James Thompson’s career is a perfect example of how to excel at collaborations.James Thompson/Supplied
Collaborations are king in the world of watchmaking, and James Thompson’s career is a perfect example of how to excel at them. The Ottawa-born, Vancouver-raised designer has become a cult figure in the world of haute horology by connecting with collectors, brands and design fanatics alike.
So how did this industrial designer end up shuttling between Sweden, Dubai and Japan, taking meetings with luxury watchmakers and collectors around the world?
His career journey, he says, “started with flunking out of Emily Carr College.” The saving grace was that he met a Swedish exchange student while at the Vancouver school, which led him to move overseas to check out the Scandinavian design scene and complete his masters in Gothenburg. He studied a range of subjects, including pottery, typesetting and interior architecture, and earned a stint with Swedish car manufacturer Volvo.
“For a full year, I worked on creating a seat belt for a pregnant woman. It put the hook for holistic design in me,” Thompson says.
During this time he started a jewellery-making side hustle called Black Badger. He made distinctive rings with unusual compounds and high-tech materials including titanium, carbon fibre and lume, a phosphorescent material that makes things visible in dark conditions. They quickly found an audience among celebrities such as Robert Downey Jr., Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert De Niro.
Thompson treats each of these pieces like a lapidarist would approach a semi-precious stone, basically carving each piece to reveal unique patterns. He also adds “hidden” glow-in-the-dark messages (most of which are too cheeky to print in a family newspaper).
Thompson treats each of these pieces like a lapidarist would approach a semi-precious stone, basically carving each piece to reveal unique patterns.Philip Muneer Flindt/Supplied
Watches were not a part of these early creative explorations. His interest in timepieces began in 2008 when, after completing his schooling and receiving an inheritance, he bought a Bell & Ross. “Which I still have for no other reason than it makes me smile,” he says.
As Thompson’s interest in watches grew, he made connections through online watch-collector forums. It wasn’t long before he was doing collaborations with avant-garde watchmakers such as MB&F and Sarpaneva.
This “placed him and his peculiar brand of crazy on another level,” says Adam Craniotes, co-founder of international watch-collecting club RedBar Group. “I think the appeal to collectors and enthusiasts is a natural result of James’s innate enthusiasm for the industry.”
Thompson’s Sarpaneva K0 Seasons timepieces have become highly sought after. They are made using lumicast, a process that fills in textures with lume, rather than just painting it onto a surface. Thompson added new dimensions to this light show by using more than one colour of Super-LumiNova (a non-radioactive lume) on a dial or by playing with the angles of the dial or case.
“From 2013 to 2014, I was the lume guy, the glow-in-the-dark guy,” Thompson says.
Soon the side hustle became the main hustle. In 2020, Thompson became a part owner of watch manufacturer Arcanaut, and its chief of materials development. While Arcanaut is located in Copenhagen, Thompson’s lair/not-so-secret lab known as the Badger’s Den is in Gothenburg, where he lives with his wife and two children.
Thompson’s signature material is Fordite, a byproduct of the automobile industry created when layers of metallic paint accumulate on the factory floor. He used to cut the material in a manner that created a striped spectrum of colours, but in a quest to avoid waste he began slicing the pieces to reveal more organic and unexpected patterns.
He has also been experimenting with other materials.
The Arcanaut Arc II Havender.Supplied
Recently, Thompson updated the air circulation in his shop partially for the production of the ARC II Havender, a timepiece with a remarkable dial made from mussel shells. He wanted to catch their purplish iridescence but couldn’t get the lustre quite right until he tried sanding down the outer surface of the shells.
“I took a Dremel and removed one-eighth of the natural shell by hand to get this gorgeous lilac shade.” It’s painstaking work that creates a lot of microscopic shell particles – hence the need for better ventilation.
The result is new but recalls the artistry of classic luxury dials made from mother-of-pearl or aventurine. Announced in late 2023, the first 25 pieces of this limited edition went out last month. The response was so strong that Arcanaut is making eight more,
“He uses his deep well of creativity to make the pieces that we as collectors didn’t know we needed until he created them,” says Craniotes. “It’s apparent from the get-go that they come from a very honest place of love, and that resonates deeply with those of us who love horology for horology’s sake.”
Arcanaut is also introducing a line called Experimental this year. There are currently two new models, the Tiger Sharc and the Bonehead. For these editions, Thompson turned his attention to case materials. In the case of the Tiger Sharc, that means using a zirconium titanium composite that evokes a Japanese metalworking technique called mokume-gane. These made-to-order limited editions are priced at less than US$5,000 to appeal to a wider range of collectors.
Interest in timepieces began in 2008 when, after completing his schooling and receiving an inheritance, he bought a Bell & Ross.James Thompson/Supplied
“I don’t know if I’m an artist or a designer, but I enjoy entertaining people and meeting interesting people,” Thompson says. “I think that shows in the work.”