Behind the scenes: Daydreamer
What better way to celebrate the start of a new month than with a brand new watch? (the answer: there is no better way)
April welcomed our second limited edition of 2026, Daydreamer, a watch centred around calm, consciousness and colour.
So let us take you behind the scenes and show you how we turned this insanely imaginative design into a reality.
Murugiah is a British Sri Lankan multi-disciplinary artist whose colourful and surreal aesthetic playfully explores the joyful, sometimes bittersweet, experiences of his daily life.
Infused with candy-coated dreams and peppered with South Asian motifs, his work ranges from public sculpture to illustration and design projects. In fact, for the last decade, Murugiah has collaborated with clients including Faber & Faber, Refugee Week, The Stanley Kubrick Estate, Apple and Elton John!
Murugiah designed Daydreamer as a playful invitation to get lost in your imagination every once in a while.
At the centre of the design is Muru, a recurring character in Murugiah’s work, reclining, rotating, quietly pointing the way (and generally not in a rush to get anywhere).
Mandalas traditionally represent the universe and our place within it. Daydreamer invites you to pause and reflect on yourself and your own journey through time.
Surrounding clouds and patterns create a cornucopia of fun synonymous, paying homage to Murugiah’s work.
When it came to creating Daydreamer, we went through a fair few samples. We initially started with a much darker colour palette with a black and white pattern on the dial, but it just felt as though something was… missing.
We scrapped the black and white and decided to pull some of the washed texture from Murugiah’s paintings onto the dial instead. If you look really closely, you can see the pale wash of orange texture on the dial.
We also switched black outlines for coloured outlines to make the design feel true to Murugua’s work, focusing on bold graphic elements that make his work so interesting!
On to photography and videography!
Let us start off by saying a huge thank you to Murugiah for being up for trying all of the ridiculous methods our photographer had in mind for the shoot… they didn’t disappoint.
We visited Murugiah’s vibrant London studio to capture lifestyle photography and content for the release video (with help from his cats Dan Dan and Moebius).
The day involved a lot of experimenting with confetti, paint, colourful props and extremely uncomfortable angles for our photographer… but we ended up with some incredible shots!
You can take a look at the finished video here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GhpplY7A3XU
Daydreamer is available on our website and in our Neal Street store now, but is limited to just 300 pieces, so be quick if you want to get one!
You can also check out more of Murugiah's work here.
And remember that regardless of the ‘head in the clouds’, ‘unproductive’ bad rep daydreaming has… you can actually learn a lot about yourself by doing so!
So go get lost in the wild world of your imagination.
