Keeping time: Mondaine's latest model pays tribute to the New York City subway
As a home-from-home, New York City has always had a special place in Wallpaper's (and countless others') hearts. The Swiss watch company Mondaine clearly feels the same way. The design stalwart recently released its tribute to the Big Apple: three new styles of its Helvetica watch in colours that nod to the New York City subway.
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

As a home-from-home, New York City has always had a special place in Wallpaper's (and countless others') hearts. The Swiss watch company Mondaine clearly feels the same way. The design stalwart recently released its tribute to the Big Apple: three new styles of its Helvetica watch in colours that nod to the New York City subway.
The range’s light, regular and bold watches have been given the true New York treatment: all black faces and cases paired with minimal white dials and numerals. A flash of colour appears on the underside of each watch’s strap: red, blue and green to represent three of the city’s most popular subway lines.
Mondaine’s selection of the Helvetica watch for this purpose is no coincidence. In the 1960s, after years of using a confusing blend of different signage, typefaces and styles, the City of New York hired the firm Unimark to create a standardised design for the subway, allowing commuters to clearly navigate the underground. After extensive research, Helvetica was chosen as a typeface and the black and white model that still reigns today was formed. The changes were swiftly implemented by the creation of Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda’s style guide, ‘New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual’, and by the 1990s, Helvetica ultimately became the sole font to be used on the subway.
In honour of these landmark design events, each Mondaine watch comes wrapped in a special giftbox featuring the iconic Vigenlli subway map and including a set of vintage postcards – a perfect gift for true New Yorkers.
The Helvetica range’s light, regular and bold watches have been given the true New York treatment: all black faces and cases paired with minimal white dials and numerals, embellished with restrained flashes of colour that represent three of the city's subway lines
Each special edition is packed in a special giftbox featuring the iconic Vigenlli subway map, which also includes a set of vintage postcards
An example of the New York City subway's eye-catching visual language, which is also reflected in Mondaine's gift box
INFORMATION
The ’No. 1 New York’ Helvetica, $540. For more information, visit Mondaine’s website (opens in new tab)
Pei-Ru Keh is the US Editor at Wallpaper*. Born and raised in Singapore, she has been a New Yorker since 2013. Pei-Ru has held various titles at Wallpaper* since she joined in 2007. She currently reports on design, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the United States, both in print and digitally. Pei-Ru has taken a key role in championing diversity and representation within Wallpaper's content pillars and actively seeks out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive.
-
Home and art gallery Maison Colbert is a London transformation story
Maison Colbert by Chris Dyson Architects reimagines a row of London houses into a single home and artist's gallery in the East End
By Marwa El Mubark • Published
-
Stanya Kahn’s Frieze Los Angeles commission to unearth the ‘understory’ of human intervention in nature
We speak to multidisciplinary artist Stanya Kahn, whose ‘Understory’ installation will be unveiled at Frieze Los Angeles for the 2023 R.U.in.ART Commission
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
On your marks: the best looking sports watches
Choose the right sports watch for you, for its capabilites or its tools for outdoor adventure, bringing the greatest physical and mental benefits
By Hannah Silver • Published
-
Female Californian designers celebrated in R & Company exhibition
R & Company presents ‘Born Too Tall: California Women Designers, Postwar to Postmodern’
By Tilly Macalister-Smith • Published
-
Rockefeller Center unveils new look in time for its Christmas tree lighting
A guide to the new Rockefeller Center: renovated buildings and new restaurants to discover in time for the Christmas tree lighting on 30 November 2022
By Pei-Ru Keh • Published
-
Adi Goodrich launches playful and cleverly efficient furniture collection
Adi Goodrich’s new furniture collection is rooted in simplicity and inspired by her childhood lumber yard visits and Enzo Mari’s Autoprogettazione
By Pei-Ru Keh • Published
-
Tiwa Select New York space opens with exhibition by Megumi Shauna Arai
Tiwa Select debuts first IRL New York space, showing Megumi Shauna Arai’s ‘Moments of Fulfilment’
By Pei-Ru Keh • Last updated
-
Canoe Place Inn by Workstead opens in Hampton Bays, Long Island
Dating as far back as 1656, Canoe Place Inn is America's oldest inn, now reopening following a restoration project led by Workstead
By Pei-Ru Keh • Last updated
-
Moroso marks 70th anniversary with New York flagship store
By Martha Elliott • Published
-
Matter Design and Sanford Biggers explore liminal realms in Detroit
The MIT-based design practice and American visual artist present a collaborative exhibition during the 12th annual Detroit Month of Design (on view until 17 December 2022)
By Siska Lyssens • Last updated
-
Jacqueline Sullivan opens theatrical design gallery in TriBeCa
Wallpaper* speaks to gallerist Jacqueline Sullivan as she debuts her TriBeCa space with commissioned works inspired by Gertrude Stein's poems
By Tilly Macalister-Smith • Last updated