IFL x Festina Astronaut
Where Swiss Precision Meets Cosmic Artistry
The Festina Astronaut represents a collaboration between Festina's Swiss watchmaking heritage and IFL Watches' hand-painted artistry. This timepiece features a customized dial depicting an astronaut floating through space, continuing IFL's exploration of cosmic design themes with the technical foundation of Festina's automatic movement.
Space exploration has inspired watchmaking for decades, and the Festina Astronaut adds a hand-painted interpretation to this tradition. The design centers on an astronaut figure positioned across the dial, with Festina's open-heart aperture integrated into the helmet area to reveal the mechanical movement beneath. The deep blue background serves as the canvas for scattered stars and celestial elements, creating depth through careful brush work and color gradation. Each dial is painted individually by IFL's artists, who work at miniature scale to execute the detailed astronaut figure and cosmic environment. The visible movement through the aperture becomes part of the composition itself, functioning as both technical display and artistic element within the overall design.
Cosmic Art, Open-Heart Engineering
Mechanical Heart in Cosmic Space
The astronaut design emerged from our ongoing work with space-inspired watchmaking. We've developed several cosmic concepts over the years — Space Surfer and Galaxy established this creative direction, and the Festina collaboration provided an opportunity to explore it further through the platform's open-heart feature. The visible movement aperture suggested a helmet window, which became the focal point for developing the astronaut figure.
Our artists worked with the existing deep blue dial as the foundation, using the color's natural depth to suggest atmospheric space. The hand-painted execution allowed for subtle gradations in the blue tones and careful detailing on the astronaut figure itself. Stars and celestial elements scatter across the background, positioned to create movement and depth without overwhelming the central composition.
Swiss Heritage, Artistic Vision
The Festina Astronaut combines Swiss automatic engineering with our hand-painted dial customization. Festina's use of the Soprod PO24 BV movement ensures technical reliability, while the 316L stainless steel case and integrated bracelet construction provide the structural foundation. The sapphire caseback reveals the movement's finishing and engineering details, connecting the visible mechanics on the dial side with the complete caliber view from behind.
Each Festina Astronaut dial is painted individually, with artists working within the constraints of the 40mm diameter to create the astronaut figure, background elements, and color gradations. This results in natural variations between examples — the inherent nature of artisan work at this scale where each brush stroke contributes to a unique final piece.
IFL Watches is an independent brand offering bespoke luxury products and customizations. All watch customizations are commissioned by our clients, for personal use only. We do not manufacture watches. Nor are we affiliated with, or authorized by, the original manufacturers of the watches, unless stated otherwise. Our customizations are conducted in an entirely independent capacity. Any brands mentioned on our website, e-mails, marketing campaigns or social media are strictly for the purpose of reference only. All manufacture warranties are void when ordering a customized timepiece from IFL Watches. IFL offers an independent warranty for a minimum of 2 years on all our Customized Products.
