Danielle & I live and breathe watches. It’s all-encompassing: wearing, using, enjoying, designing, and chatting with our wonderful customers, many of whom have become great friends. It is a privilege.
When working on a watch, particularly the Helicon Master, we find inspiration in every corner of our daily lives. Context matters, and when you consider that the watch inspiring the Master was made in 1962—the year John Glenn became the first American in space and The Beatles signed with EMI—you can see the rich vein of history that inspires us.
Helicon is fortunate to be based in Elstree, just outside London and close to the famous movie studios. Many things here inform and inspire us.
Danielle always carries her ‘tools of the trade’ with her: pens, notebooks, and advanced technical equipment like an app on her phone that scans images and colours.
We had the privilege of staying at Babington House, Soho House’s famous country house in Somerset. In that wonderful house is a study where we have spent many hours reading and sketching. This inspirational space, with its beautiful interior decor and vistas of the croquet lawn, sparked the idea for The Lichen. Using a palette of different colours, we mixed our own particular hue of green, which Danielle scanned into her Mac to create an accurate formulation for our dial maker.
We wanted to take this classic English look and make it one of our 50-piece limited editions of the Helicon Master collection. By finding the right formulation of green and adding a contemporary ‘metal flake’ into the mix, we captured the sparkle of a warm, sunny English afternoon. The result is a calming colour that remains legible and sporty.
We have received many wonderful compliments from owners and watch aficionados. It’s rewarding that our vision has been warmly received around the world.
Have a look at the photo at the top of this blog. It’s from our good friend and Helicon Lichen owner Kirk, taken by him in the Arizona desert among the indigenous cacti. It’s wonderful to see how the watch we created and that inspires us translates and travels the world so well!
