Introducing America’s PasTIME: An Ian Happ x Berd Vay’e Collaboration
The limited-edition collection of 30 sculptures represents the intersection of two great pastimes – baseball and watches.
By Rhonda Riche
Editor-At-Large
The similarities between the game of baseball and watches do not come out of leftfield. Think about it: a baseball diamond resembles a watch dial, with the bases being indices and players being hands, methodically progressing around the field (albeit counterclockwise). Therefore, Chicago Cubs outfielder Ian Happ, Miami retailer Danny Goldsmith, and NYC-based Berd Vay’e, were a natural marriage right off the bat.
Introducing the Ian Happ x Berd Vay’e : America’s PasTIME objet d’art.
The Stats
Not one of the 30 America’s PasTIME pieces is the same as another. Each is made from ten layers of Lucite, a transparent, shatter-resistant material cast over 24 hours and hand-shaped/polished into a 17-inch baseball bat. However, inside each piece are a selection of vintage watch parts and slivers of wood from baseball bats originally owned and used by Happ. The watch components are of high quality and increasingly rare, most being between 50 and 100 years old. For his part, Goldsmith was central to the conceptualization, design, and bringing together all three collaborators.
Raising the Game
Co-founders of Berd Vay’e, Eddie Kurayev and Albert Akbashev, have been working to preserve the venerable history of watchmaking through their art since 2014; oftentimes in painstaking detail. In the case of America’s PasTIME, each piece commands over 48 hours of work.
According to Kurayev, “the real trick is meticulously positioning the parts by hand, so that it appears the swirling wood splinters and mechanical hands, and gears, appear to be in motion. Selecting the vintage watch parts and bat elements can be as challenging as matching gemstones in a piece of fine jewelry. It’s a necessary part of the process.”
Swing Away
Happ also counts himself as a fellow Watchonista and is a rabid watch enthusiast. Recently, Happ teamed up with Oris to gift a very special Roberto Clemente Limited Edition.
America’s PasTIME objet d’art is priced at $4,000 per piece and available exclusively at the newly-opened Goldsmith & Complications.
(Images © Berd Vay'e)
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