Panerai Magic Show at Watches and Wonders

Visual Artist Romain Lalire combined Notch and hologram technology to put on a magic show for Panerai at Watches and Wonders 2023.

After being contacted by Events Concept to create a three-night performance for Geneva’s annual Watches and Wonders–the world’s biggest watch fair–Visual Artist Romain Lalire had the idea to use magic to captivate attendees. Luxury brand Panerai asked Lalire to centre his presentation around their Radiomir watch, which is inspired by water and the sea.

Lalire wanted to illuminate the journey of a cluster of particles, starting with a single particle inside a light stick that transforms into a particle of water, waves, and the watch itself, eventually coming full circle and reverting back to its original state as a single particle. He didn’t have much time to create, but he wanted to leave room for “happy accidents,” so he decided to use Notch.

After storyboarding, Lalire started to play with his selected elements: lines evoking the sea and particles to materialise water in another form. He filmed himself with the chosen musical soundtrack, defining the performance’s choreography without any holograms. He then used the results as a reference to create the visuals synchronised with the music. Lalire then imported the videos into SMODE to simulate the finished piece for client approval.

Finally, he divided the videos into five different pieces of media and uploaded them into holograms. Though the clients had seen the results in Lalire’s simulation, they were still blown away by the live performance. In the magician’s own words, “it was great to be able to easily change parameters and test before fixing them with keyframes. Working with real-time tools is a game changer for me because it allows me to create more organically.”