Scottish brand Paulin have never shied away from celebrating local Scottish arts and over the years have developed a close relationship with the Glasgow School of Art (GSA). Regular collaborator John Nicol is a lecturer at the school and now they’ve taken it a step further by launching the official Paulin GSA Modul. A made to order wristwatch that’s available at a discount for GSA students and alumi. It has also been designed by a recent graduate student.
GSA Modul was created as part of a project run jointly between the brand and the school that saw Paulin’s creative director Imogen and designer Katie, run a workshop for fourth year Communication Design students. Students were encouraged to explore the challenges of developing a unique typography for wristwatches and one of the designs was then to be chosen to bring forward into production.
The winning design was created by Beth Law and centres on the concept of a folded ribbon. You can see the gentle folds and organic shapes of the ribbon in the lacquer numerals set against a rhodium dial. The numbers are flowing and irregular with sections of different thicknesses and angles – exactly as you would see if you dropped some ribbon carelessly on the floor. In the same manner as many great designs, it takes a relatively simple concept and pushes it to its creative boundaries.
Obviously the watch will have a special meaning to anyone who attended the GSA but at the same time, there’s nothing that excludes it from being just a fun, artistic rendition of the Modul. We’ve just seen the Zapata Modul which also played with our expectations of numerals and makes me wonder if this is part of a longer period of experimentation that Paulin are conducting into the concepts of typography and graphic numeral design for themselves.
Rounding out the Paulin GSA Modul’s specs are its 35mm x 8.2mm proportions in steel and ETA F06.105 quartz movement. Normally I’d complain that it should also be available as a Modul Automatic but considering part of the target audience is students, I understand the decision here. At Lancaster University the best we had on offer was a college themed monopoly set and even then, I was loathe to break out the money for that with my student budget, let alone a watch.
Speaking of, the Paulin GSA Modul is £375 excl VAT or £450 incl. There’s then the GSA discount on top of that if yot are eligible. Plus, if you want to show even more school spirit you can get the white seconds hand produced in the school’s signature magenta instead. As noted, the watch is made to order with delivery expected in December 2025.
Price and Specs:
More details at Paulin.
