The Lebond Attraction - A Thoughtful Tribute To Gaudí's Unfinished Skyscraper

Does great art need to be finished to be appreciated?

This is the question I asked my seven-year-old last night as I was telling him to come to bed mid lego build. ‘You can finish it tomorrow’ I said as the clock ticked past 9pm, a full hour after his agreed upon sleep time.

After he reluctantly left his Magnum Opus unfinished on the floor and climbed in to bed, I got to think about other unfinished masterpieces, and how we tend to idolise them and their creators. The patron saint of unfinished work, Leonardo da Vinci, immediately came to mind. Works like the Adoration of the Magi, Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, and the grand Battle of Anghiari were all abandoned for one reason or another. Most likely Leo’s perfectionism, curiosity and more than a touch of undiagnosed ADHD. Another master of the unfinished, is Antoni Gaudí. His La Sagrada Família is famously still under construction more than a century after his death. It’s unfinished art at its absolute best.

My question is, are we supposed to think less of these great artists for their lack of completion? And is it a sign of disfunction, or pure genius, to be perpetually dissatisfied with what you’re doing? Perhaps it’s this fluidity of ideas and whip-lash motivation that makes these people great?

These are interesting thoughts, all of which I shared with my son as he was drifting off to sleep. ‘I’m too tired daddy, can we talk about it another time?’. Our conversation was left unfinished…..was the next great artist lying beside me?! He will be taking lego commissions shortly.

Gaudí’s Unbuilt Masterpiece

Particularly intriguing among the world of unfinished art is Gaudí’s Hotel Attraction. A skyscraper project that existed only on paper, the building was commissioned by two American businessmen to be built in Manhattan, New York. If completed, it would have been a radical departure from the Beaux-Arts style that was common in the city at the time and would have stuck out like a sore thumb. In the best way possible.

It was set to be 360m tall, constructed with reinforced concrete and house a hotel, concert halls and restaurants, all in Gaudí’s signature organic style of stacked sculptural volumes. Some say it was never built because of illness, ideological disagreements or extreme technical and structural requirements. My feeling is that the world just wasn’t ready for this kind of building yet. It was too far ahead of its time, a bit like my son's Lego creations.

“The straight line belongs to men, the curved one to God” - Antoni Gaudí

Introducing The Lebond Attraction

As a brand founded on the idea of creating watches that pay tribute to incredible architects, it was only a matter of time until Lebond released a tribute to Antoni Gaudí. There’s only one problem, he died in 1926 (the very same year Tudor was founded, incase you didn’t know!). In their past projects with Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura, the architects themselves had a hand in designing the watches. This time, it was Lebond’s founder Asier Mateo who designed the watch, with Gaudí’s Hotel Attraction as his inspiration.

I asked Asier why he chose this project instead of Gaudí’s more popular buildings. He mentioned that along with the simplified image and commercial licensing, he wanted to celebrate the architect’s lesser known works that most fans may not know. ‘The story is unbelievable’ Asier said as he told me about the American investors, and how it would have been the tallest and most impressive building in the world.

It’s very cool to be able to pay tribute to a project that never had its day in the sun, literally. Perhaps Gaudí would have been happy to see his work appreciated, albeit at a very different scale than he intended.

A Case Of Curvilinear Geometry

Taking inspiration from the Catalan master directly, the case is organic and almost pebble like in its form, with rounded lugs and an extremely soft sandblasted finish. I often find that watches made with this organic, nature-driven design to be a little simplistic for me, like it’s been in the rock tumbler for too long and all the detail has been erased. The Lebond Attraction doesn’t feel like that. It’s organic enough to be smooth to the touch but retains nice details like the inward chamfer from the case sides, the elevated case-back and the onion crown that adds tactility to the otherwise simplistic finish.  

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Speaking of the crown, it takes inspiration from what was to be the very peak of Hotel Attraction. A circular ball that, legend has it, was intended as either an observation deck or devotional space. My favourite theory, however, is that it was an element that connected the outside to the inside through light and a view to the sky. Considering a watch crown is intended to connect you with the movement from the outside in, that feels more romantic to me. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

A Circular Dial Best Viewed From Above

At first glance, it would be difficult to recognise the connection between Gaudí’s work and the dial. In true architectural fashion, you need to get some elevation to appreciate how Asier has connected the two. Imagine yourself floating directly above Hotel Attraction, the shapes you see looking directly down would be two concentric circles, one after the other bulging out as the building reaches closer to the ground. Looking at the dial, you can see these two concentric disks that carry the hour and minute hands.

The connection is there, but it requires you to experience the building design before you notice it. This level of thoughtfulness and commitment is really refreshing. Tributes shouldn’t be obvious, they should require careful reflection and a profound understanding of the source material. Asier really nailed it.

Wooden Display Case Or Sculptural Centrepiece

As an optional extra, you can order (with the watch) a beautiful hand turned display case. Although, if I’m honest, calling it a case is like calling a Bugatti a ‘vehicle’. It totally underserves it.

Weighing 3 kg and standing 42 cm tall, it’s more of a sculptural interpretation of the Hotel than an accessory to hold your watch. Each one takes 20 hours to produce out of a solid piece of sapele and is turned by hand to reproduce the exact dimensions of the upper section of Hotel Attraction. Celebrating the beautiful catenary curves that Gaudí is so well known for.

Architects fascinate me. The way they think so deeply about how we live and interact with the world is just so interesting. It’s one of the few art forms that concerns itself with how we as human beings interact with it. I may be wrong, but Leonardo didn’t concern himself with how millions of people a year would interact with the Mona Lisa in a small room in Paris. If only he knew!

Architecture is all about how a space or building makes you feel, and Gaudí was very much at the forefront of reconnecting us with the natural and organic forms that we are made of. With the Lebond Attraction, Asier has taken Gaudí’s vision for his unbuilt skyscraper and brought it to life in a way that only an architect could, with subtlety and thoughtfulness.

This is Lebond’s best release yet.

Cya in the next one x