Updated:
Readtime: 5 min
Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here.
- Swatch AI-DADA lets users create one-of-one NEW GENT watch designs from text prompts
- The tool gives users three prompts per day and generates designs in a matter of minutes
- Users can customise indexes and mechanism colour before ordering
- Each AI-DADA watch costs CHF 170 (approx. AUD$308) incl. VAT
You might not realise it, but AI has already found its way into watches. Audemars Piguet has used it to help automate one of watchmaking’s more painful jobs: setting and winding a perpetual calendar. Casio has also leaned on AI with its R&D teams for the limited-edition G-D001, a one-of-one 40th-anniversary G-SHOCK.
But I can’t say I expected Swatch to turn the technology into a colourful prompt machine that pumps out strange, one-of-a-kind watches. Though we’re talking about a brand that has spent decades treating plastic, colour, art and personal taste as part of the same conversation.
So say hello to AI-DADA, Swatch’s AI-powered design tool that lets users turn text prompts into a custom NEW GENT watch.
How AI-DADA Makes Your Custom Swatch
Once you get past the account login, using AI-DADA is actually pretty straightforward. You prompt the tool with your idea: a chronograph for someone who struggles to tell the time, a whisky bar at midnight, an old Porsche poster, a Bond villain’s pool tiles, the inside of a record store, or a football jersey from some imaginary club.
After a couple of minutes, that prompt becomes a custom NEW GENT design. Once it generates a design, you can refine the watch by choosing whether to add indexes and selecting the mechanism colour, then add it to the cart if you like it. It’ll set you back CHF 170 (approx. AUD$308) including VAT.
That simple.
What Are The Limits Of Swatch’s AI-DADA Tool?
There are a few limits to be aware of. Swatch only gives out three prompts per day, so you can’t just endlessly brute-force your way to the perfect dial. Designs aren’t saved automatically either, so if you accidentally exit the tool before clicking the order button, your work will be lost forever. And because there’s no guarantee AI-DADA will recreate the same design, be careful when opening new tabs.
Once you’re done with your AI-tinkering, the finished Swatch comes with a “1/1” mark on the caseback. Just be mindful that AI-DADA watches are excluded from Swatch’s standard return and refund policy, except for warranty cases. Which, I guess, makes sense when you’re buying a watch generated by an AI prompt. Whether it looks as good on your wrist as it did on your screen is another question.
The AI-DADA Part Isn’t Just Branding
AI-DADA is not being pitched as a generic internet image-generation machine. At least, that’s not how Swatch is framing it. The brand says the “artistic intelligence” tool was fed more than 40 years of Swatch creations, including watches, designs, events, art and street paintings.
The other part of the name is taken quite literally from the Dada movement, which began in Zurich in 1916 and centred on playful experimentation, absurdity and a fairly open rejection of convention. You only need to look at the recent run of collaborations, from the AP x Swatch Royal Pop to the Blancpain x Swatch Scuba Fifty Fathoms and Omega MoonSwatch, to know the brand is fairly comfortable making serious watch people uncomfortable. Even if AI-DADA sounds a little ridiculous, the reference isn’t completely out of nowhere.
But that doesn’t make it any less fun. An AI-powered watch designer could work for other watch brands, but with Swatch doing what Swatch does, it fits. AI-DADA isn’t here to change watchmaking, just like Nike’s custom ‘Nike By You’ configurator hasn’t changed shoemaking.
What Are Some Prompts You Can Give Swatch’s AI-DADA Tool?
It’s giving you three shots a day to make something strange, personal and wearable enough to call your own.
Speaking of which, here’s what we came up with. To see what that actually looks like, we used our three daily prompts and kept things very Man of Many.
Prompt #1
“A late-night whisky bar at midnight: deep amber, dark walnut, smoky shadows, low brass lighting, black leather booths and a quiet backbar glow. Warm, moody and grown-up, with a dial that feels like the last drink before closing.“
Prompt #2
“A Bond villain’s pool tiles: icy blue, deep teal and white geometric patterns, sharp mid-century lines, glossy surfaces and a slightly sinister luxury mood. Make it clean, strange and expensive-looking, like trouble in a tiled room.”
Prompt #3
“The inside of a record store: black vinyl, faded album sleeves, crate-digging colours, sticker-covered counters and warm vintage lights. Make it messy but cool, with layered graphics and a dial that feels like finding a rare pressing.“
Half the fun is just seeing what AI-DADA comes up with. Whether you actually pay for one is almost beside the point. For Swatch, the real achievement is making an AI watch tool feel less like a gimmick and more like something that seems completely natural to the brand’s ethos.
Related reads
- Keith Haring Helped Swatch Start a Movement. 40 Years on, the Watchmaker Is Paying Tribute
- Audemars Piguet X Swatch Ditches the Wrist with Colourful Bioceramic Pocket Watches
- Chaos at Swatch Boutiques as Resellers Flip Swatch X AP Pocket Watch for Thousands
- Google Pixel Watch 2 Is a Fitbit Loaded with AI Technology
Comments
We love hearing from you. or to leave a comment.