Pentagram has designed a second instalment of Ten Ten, the annual high-end watch supplement which accompanies biannual style magazine Port. Ten Ten was previously given a smart new look for its 2019 edition by Pentagram’s design team.
Striking images contrast with the design team’s confident application of type throughout the 88-page publication. The layout features Ten Ten’s familiar time-based content navigation system which leads readers through the articles, with references to time and hour-markers dotted throughout.
The magazine opens with an illustration by Christoph Niemann, on the conceptual subject of ‘time’, which also introduces Alex Doak’s editor’s letter. This feature is a regular spot, with a different illustrator invited to give their take on the topic for each issue.
There are playful typographic touches on each of the feature openers, such as the title ‘Office Hours’ which is set in a circular clock shape, and ‘Code Breakthrough’ with letterforms which have been turned and mirrored and reads like an encrypted code. The front section’s uncoated stock gives it a more journal-like feel before the reader reaches the glossy stock used for the features section.
This issue features an exclusive interview with the filmmaker (and Rolex-wearer) Martin Scorsese about his film restoration project. Supported by Rolex, Scorsese’s Film Foundation rescues old films which exist only as deteriorating film reels and restores them so they can be watched again and again.
The Rolex x Martin Scorsese cover is one of four covers split across the magazine. For the second cover, the design team art-directed photographer George Harvey on a shoot which features the geometry of a circle and a square. Going ‘back to basics’ and featuring the Cartier ‘Pasha’ watch, the images celebrate composition and light in its purest form.
For the third cover, the team art-directed photographer Alexander Kent, who shot Augemar Piguet’s bold set of colourways for the ‘Code 11:59’ collection using coloured light and space in a ‘code-breaking’ set design. The fourth cover features photographer Tex Bishop’s shot of the Rado ‘Captain Cook’ watch, from the feature inside which playfully reviews diving watches going ‘back to the future’.
A supplement which is crafted with the same care and attention as the magazine itself and designed to appeal to both watch aficionados and enthusiasts alike, Ten Ten is the embodiment of refinement and elegance.
