Clerc Watches
Basel, Switzerland

Biber Architects created a booth for the Clerc luxury watch brand at the Basel Watch trade show in Switzerland. Clerc was a well-established, traditional French watch company that re-launched its brand with all-new watch designs and a new graphic identity by Paula Scher of Pentagram.

The booth was the first environment created around the new brand. It is mobile and collapsible, modular and demountable, and Clerc plans to re-erect it annually at the show. Measuring just 12 meters wide, 6 meters high and 6 meters deep (or 36 feet wide by 18 ft high by 18 ft deep), the booth includes a central meeting and reception area as well as private rooms.

Built of stainless steel, sandblasted glass, wenge wood and leather, the booth draws its clarity of structure from Clerc’s most exquisite watches. The jewels specially set in the stainless steel frames of the watches are referenced in the exhibit by ‘jewel’ cases displaying watches in an illuminated channel that runs around its walls. The shape of the stainless steel table in the center of the booth is also drawn from the Clerc logo and distinctive watch geometry.

Clerc’s elegance is communicated through minimalism and choice of materials, while the shape and structure of the booth reinforces the brand’s graphic identity.

The booth received a Merit Award in the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) Design Award.