Same shape, different scale. CAUNY watch by Rafael Moneo

The Cauny Moneo watch is the second in the series "The Architects of Time Series" designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo.

This series, whose first watch was designed by Álvaro Siza, seeks to compose a gallery of watches designed by the best architects of our time.

CAUNY watch by Rafael Moneo. Photograph courtesy of Canuy.

This watch designed by Rafael Moneo is the first wristwatch he designed although he had previously designed the clock for the Atocha Tower and the Logroño City Hall.

The clock, alluding to the succession of moments marked by the hands, has the hours in Roman numerals on the axes of the square, an allusion to the Atocha Station clock with which it shares proportion and shape.

CAUNY watch by Rafael Moneo. Photograph courtesy of Canuy.

Project description by Rafael Moneo

When CAUNY asked me to design a clock I couldn't help but think about the two occasions on which I had drawn one: in the Logroño City Hall and the Atocha Station.

In both, the clock alludes to the meaning of the hours associated with the passing of the day: twelve — noon — as the summit of the day. The hours related to daily activity, distinguishing between morning and afternoon. Not as a succession of moments, something that so clearly happens with the beat of digital clocks. And the hours in Roman numerals and on the axes of the square, a figure that we so often see in the sundials on the walls.

With such a starting point, entering into an experience like this — going from drawing a clock on a building to designing a wristwatch — has been quite a surprise. Working with millimeters and tenths of a millimeter, accustomed to thinking in centimeters and meters, has been a disciplined exercise in which the presence of the texture of the materials was not alien, always making itself felt on our wrist. However, it was no surprise to see, on time and again, that the sense of proportion has always been present and led one to think that both watches came from the same hand.

Madrid, November 23, 2023

Atocha Tower by Rafael Moneo. Photograph courtesy of Canuy.

Drawings. CAUNY watch by Rafael Moneo. Courtesy of Canuy.

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More information

Label

Author

Text

Rafael Moneo.

Label

Model

Text

Cauny Moneo.

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Technical Specifications

Text

-Movement: Extra-thin quartz movement, produced in Japan.
-Crystal: Pure sapphire crystal.
-Bracelet: Bracelet made with Horween leather, produced in Chicago, and reproduces at the end the quadrangular lines of this model.

Label

Brand

Text

Cauny.

José Rafael Moneo Vallés

José Rafael Moneo Vallés (born May 9. Tudela, Navarra,1937) is a Spanish architect. He was won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996. He studied at the ETSAM, Technical University of Madrid (UPM) from which he received his architectural degree in 1961. From 1958 to 1961 he worked with the architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza in Madrid and from 1961-62 in Hellebaeck, Denmark with Jørn Utzon. In 1963 he was awarded a fellowship at the Spanish Academy in Rome. Upon his return to Spain in 1965, he opened his office in Madrid and began teaching at the Escuela Técnica Superior of Madrid.

In 1970 he won a teaching chair in architectural theory at the Escuela Técnica Superior of Barcelona. From 1980 to 1985 he was chaired professor of composition at the Escuela Técnica Superior of Madrid. He has taught architecture at various locations around the world and from 1985 to 1990 was the chairman of Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is the first Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture. In 1991 he was named Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design where he continues to lecture as Professor Emeritus. He became Academic Numerary in the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid in May 1997.

Spanish constructions of his design include the renovation of the Villahermosa Palace (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum) in Madrid, the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, an expansion of the Madrid Atocha railway station, the Diestre Factory in Zaragoza, Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation in Majorca the headquarters of the Bankinter (again, in Madrid), Town Hall in Logroño. He also designed the annex to the Murcia Town Hall, which was completed in 1998. His latest works are the enlargement of the Prado Museum, the extension of the Bank of Spain, an almost totally mimetic reproduction of the existing building and the extension of the Madrid Atocha railway station 2011.

Some of Moneo's prominent works in the US include the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and the Audrey Jones Beck Building (an expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston). Moneo also designed the Chace Center, a new building for the Rhode Island School of Design. Moneo's most recent work is the Northwest Corner Building (formerly the Interdepartmental Science Building) at Columbia University in New York City, which first opened in December 2010.

Moneo is in possession of prestigious international awards including the Prize of architecture Arnold W. Brunner Memorial (1993) of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Schock Prize in Visual Arts (1993) in Stockholm, the Pritzker Prize (1996), the Antonio Feltrinelli (1998) of the National Academy of Lincei in Rome and Mies van der Rohe (2001) of Barcelona.

Biography Dates

	1937	Born in Tudela, Navarra Spain
	1958-61	Worked at the office of Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza
	1961	Obtained degree from the Escuela Técnica Superior, Madrid
	1962	Worked at the office of Jǿrn Utzon, Denmark
	1963	Spent two years at the Spanish Academy, Rome
	1967	Diestre Factory, Zaragoza, Spain
	1976	Bankinter (Bank) in Madrid
	1981	City Hall of Logrono, Spain
	1985-90	Dean at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design
	1986	National Museum of Roman Art, Mérida, Spain
	1987	L’Illa Diagonal, Barcelona, Spain, in collaboration with Manuel Solà-Morales
	1990	Kursaal Auditorium and Congress Center, San Sebastián, Spain
	1991	Murcia City Hall Extension, Spain San Pablo Airport, Seville, Spain
	1992	Madrid Atocha railway station The Pilar and Joan Miro Foundation, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
	1996	Pritzker Architecture Prize Souks, Beirut, Lebanon
	1998	Moderna Museet and Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design, Stockholm, Sweden
	2000	Audrey Jones Beck Building, Houston, Texas
	2001	Iesu Church, San Sebastián, Spain
	2002	Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, California
	2003	RIBA Royal Gold Medal
	2005	Northwest Corner Building, Columbia University, New York, USA, in collaboration with Moneo-Brock Studio
	2007	Museo del Prado extension, Madrid, Spain Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, Princeton University, USA
	2009	New Library of the University of Deusto, Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain
	2012	Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts
	2015 2017	Museum University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain Praemium Imperiale