Movado
Design language system and digital experience for a luxury watch brand's global relaunch
A brand based in motion with an outdated digital experience.
A dated logo, an underwhelming e-commerce experience, and a lack of awareness of the brand's innovative history revealed a gap between what Movado was and how it was presenting itself.
I built the design language system and led VQA through launch. Movado.com shipped in September 2023.
Connecting the Dots
The brand's answer to that gap was a global campaign, "Connecting the Dots." Nearly 150 years of research into Movado's founding uncovered themes of balance, rhythm, and contrast that had run through the brand since the beginning. The most iconic expression of all of it: the single dot at 12 o'clock on every Movado dial, symbolizing the sun at high noon.
That dot was the brief, and my job was to take that same conceptual thread and run it through the digital experience, building a DLS that made the refreshed brand identity feel as intentional online as it did in print.
The Design Language System
The direction was obvious: keep it Swiss, keep it simple. That simplicity came with a real tension. Sleek minimalism and accessibility don't always coexist easily, and there were moments where the brand team's commitment to extreme minimalism pushed against certain accessibility standards. Navigating that honestly was part of the job.
The DLS covered foundations first: color, grid, iconography, and typography. Then components: buttons, input fields, drop-downs, product cards, accordions, navigation, search, and footer. Everything was built to be consistent, scalable, and ready to implement.
The Signature Screens
Homepage, product detail page, product category page, and about page. All designed for desktop and mobile with prototypes built for every key interaction. The about page was one of the more meaningful challenges because Movado's history goes back to 1881, and it was never documented online before. Once we sifted through the brand decade by decade, we were able to create a comprehensive timeline.
HomescreenProduct Detail PageAbout PageThe Launch
Post launch I led VQA, making sure what was built matched what we designed. For a brand where the details are the brand, that standard mattered.
Movado.com went live in September 2023. The campaign ran in the New York Times, Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Esquire, Women's Wear Daily, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and Men's Health. The site was a finalist at the 16th Annual Shorty Awards for Rebrand Campaign.