TAG Heuer selects Yazan Hawani for Arabic watch

Luxury watch brand TAG Heuer has revealed it will be working with 23-year-old Lebanese street artist Yazan Halwani to create its first Arabic Connected watch face in celebration for Eid Al Adha. The Connected watch allows wearers to use a variety of different digital designs, by uploading them using the android platform TAG Heuer Connected App.

Speaking about the collaboration, Yazan Hawani said: “Calligraphy is an art form that has stagnated and is very traditional whereas in my artworks, I try to always find new forms for it. The TAG Heuer Connected Watch fits this idea of breaking the rules and the tradition of an art form, which in its case is watchmaking.”

Here are six things you might not know about Yazan Halwani:

1. Halwani was born in Beirut in 1993, three years after the end of the civil war.
2. His career as an artist began in 2007, when he started tagging walls in Beirut inspired by graffiti scene in the US and Europe.
3. Halwani uses calligraphy, geometry and portraits within his murals.
4. His work has appeared in Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Tunisia, Singapore and the USA.
5. Halwani has been called ‘Beirut’s Banksy’.
6. His portraits include Samir Kassir, the assassinated journalist, and Fairuz, a Lebanese singer.

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Read the September 2016 issue of Business Review Middle East magazine