Ficus Interfaith, for those who look twice

I collect art and I collect watches, and I rarely see the two meet without one of them losing. Usually the art becomes decoration, or the watch becomes a canvas. This week a piece arrived in my inbox that gets the balance right.

It is called "Pearl Buoy". It is a work by Ficus Interfaith, a New York duo, and it sits on the dial of a single Maurice Lacroix watch: the 1975 MASTER Skeleton, Pearl Buoy by Ficus Interfaith. The watch is a unique piece, donated by Maurice Lacroix to TimeForArt, the biennial auction of the Swiss Institute in New York. Phillips will conduct the sale on 5 December 2026, and all proceeds support the Institute's work for contemporary art, from exhibitions to artist residencies.

Who are Ficus Interfaith

Ficus Interfaith was founded in 2014 by Ryan Bush and Raphael Martinez Cohen. Their work starts with materials and their history, and one technique in particular: terrazzo. Fragments of glass, marble, granite or unexpected objects are set in resin. The solid block is then cut, and the pattern you see is part intention, part accident.

They usually work at the scale of sculpture, furniture, installations and architecture. A watch dial is the opposite of all that.

A millimetre of art

For "Pearl Buoy", the duo arranged pearls inside a block of epoxy resin. The block was then cut into slices just 1 mm thick. In their usual work, the thinnest they go is around 4 mm.

That was only possible with the help of a composite materials specialist in the Jura, a partner of Maurice Lacroix. After cutting, the Manufacture chose the slice with the most balanced composition. Think about that for a second. Out of one artwork, only one slice became the dial.

Behind that subtly translucent dial you can glimpse the ML234 calibre, the skeleton movement of the 1975 MASTER Skeleton, also visible through the sapphire caseback. A real pearl, cut as a cabochon, sits on the crown. The strap is Japanese leather, finished with several layers of lacquer to reach what the makers call a "Black Diamond" surface. On each side, in gold, a leaf for Ficus Interfaith and the Maurice Lacroix logo face each other.

The house behind the watch

Maurice Lacroix was founded in 1975, which is exactly why the collection carries that number. Its Manufacture is in Saignelégier, in the Swiss Jura. Most people know the brand for the Aikon, the sports watch with six claws on the bezel, inspired by the Calypso of the 1990s.

The brand has supported TimeForArt since the first edition in 2022. I like that consistency. Art patronage in watchmaking often appears once, for the photo, and then disappears.

Curious facts

• The dial is about a quarter of the thickness of the duo's thinnest usual work.
• Maurice Lacroix describes the material, pearls in resin, as unprecedented in watchmaking.
• In terrazzo, every cut reveals a pattern shaped partly by the artists and partly by chance. Nobody knows the dial until the blade has passed.
• The crown is set with a single natural pearl, cut as a cabochon.

Where to see Maurice Lacroix in Portugal

"Pearl Buoy" will go to New York, and that is the point. But the 1975 collection and the rest of Maurice Lacroix are easy to see in Portugal. The brand is distributed by Watchers, part of the Torres group, and sold at Gilles Joalheiros on Avenida da Liberdade, in Colombo and in Vasco da Gama, at El Corte Inglés in Lisbon and Gaia, at Espiral Relojoaria in Amoreiras, at Torres Joalheiros in Cascais and at Relojoaria Mendonça in Porto.

My take

In my own collection, Almada Negreiros and Manuel Cargaleiro sit a few metres from my watches. What connects them for me is patience: the hours behind a line, a tile or a balance wheel. "Pearl Buoy" has that same patience. Terrazzo is an art of accidents. Watchmaking is an art of control. Here they meet, and neither wins.

I also think this is the smarter way for a brand to work with artists. Not a print on a dial, but a new material and a new process, built for one piece and then given away for a cause.

For those who look twice, this is the most interesting dial of the season.