Left-to-right: Swatch Across the Town / SG50 (SKK1000F), the 37-metre Sentosa Merlion and the Swatch Cherry-Berry / SG50 (GR154N) Special Edition. The two Swatch special editions feature either the red or white colours of Singapore’s national flag and both have a white loop with the SG50 logo commemorating the nation’s 50th anniversary of its independence (1965 to 2015). The two Swatch watches are each priced at SGD69. The Sentosa Merlion, designed by Australian sculptor James Martin, was completed in 1995 and thus celebrates its 20th birthday in 2015. Photo of Sentosa Merlion: © TANG Portfolio. Image of the Sentosa Merlion lighted up with Singapore’s national flag colours and symbols taken on 8 August 2015 at 9pm. Photo of the two Swatch special edition watches: © Swatch
Products that are risk-flagged, in a sense, serve as alerts to indicate some level of risk involved if one were considering dealing with such items.
For us, timepieces that are “wrist-flagged” (pun intended) are watches worthy of mention or perhaps recommendation, or even both, for noteworthy reasons.
The Swatch Cherry-Berry / SG50 (GR154N) Special Edition in red and the Swatch Across the Town / SG50 (SKK1000F) in white deserve mention simply because these are colours of Singapore’s national flag and are commemorative timepieces celebrating the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s independence (1965 to 2015).
The red and white on Singapore’s national flag form two equal horizontal sections.
What is the significance of the red and the white? The red symbolises universal brotherhood and the equality of men while the white represents purity and virtue.
In addition to the red and white, Singapore’s national flag has a moon crescent and five stars forming a circle in white and within the red section.
The crescent moon represents a young nation on the ascendant while the five stars symbolise the country’s ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality.
The crescent and five stars can actually be seen on the tail of the Merlion statue as shown in the image above thanks to projection mapping, also known as video mapping or spatial augmented reality.
With special software, projection mapping can be achieved and odd-shaped objects can be used as a “screen” for video projection. What is seen in the image above is the Merlion Sentosa.
Located on Sentosa Island, it so happened that this 37-metre tall statue was decorated with the image of Singapore’s national flag symbols and colours on 8 August 2015, the eve of the country’s independence day.
Lasting for a few seconds before the next image mapping projection appears, this is one of the decorations used as part of the spatial augmented reality show that night.
We thought it was apt to use this as our background to highlight the Swatch Cherry-Berry / SG50 (GR154N) and the Swatch Across the Town / SG50 (SKK1000F) special editions.
Apart from the red and white, the two Swatch quartz watches also bear the SG50 logo on the loop for the strap.
With the understanding of the red and white symbolism, perhaps one can better appreciate these two special edition Swatch watches commemorating Singapore’s 50th anniversary of its independence. Each priced at SGD69, we would flag them as low risk items.
Other related articles that might be of interest on timewerke.com:
i. Longines Master GMT Singapore: Independence Day
ii. Audemars Piguet Floral Clock: AP Royal Oak with granite bezel?
iii.Montblanc Star Classique Singapore Special Edition: Lion City
iv. Jaeger-LeCoultre Grande Reverso Night & Day Singapore Special Edition: The day and night watch