Kross Studio: Channelling our inner child

Kross Studio, a recent entrant to the world of haute horlogerie, upends the stereotype of traditional Swiss design, specialising in futuristic collaborations and high-performance collectible products that appeal to the inner child in many of us. “Day & Night” magazine sits down with Marco Tedeschi, Founder and Creative Director of Kross Studio, to talk about his magical creations

Can you tell us about Kross Studio and how you got the idea of starting the brand?
I started Kross Studio in 2020; I always had the idea of combining my two passions – haute horlogerie and art. I had developed a central tourbillon when I was in school, back in 2006, and I wanted to use the movement as a platform to create objects that blend art and haute horlogerie and are linked to the franchises that I love. We started with the Star Wars and Death Star Collector sets, which includes a container that features 980 parts and is much more complicated to produce than the watch itself, even though the watch itself is a complex complication.

What is the weight of the container?
It is around 120 kilos when it is fully charged with the capsules. It is an ultimate collectors set as Star Wars has provided us with a prop that was used in one of the movies.

How is it that a young brand like Kross Studio has been able to get so many prestigious collaborations such as Star Wars, Space Jam, Batman and so on?
I would say that the most difficult one to get was the first one. I worked in parallel with both Warner Bros. and Lucasfilm and I had to convince them that we were about to create something that had never existed before, and we were able to do that. Now, we have a third partner, Hasbro, and we are now targeted by many more license holders that are willing to create watches with us as we are now known as THE watch brand in the licensing world. I have attended several licensing shows in Vegas and London, and we have been approached by many other license holders who are willing to create a singular concept, similar to what we have already done.

You recently launched two new collaborations – Game of Thrones and Transformers; how did they come about?
The Game of Thrones license is part of our contract with Warner Bros. because HBO belongs to Warner Bros., and this is a project that is very dear to me as I am a huge fan of the show. I have watched all eight seasons of it several times and I always wanted to create something that had a link to a dragon. But I did not want to create a dragon watch as there are already many of them in the industry, mainly linked to the Chinese dragons. I felt that Game of Thrones gave me the perfect license to create something around dragons.

Instead of having a dragon on the product, we created a case that is engraved with the scales of the dragon skin, and we have incorporated in the dial the same steel that was used to make the swords for the show; it was also made by the same company that made the swords. It is great to be able to collaborate with new partners; the watch was delivered along with a sculpture that was made by Leblon Delienne, a very famous French sculpture atelier.

The sculpture is a dragon egg; we used a 3-D scan of the prop that was used in the show, and we modified it so as to hold the watch inside. There is a removable platform on the inside of the egg, which holds the watch. You can remove the platform and just use it as piece of sculpture or store whatever you want inside.

You have a collaboration with Hasbro; how did that begin, and does it incorporate all their licenses?
I was contacted by Hasbro in 2022, when I met them at the licensing show in London. They loved what we had done with Warner Bros. and Star Wars, and they wanted to create a Transformer watch. During our meeting, I had the chance to discover all their other licenses and one of them, in particular, caught my attention as I am a huge fan and an intense player and that was the Monopoly license. Next year, we plan to create a product linked to Monopoly; there will be a timekeeping item but not necessarily a watch. We have signed a multi-year, multi-property contract with them; so, you can expect more products with other licenses held by Hasbro, such as Dungeons and Dragons.

Why did you decide on Transformers for your first collaboration?
We had this opportunity to create a watch that is linked to one of the latest movies of the franchise – “The Rise of the Beasts” and, for the first time ever, Hasbro has allowed us to work with the toy development team to create the sculpture that comes along with the watch. We worked with the product development department of Hasbro, and we created a sculpture made of polyresin – a material that looks like stone and is an exact replica of one of the key elements in the movie. Thanks to Hasbro’s expertise in toy development, we managed to create a sculpture, whose chest can be opened to reveal the watch resting inside, spotlit under an LED light – an intriguing sculptural display.

Other than watches, Kross Studio also creates a lot of sculptures; what are your latest creations?
The Hasbro collaboration is our latest sculpture; we also created the Dragon Egg sculpture – a very important partnership for us with Leblon Delienne. We are working with them on a new development, not necessarily linked to a collectors’ set. It is amazing to be able to work with a new medium; at Kross Studio, we generally create every sculpture made of metal. We also have woodworking capacity, but for the first time we have been able to use resin to make moulds and 3-D sculpturing. This allows us to extend the limits of our creativity and we will continue to work with other licenses and brands as they offer great partnership opportunities.