off for using the bones of the Titanic… which is probably a bit creepy as well when you think about it.

I think I’m interested in these things because… people are increasingly buying stories. An artefact’s value is enhanced if there’s a story attached… particularly if the story is unique. I think that’s why I like the sand-bangles. You could fill them up with your own stories.