You might think the term “gaga” here, which in French is slang for “crazy,” refers to the way colors are scrawled in a wild, seemingly abandoned way on the markers of this platinum case, aventurine dial Ballouard Upside Down watch. But you would be mistaken. “Gaga” in this context is short for Gabriel, Ballouard’s son, who designed the watch you are looking at. The meaning behind this first partnership between the independent watchmaking journeyman and his son goes much deeper than that.
Looking at the dial, you might be charmed by the lovely aventurine, and then intrigued by the seemingly primal and vivid application of prime colors on the hour marker disks and the small seconds indicator. You might ask, is this some kind of Cy Twombly, Jean-Michel Basquiat-like artistic scrawl? But this watch is something more than a visually appealing act of design.
The hand coloring on the dial was created by his son Gabriel when he was three years old and represents what Ballouard hopes is the first of many collaborations between father and son. But it is the story of Gabriel’s birth and how it inspired the creation of this timepiece that I find so poignant and that provides an understanding to Ballouard’s attitude to life. Indeed, the story of this watch and the story of Gabriel are so inextricably intertwined that I feel compelled to tell his story even before delving into the details of the timepiece. If this seems an unconventional way to launch a watch, please bear with me. I think you will find
