Tiffany & Co.’s new Airways clock looks like something MB&F might make in collaboration with L’Epee, the renowned Swiss clock maker famous for its unusual designs. It has the same whimsical, objet-d’art look with an intriguingly openworked clockworks. And in fact it is a collaboratIon with L’Epee, which Tiffany’s parent company, LVMH, acquired earlier this year, three years after it acquired Tiffany. The novelty desk clock is not a new genre for Tiffany. Last year’s 1950s New York City Taxi clock was a cool take on a taxi that looked more California Cadillac convertible than the iconic yellow cabs of Manhattan, particularly with the Tiffany blue colouring, but we get the idea—it’s still very American—and Tiffany is a New York company. And in 2022, it made a Time For Speed race car themed clock inspired by 1950s vintage racers, also in Tiffany blue.
The Tiffany Airways mechanical clock is part of the Time Objects collection, and is inspired by 1930s aviation and the spirit of flight – back when air travel was an adventure, rather than the ordeal it is today. The movement is open to view in the plane’s cockpit, as if it were the plane’s engine. Hours and minutes are shown on large rotating steel disks that circle the nose, with the cage serving as an arrow pointing to the time.
The radiator, just behind the propeller, serves as a winding and setting crown: clockwise sets the time; counterclockwise winds the movement. The wheels are functional, and the propeller spins, so you can actually play with the clock the way you would a model airplane, should you get bored. But at a price tag of RM184,000, be careful not to crash it. The rest of the time, the clock can be mounted on a stainless steel stand, where it perches nose up, as if to take flight. The plane measures 14 inches long by 17.4 inches wide and 10.6 inches high, and weighs 6.6 pounds, including the base. It has an eight-day power reserve. The model is limited, but not numbered, and available at select Tiffany & Co. flagships stores globally.
