Catalogue For What It's Worth

Timepiece is a silent film documenting the disassembly and hand-mounting of the mechanics of an original Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional Cal. 1861 wristwatch, a timepiece that entered space during the first NASA expedition to the moon. It shows the process of taking the watch apart, unveiling its iconic mechanics, and subsequently the replacement of its original barrel and mainspring with a duplicate.

This silent film contributes to a discussion about the importance of time and the proposed necessity to create memorable events in our present-day economy. What influence does this have on the creation of value, for example in case of this timepiece and its relation to the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing? What does a business model like that reveal, and how does it suit the counterfeiter? Moreover, what would be an appropriate ‘counter’: when the authentic parts of luxury watches are smuggled inside fake watches in order to subsequently reassemble these to make up complete originals again?

Timepiece is part of the series Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter realized thanks to the support of the Italian Council (3rd Edition), Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The series of artworks entered the permanent collection of MAMbo Museum Bologna. Read more about Fragments of a Conversation with a Counterfeiter on: http://diegotonus.com/work/timepiece/

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