Rolex opened La Biennale di Venezia’s International Architecture Exhibition today as the exclusive partner and official timepiece, the brand’s third time in this role.

In Venice, the Crown wrapped up one Mentor-Protégé partnership between Sir David Chipperfield and Simon Kretz and inaugurated this year’s between Sir David Adjaye and Mariam Kamara.

Kamara, an architect from Niger, recently visited the Rolex facilities in Geneva and was impressed with the parallels between watchmaking and architecture. “It was great to see the commonality in both activities,” she said. “The emphasis on precision, excellence and attention to detail is very similar.”

Sir Adjaye was looking forward to working with his protégé. “Rolex is an extraordinary company and this is a great opportunity. I recognize the power of mentorship and when approached by Rolex, I felt obligated to give back.”

The theme of the 2018 exhibition is Freespace, and it runs from now until 11/25/2018, a full six months.

Rolex has a pavilion on site, where it showcases the result of the Chipperfield-Kretz collaboration and celebrates architecture. Designed to resemble a watch bracelet, the pavilion itself is quite impressive.

The Biennale is thought provoking and interesting and definitely worth a trip to this beautiful and enchanting city.

Best Quotes from the 2018 Biennale:

Mariam Kamara: “For me, David Adjaye was the perfect person to work with. I have been carefully following his career. When I heard that Rolex and he had selected me, I just started crying.”

Sir David Chipperfield: “You can’t save a city with good architecture, but you can with good planning.”

Shelly McNamara, Co-Curator, Biennale Architettura 2018: “Time in architecture is not linear, it is a spiral. The past, present and future come together in the spaces we create.”

From the Manifesto of Freespace: “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit it.” – Greek proverb