Interview: Dr. Woo on the Unexpected Parallels Between Watchmaking and Tattooing, and His Latest for Roger Dubuis
As you well know, we here at Worn & Wound are big fans of collaborative watches – we’ve had the pleasure of doing quite a few of our own over the years. Watch collaborations are nothing new, but they haven’t always been as trendy or prevalent as they are today. Sure, adjacent industries like sport, diving, and racing have long found ways to co-create. Rolex and the German luxury car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz marks one of the earliest examples of such a partnership tracing back to the 1920s. Still, it wouldn’t be until the later part of the 20th century that co-branded watches would really rise in popularity and become as commonplace as they are now.
In the current market, mashups have gone far beyond the usual suspects. Watch brands have been getting creative and tapping anyone and everyone from DJ Steve Aoki to Cohiba cigars and Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Today, we’re going to dig deeper into one such collab that has taken us by surprise, one between Roger Dubuis and the renowned tattoo artist Dr. Woo.
For the uninitiated, Brian Woo, better known as Dr. Woo, is a Taiwanese American tattoo artist based in Los Angeles. He’s known for his intricate, single-needle black and gray tattoos marked by ultra-fine lines and minimalist designs that mimic drawn sketches. Over the years, he’s developed a cult following among celebrities like Emilia Clarke, Drake, Miley Cyrus, and Zoe Kravitz, resulting in a long waitlist to get a seat in his chair.
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Roger Dubuis jumped the line, pulling the artist out of his Hollywood studio and behind the bench at the Geneva-based manufacture. The pair first teamed up for their inaugural collaboration back in 2021 with the Excalibur Monotourbillon. Here, the Maison and Dr. Woo found common ground over their shared reverence for the star motif that has become a design signature within Roger Dubuis’ famed Excalibur line, most notably on the star-shaped bridges that take center stage in the skeletonized variations of the model. Woo also feels a poignant connection to the cosmos where possibilities are vast and endless, and time moves at a different pace. These celestial elements appear throughout the artist’s tattoo portfolio, and the synergy instantly informed the work he would do with the watchmaker.
The first co-created watch was such a success, the duo came together again just two years later in 2023 with the next evolution of the Excalibur Monotourbillon. This time, the model was cased in ceramic and detailed with a stunning interpretation of the sun, Earth, and moon, building on the cosmic theme with a new twist. Once again, the watch was a hit, so it’s no surprise to see Episode III delivered another two years later.
The third chapter in the story of Roger Dubuis and Dr. Woo landed this June with the pair’s latest interpretation of the Excalibur Monotourbillon. Here, Woo drew inspiration from the “Tourbillon Galaxy” aka Messier 51a or the Whirlpool Galaxy, a spiraling formation photographed by the James Webb Telescope in August 2023, revealing star-formation factories creating clusters of new stars. Fittingly, Roger Dubuis reimagined its flying tourbillon by slightly transforming its cage: while the lower cage remains in lightweight titanium, the upper bridge has been reduced to its most minimalistic shape (with just three arms) to create a spiral inspired by the Tourbillon Galaxy.
Though a watch brand and a tattoo artist seem like an unlikely pairing, it turns out the two have more in common than you might think. “In my experience in watchmaking, now working on my third watch with Roger Dubuis, I see how much the importance of attention to detail is present in both of our art forms,” explains Dr. Woo. “To have a collaborator who wants to get into the minutia of design with such discipline and respect with how every aspect comes together to create something super high level, super tasteful has been such a great experience,” Woo affirms. “Creating something meaningful that withstands the test of time – I think that’s what tattoos and watches both accomplish.”
The more I spoke with Dr. Woo, the more I realized how parallel watchmaking and tattooing really are and why so much synergy is present in this collaboration, leading to three designs in just four years. “The goal of my tattoos – and I think the goal of a good watch – is to be timeless, even though that sounds very on the nose,” Woo laughs. “For me that means a design you don’t just love in this moment, but one ten years from now – even if your tastes have changed – you have a new appreciation for it, you discover an element you didn’t notice before, and you get excited about it all over again. The even cooler thing about watches,” he adds, “is they don’t just end with you like a tattoo. You can pass them on, and thinking about my designs still being out there in the future is exciting for me.”
The last aspect I wanted to dig into with Dr. Woo may be a bit of a strange one – I knew the term “tattoo collector” wasn’t quite right, but his clientele could certainly relate to the practice of collecting. With the parallels in the design process running so deep, I wanted to know if there was any crossover in the watch community and tattoo community. “Again, I think there are actually a lot of parallels,” agrees Woo. “We live in a world with so much access thanks to the internet, information is just thrown at us every day. I think this has created a need for individuality, for something rare, and I think my tattoos and watches like this limited edition offer that. What I really appreciate about these two communities,” he adds, “is that it’s really about passion for the art form, whether it’s tattoos or watches.”
With all this mutual love, respect, and momentum between Dr. Woo and Roger Dubuis, I was certain this was all just the beginning of a longstanding relationship between the artist and brand. However, Woo wouldn’t confirm (or deny) if we could expect a fourth collaboration in another two years or sometime down the line. “Three could be a good number to end on,” he admits, “but who knows – a fourth? It’s definitely not a no!” Roger Dubuis
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