Design

Swedish Grace Design is an offshoot of the International Art Deco style from the stylish and golden era of the 1920’s and 30’s.

SWEDISH GRACE DESIGN is BEAUTY IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Innes and Iyer’s watch design is the embodiment of Swedish Grace Design, featuring minimalistic, clean lines and functionality with uncluttered, airy, design characteristics.

 Official Poster for the 1923 Jubilee Exhibition in Gothenburg

The style made its debut during the 1923 Jubilee Exhibition in Gothenburg, the hometown of Innes & Iyer, and its success there led to invitations to several international exhibitions. Paris in 1925, the “Art Deco Exhibition” (Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes), is likely the most recognised.

At the Paris exhibition in 1925 the Swedish Grace design style made a sensational impact, with a total of 36 gold medals, which led to international fame, not least in the United States of America.

Roots

The two styles, Art Deco and Swedish Grace, have in common their symmetrical shapes and straight lines dating back to antiquity combined with 20th century, modern and often exclusive, materials. Swedish Grace added neo-classical features from the Swedish Gustavian Style epoch of 1775 to 1810.

Philosophy

Swedish designers during the Swedish Grace era strived to achieve “Beauty in everyday life and its objects”. The result of their design philosophy are products characterised by clean lines, elegant simplicity with carefully thought-out details combined with high quality and highly skilled execution. A style renowned for its functionality and connection with nature’s materials.

Aesthetic features are columns and geometric forms mixed with, for decorative purposes only, ornaments in a symmetry without hierarchy, based on a mélange of Scandinavian, Greek, Roman and Egyptian styles.

BEAUTY IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Expression

In 1930 the British journalist Morton Shand, impressed by the style’s specific Swedish design traits (“Intriguingly simple, yet refined elegance”) coined the expression “Swedish Grace” – a label that stuck.

Swedish Grace stuck not only as a 1930’s coined expression. Swedish design products are still known for their minimalist style dating back to the early 20th century. It is a style based on a design philosophy leading to products that transcend time - and trends.

People

Making their international debuts during the first decades of the 20th century were designers and craftsmen and craftswomen such as Wiwen Nilsson (silverware), Folke Arström (silver and cutlery), Anna Petrus (sculptures), Märta Måås-Fjetterström (weavings and art rugs), Estrid Ericson (pewter items - Svenskt Tenn of Stockholm), Orrefors (Edvard Hald och Simon Gate - ornamented glass crystals), and Carl Hörvik, Uno Åhren, Carl Malmsten (furnitures).

These people's artworks have inspired generations of designers. In Sweden as well as abroad. They still do.

Photo: The Design Inspiration for Innes & Iyer's Square Collection. Brooch by Swedish Silversmith, Court Jeweller, Mr Wiwen-Nilsson (1897 - 1974) 

Innes & Iyer AB - 
Swedish Grace Design in the 21st Century

Innes & Iyer, founded in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2018, has since its inception of its in-house design studio, together with independent consultants, meticulously worked on combining its Swedish Grace Design characteristics with features of Innes & Iyer’s 1970’s mechanical movement watches.

Innes & Iyer’s 1970’s watches were handmade by their Master Craftsman, Clock Maker John Innes, whose skills, experience and strong views on craftsmanship and quality still have a strong influence on Innes & Iyer. Today, the company utilises that influence in its watchmaking. Sustainable and ethical high tech production methods, as well as the use of only high-quality components, are prioritised.

During the design phase (inspired by the great Swedish silver and stainless-steel designers like Wiwen Nilsson and Folke Arström) and the following engineering, prototyping and validation phases, aesthetics and materials factors have been taken into careful consideration. 

As a result of this work, the final product, an Innes & Iyer watch is an embodiment of the Swedish Grace Design Philosophy and its set of values. Its design features as well as its sensible use of high-quality materials and components make it a precision-made masterpiece, transcending fashion trends.

INNES & IYER is SWEDISH GRACE DESIGN