Luxury Watches: Renowned luxury watchmaker and product designer TAG Heuer, along with Parsons, The New School for Design, announced the winners of their co-sponsored Art of Watchmaking competition.

The event, a 10-week competition, features eight, three-man teams of Parsons' students reinterpreting TAG Heuer's classic Monaco chronograph culminated with three winning design teams. Each member of the three winning teams also received a monetary prize and a TAG Heuer wristwatch.

Parsons design students Yong Yi Lee, Yoav Menachem and Amit Ran took first place honors. Enrique Diaz Rato de Zabala, Michelle Organ and You Jin Sung slotted second and the trio of Yusuke Sekiguchi, Christopher Beatty and Helen Kim were third.

The first place entry, a sleek, black model with a shield over the watch face and edition numbers, would appeal to collectors, according to the judging committee. The prestigious panel of judges included: Narciso Rodriguez, CFDA award-winning womenswear designer and Parsons alumnus; Renaud Dutreil, Chairman of LVMH North America and New School trustee; Ulrich Wohn, president & CEO of LVMH Watch & Jewelry North America; Marion Fasel, contributing jewelry editor, InStyle magazine; Michael Thompson, editor, International Watch magazine; Rama Chorpash, director of product design, Parsons; and Andre Fortier, vice president of after-sales service, TAG Heuer.

"The students' enthusiasm for this program was clearly evident in the quality of their designs," said LVMH's Wohn. "They truly immersed themselves in the brand and presented ideas that embraced the avant-garde, daring spirit of TAG Heuer. We are inspired by the students' perspective on luxury timepieces and their unfettered creativity. It's nice to look at your brand through new eyes."

Three of the nine winning design students may have one more encounter with the venerable Swiss watchmaker. One of the winning designs may be a TAG Heuer watch of the future. Only time and the PR department of TAG Heuer will tell, ultimately.

Source: TAG Heuer