Ikepod
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IKEPOD is a Swiss wristwatch manufacturer owned by Adam Lindemann and Marc Newson, and specializing in conceptual timepieces.
The IKEPOD story begins in 1986, the year Marc Newson completed his first prototype wristwatch: "Watches were one of the first things I tried to design as a kid," Newson recalls. Dubbed the "POD", this timepiece was part of a wellspring of design innovation that included the seminal Lockheed Lounge (1986) and the iconic Black Hole table (1988). Eight years later, the designer joined forces with Swiss businessman Oliver Ike, forming a company to build upon the innovations of the POD watch and achieve new degrees of design intelligence and daring in the watch industry. IKEPOD launched numerous important and widely lauded designs over the ensuing decade. These eschewed the prevailing infatuation with gratuitous ornamentation in favor of a sensual organic vision. Even the names of the watch collections are drawn from creatures that are exceptions to the conventions of the natural world — from the sea slug (a crustacean without a shell), to the Hemipode (an Australian bird that does not fly), and the Megapode (a stout-bodied large footed Australian bird that does not brood its eggs) had no equals in the realm of the expected. IKEPOD watches received broad praise from design cognoscenti and the international press, as well as commendation from across the global watch industry. In autumn 2005, New York-based entrepreneur, art collector and timepiece aficionado Adam Lindemann, in partnership with Marc Newson, acquired the entire IKEPOD archive and began an intensive initiative to re-launch the company, perfect its production processes and techniques, and affirm its passionate commitment to the startling individuality that first brought acclaim to Newson's inventions.
Industry veterans Pierre Halimi Lacharlotte and Alex Rodriguez joined Lindemann and Newson, spearheading an IKEPOD management team whose foremost priority today is to produce the highest quality and most perfect contemporary design watch in the world.
Under the aegis of this initiative, Marc Newson has personally redesigned and updated every detail of IKEPOD''s' classic models and created an entirely new collection: the Horizon. In this reincarnation, every timepiece is made of platinum, gold or titanium, and every piece is signed and numbered.
Every element of the new IKEPOD is an integral component of the oeuvre of one of the most influential designers of our time – from the leather travel case to the packaging, photography and printed materials – every detail has been validated by Marc Newson and becomes part of his redefinition of watch design.
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