IFL Watches Celebrates Street Art With The Festina Freedom
The team at IFL Watches doesn’t sit still. It’s been barely a month since the brand unveiled its fun Citizen Tsuyosa Calavera. For the latest project, IFLW chose a new platform for its artwork. To celebrate the idea of freedom, the brand created hand-painted dials for two Festina On The Square models. The larger 36mm one is targeted at men, while the smaller 29mm version is aimed at women. The team at IFLW created similar artwork for both, combining figurative elements, typography, and protest imagery on their dials. Let’s find out more.
Sometimes, an idea for a new dial starts with a big concept. Last month’s Citizen Tsuyosa Calavera collection perfectly celebrated Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, with colorful dials featuring well-known imagery related to the holiday. For this new Festina Freedom, the idea started with something much smaller but, ultimately, no less effective. It perfectly shows that creativity can come from everywhere.
The idea for the new Festina Freedom
As simple as it may sound, the starting point for this series was the “F” on the dials of these Festina watches. Whereas that typographic detail normally represents the brand, it became a symbol backed by a visual manifesto embodying the idea of freedom.
Each hand-painted dial features a colorful railroad track that serves as the frame for the artwork. The painting inside it is rendered in a stencil-and-spray style, a technique often used in contemporary street art. This style is what often transforms public walls into canvases for social commentary and creative expression.
The story of freedom on a dial
A closer look at the artwork reveals a young child pulling back a curtain to see a colorful brick wall, with a reference to Nelson Mandela as a graphical accent that represents freedom. Placed around the image of Mandela is colorful graffiti emphasizing the artwork’s theme. The result is a dial that blends figurative elements, typography, and a message of protest into a small, wrist-worn statement.
The contrast between the colorful street-style art and the classic white outer track holding the Roman numerals makes this quite an interesting creation. As always, each dial is hand-painted by IFL’s in-house artists. Because of this, every one features subtle variations in brushwork, contrast, and texture, ensuring that no two dials of the 400 total dials are the same.
Festina On The Square specifications
Festina’s On The Square collection is one of its most distinctive, celebrating classic rectangular watches. The two specific models that IFLW chose for its latest project feature a silver-colored dial with Roman numerals and blue hands. Of course, this is the iconic style that Cartier made famous.
The larger model has a 36mm × 48mm stainless steel case with a 9mm thickness and 19mm lug spacing. This case features a mix of brushed and polished parts and comes paired with a stainless steel bracelet with a compact push-button folding clasp.
The smaller model has a 29mm × 39mm stainless steel case with an even thinner 8mm profile and a 16mm lug spacing. It comes with a stainless steel bracelet similar to that of the larger version. Both watches are powered by the same Miyota GR12 quartz caliber. This 2.71mm-thick movement offers a date complication, an average accuracy of ±20 seconds per month, and a three-year battery life. It’s a reliable, worry-free caliber to power the new IFLW Festina Freedom.
A limited edition of 200 pieces per size
As already mentioned, the IFLW team will create 200 dials for each of the two models. Both the 36mm and the 29mm versions will go on sale today at 16:00 CEST for US$590 on the official IFLW website. The new Festina Freedom is one of IFLW’s most affordable releases to date, and that is why I am sure these watches will sell fast. If you are interested in buying one of the 400 available pieces, head over to the brand’s website before they sell out.
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