Artistic to the core
AI-DADA has been fed with over 40 years of Swatch creations, drawing from a rich archive of visual materials including watches and designs but also events, art and street paintings.
Since AI-DADA clearly channels Swatch's creative soul, it’s only fitting that in our case, "AI" stands for “Artistic Intelligence".
Inspired by the Dada revolution
"DADA" is a reference to the Dada art and literary movement which emerged in 1916 at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich.
Celebrated for its playful experimentation and for challenging the norms, this movement embraced values that have long been central to us.
Unsurprisingly, we've always felt a strong connection to Dada, drawing inspiration from its essence on many occasions.
From the archives: When time met Dada
In 2004, together with the city of Zurich, we revived the long-forgotten Cabaret Voltaire and birthplace of the Dada movement, returning it to artists through a landmark event and two watch releases.
Launched in November 2003, DADA TRACES (GZ184) had a transparent case and dial that exposed its inner workings, an homage to Dada’s absurd machines. Newsprint on the strap echoed the movement’s radical origins.
Released in 2004, the limited-edition DADAZUERI (SUFZ100) featured a square dial with collaged lettering that spelled out its name and came with original Dada-era documents.
Its launch at the Neue Zürcher Zeitung printing plant in Schlieren was a surreal Dada absurdity, complete with deafening music, a “contemporary press” that extracted time from clocks as blue liquid, and overlapping speeches and poetry readings in mystifying languages.
