Hasta La Ideas

Match beats with a limited-edition watch designed by a DJ

Crispin Jones, London-based designer of conceptual watches, is known for his inventive ways of breaking down time into increments slightly more clever than minutes. Peddled under the label Mr Jones Watches, each timepiece asks its wearer to reconsider how we count time with such creative visualizations as 12 colored circles or seconds marked by “yes” and “no” (dubbed “The Decider”). For his Master of Time series, Jones asked five people who “have an interesting relationship to time” to collaborate with him as a new challenge. The resulting professionals—Iain Sinclair (author), Graeme Obree (cyclist), William Andrews (comedian), Brian Catling (artist) and Tom Middleton (DJ)—helped Jones create distinct watches that are “true collaborations.”

Intermittently launching each design, the fourth and latest model in the series is Middleton’s tribute to the late-night DJ. Tasked with the essential duty of knowing each track’s beats per minute, Middleton designed the watch with a 15-second graphic animation that helps figure the BPM by simply counting the quarter note beats for the duration of the animation, and then multiplying the result by four. (Catch it in action below.)

Jones told us that “introducing another person into the mix seemed a pretty infallible way of throwing a spanner in the works.” Pushing both himself and his collaborators out of their comfort zones, Jones declined from giving anyone “any guidelines about what their role would be,” because with a little ambiguity and not so many preconceptions “you get much more interesting results.”

A limited edition of 100, the BPM watch comes in packaging created by Welsh pattern designer Hannah Davies and signed by both Middleton and Jones. The BPM, along with three other models in the Master of Time collection, sell online for £145 each.

From honey bear bongs to portable Bluetooth speakers, Cool Hunting’s limited-edition series of collaborations

This year, Cool Hunting teamed up with select favorite brands—innovators in technology, design, fashion, and perhaps most fondly, food—to create limited-edition versions of their much-beloved products, available exclusively through our online store and at our pop up for Gap.

When we learned that 160-year-old Swiss watchmaker Marvin was undergoing a revival, we worked with their designer to put a CH spin on their newest style, the Malton 160 Cushion. Our interpretation ($1,250) features green accents and is signed and numbered, as well as engraved with “Toujours Plus” (a riff on one of our taglines, “Always More”). Already sold out, the last chance to get this sleek watch is through our upcoming charity auction. (Stay tuned for details, and check out our recent video on Marvin to learn more about the brand that supplied JFK with gifts for Marilyn.)

Created by CH founder Josh Rubin and his father, the tech-friendly glove brand Freehands came out with a CH Edition ($80) this season. Like all Freehands, these are designed to keep your hands warm while using your mobile phone, camera, iPod and more, but this luxurious version is made from 80% pure cashmere in gray-on-gray stripes, and features the new magnetic design that discreetly secures the finger and thumb flaps back out of the way.

We collaborated with Brooklyn brand Outlier on this Swiss wool hat, an accessory technically designed for bike riding in less-than-cheery weather. Completely wind-resistant, highly water-resistant and with a brim that perfectly shields a rider’s brow, the stylish cap ($90) comes in three colors, keeping you protected from the elements without ruining your holiday party entrance.

Maintaining their minimalist design, local sourcing, and small-footprint credo, Rickshaw created one of their bestselling Zero Waste bags for Cool Hunting. Featuring a green interior and a black exterior, our exclusive multifunctional Zero bag ($150) and its matching CH Edition felt and nylon iPad case ($30) keep your precious goods protected on the go.

Already fans of their caps and belts, we commissioned the creative Tokyo-based label Zillion to completely cover a series of vintage skateboard decks in their dead-stock kimono fabrics. The limited-edition collection was crafted in two styles—with wheels ($850) or without ($750) —each in beautiful patterns that look fantastic hanging on any wall, especially when grouped together.

Local artisan Jill Platner (another craftsperson who’s long been on our list of favorites) created a series of 12 of her signature rawhide bracelets exclusively for Cool Hunting ($205). Handcrafted in New York for nearly two decades, Platner’s jewelry features her trademark sterling silver toggle clasps, but our version comes in a longer bracelet length and a custom dove gray leather.

We’ll be hosting an event premiering our video on Jill in our pop up shop for the Gap soon, check back for details.

Handmade from locally-sourced vintage fabrics in one of the few remaining factories in Manhattan’s Garment District, 3sixteen‘s four patterns of classic ties for Cool Hunting ($80) boast clean lines that demonstrate the menswear company’s extreme attention to detail and craftsmanship.

Other collaborations include the pairing of Brooklyn chocolate purveyors Mast Brothers with San Francisco fruit gastronome June Taylor to create an out-of-this-world artisanal chocolate bar ($10), a beyond delicious Happy Goat scotch caramel sauce, an Esque honey bear water pipe ($360), and Good Fight’s herbal smoking blend. Stay tuned for more in the upcoming days on those Cool Hunting exclusives!

Though it’s not for sale, also keep an eye out for CH giveaways of Jawbone’s brand-new portable Bluetooth speaker the Jambox in custom Cool Hunting Green.

Almost all products will be available through our gift guide as well as our new Cool Hunting x Gap pop up store.

Our pop up in NYC featuring locally-sourced goods

For the 2010 holiday season we’re proud to introduce our first-ever pop up store, bringing together products from independent companies based in the New York region. Set in Gap’s project space on 5th Avenue, the store is a Cool Hunting production from top to bottom. We hand-picked each item using the same principles—innovative design, artisan craftsmanship, social and environmental consciousness—that guide our editorial.

The resulting assortment ranges from Grado headphones to Amy Sedaris’ new book to exclusive one-offs by Jonathan Adler. We’ve also included a series of Cool Hunting collaborations, such as limited-edition Mast Brothers chocolate and an Outlier cycling cap, along with a mini-installation of our digital content.

To come up with a space for showing all these products, we assembled a cast of local partners. ByKenyan designed the interiors, which feature decorative painting by Evolving Image and After the Barn‘s wood reclaimed from barns upstate. RCRD LBL put together a soundtrack of New York bands and Matt Van Ekeren designed a graphic identity.

We’re excited to be working with Gap, a pioneering retailer that redefined American fashion on a global level, to give shoppers a truly unique, local experience.

The shop will be open seven days a week through January 2nd (except for Christmas day) and is located on 5th Avenue between 53rd and 54th Streets. Keep an eye on coolhunting.com/gap for updates on in-store events and other details about the shop.

A cinematic duet between director Michel Gondry and cartoonist Julie Doucet

Highly charming and intensely creative, “My New New York Diary: A Film-Book” by graphic artist Julie Doucet and director Michel Gondry merges graphic novel with cinematic storytelling. The book comes packaged with a DVD, and both are a necessary accompaniment to the other to help tell the tale of Gondry’s meeting with Doucet.

The French director proposed to make a film that would make Doucet the center of the story as she had done before with her autobiographical comic-book novel “My New York Diary,” but with her drawings as the film’s setting and vehicle. As they talked, the process of making the 20-minute film ended up as its very plot.

“My New New York Diary” begins with Doucet talking to Gondry from her home in Montreal before meeting and staying with him in NYC, where they film her in front of a blue screen. She buys a digital recorder and records her observations on everything from Gondry’s quarrels with his housemate to her reluctance at acting in her own story.

After a few days in New York, Doucet returned back to Canada, where she did dozens of drawings. Gondry edited everything, including her narration, and turned her drawings into something live—a talent he previously exemplified so well with “Science of Sleep.”

“My New New York Diary” is perhaps best experienced in the order it was packaged—starting first the book, then with the DVD tucked into the back cover—to truly see how two artists breathe life into their individual mediums.

Gondry is signing the book on 11 November 2010 at L.A.’s Family Bookstore. “My New York Diary” sells online from Amazon and PictureBox for $25.

The streamlined beauty of Jawbone’s palm-sized wireless speaker

Whether at business meetings or just for showing off to friends, it’s rare to see the kind of excitement generated as when we recently demoed Aliph’s new Jawbone Jambox, a portable Bluetooth speaker and speakerphone. Designed by Yves Béhar’s Fuseproject design studio, the diminutive device achieves grown-up style, successfully translating the brand’s sleek premium headsets into a larger model that feels as high quality as easily as it fits in with Scandinavian Modern furniture. Though uniquely different from the company’s other two products, it definitely has Jawbone’s DNA.

Drawing on expertise gleaned over years of making tiny sound components for their earpieces, Behar describes designing the mini-boombox as similarly “packing a lot of technology, and amazing sound, in the smallest package”—a process that still involved “fighting for millimeters.” The upshot of their efforts is a mobile speaker that packs a surprisingly powerful sound. The Jambox can pump out respectable bass as well as high notes (from 60 Hz – 20 kHz) with little distortion.

For any kind of conference-room presentation, it makes a great companion for the iPad. And because it’s a duplex speakerphone (allowing sound to go in both directions) it works well for conference calls on mobile phones too. During our week-long testing, the little guy has proven really versatile and held up well.

Not only does the grill’s wrap-around design distinguish it from other products, but by being a single piece of metal, cuts down on vibrations. The patterns in its perforated surface, one for each of the four colors it comes in “are inspired by soundproofing textures” and “provide structural integrity by bending and distorting the metal sheet,” Behar said when we asked him about the design recently.

Another innovation of the Jambox is the introduction of MyTALK, which allows people to customize language and personalization settings, update the device’s firmware and even set up a speed dial number for the device’s talk button.

Launching today for $199 in red, black, white and grey, it comes with a charger, cables, and a case. Very soon you’ll be able to get a fifth color as we’ve joined forces with Jawbone to offer a limited-edition version of the Jambox in “Cool Hunting Green,” which will be available exclusively through us. More details on that next week!