Behind the scenes: The Zombie Pizza

The Zombie Pizza is a particularly special release as it was designed by one of our very own employees, Mariana Calderón - who is also an art conservator when she’s not hard at work in our production team.

Inspired by her Mexican heritage, this ghoulish watch represents how death is always with us but shouldn’t be something to be feared but viewed as a mundane and always present fact. 

This is an idea that’s ingrained in Mexican culture and also links to the tradition of Memento Mori, which is a Latin translation of ‘Remember you will die.’ We’re big fans of this outlook and have four other watches in our collection inspired by the tradition.

The design includes cartoon depictions of eyeballs, fingers and guts all coming to life and moving around on top of a cheesy pizza. 

Here’s what Mariana had to say about her design: 

“I feel that being playful about something as scary as death has always been part of my life. Humour is a way of dealing with the fragility of our own bodies.

“With the use of colour, cartoon style and repetition, things as gory as eyeballs and severed fingers can become humorous. 

“These light-hearted depictions are ingrained in the Mexican visual culture, which often uses things such as skulls and coffins with our own names in front to celebrate how death is with us, not as something ominous but as mundane and always present.” 

Once Mariana had perfected the design, it was time to start production, printing and assembling in our London-based workshop. 

We used luminous ink on the eyeballs of this design so that it would glow in the dark - creating a super spooky atmosphere once the lights go out!

Each colour was mixed individually and printed one-by-one. Then the team hand assembled each of the 100 watches for the limited edition release. 

Did you manage to bag yourself The Zombie Pizza? If you missed out this time, you can sign up to our waiting list.