ESA and Swatch: a stellar partnership

The night sky with its stars and planets have captured the human imagination since the earliest times. Today’s space technology enables us to see farther into space than ancient astronomers could ever have dreamed. ESA’s science and exploration programmes produce incredibly detailed images from satellites and space observatories, such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. These images provide valuable information for space scientists, but they are also beautiful in their own right.

Now space fans can get creative with some of these iconic space images to create their own personalised space watch, all thanks to an ESA partnership with Swatch. For a limited period, Swatch is making a collection of ESA’s space telescope images available for customising their range of Swatch X You watches. Six new Swatch X You designs will be available for a limited period, each using a space image captured by one of the world’s most advanced space telescopes.

An ‘online configurator’ on the Swatch X You website makes it easy to create and order a unique design. The finished ESA space watch will then be delivered, complete with an ESA-branded loop on the strap, a special sleeve and a postcard featuring the space telescope image used for the design. The designs will be available from 4 October to 17 December 2023, the launch coinciding with the start of World Space Week, an international celebration of how space science and technology helps to improve the everyday lives of people all around the world.

Timekeeping is an essential part of space science and exploration, so it makes sense for ESA to partner with Swatch to produce a watch for space fans. As well as letting people of all ages make a fashion statement about their passion for space, this collaboration shares some of the inspirational imagery produced by ESA’s space programmes more widely. Images like the colossal stellar nurseries revealed by Webb and Hubble help to spark curiosity about space science and ESA’s space ambitions.

Professor Carole Mundell, ESA’s Director of Science and Head of ESAC, was excited about this new partnership between ESA and Swatch: “This is a wonderful opportunity to share our fascination for space and science through these beautiful, inspiring designs. Astronomers were originally the keepers of date and time. Today, our telescopes look back thousands, millions, even billions of years. Whenever you check the time, these watches will also give you a breath-taking glimpse of time and space on a cosmic scale.”

For more information about this exciting new collection, check out the Swatch website.