Their Naked Forms Are Timeless

You’ve seen them in silky running shorts, wet tank suits and crisp white tennis togs. Now you can see some of the world’s top athlete wearing nothing but their wristwatches.

Posing gold medalist Olympians such as swimmer Amy Van Dyken and decathlete Dan O’Brien in the nude was the assignment Swiss sports watchmaker TAG Heuer handed commercial fashion photographer Herb Ritts. His exhibit of 13 world-class athletes in the buff arrives in Los Angeles from New York on Oct. 9 when the black-and-white photos will go on display at the Fahey-Klein Gallery for one week.

The concept, say promoters of TAG Heuer’s new Kirium sports watch collections, is not to sell watches, but to “draw the comparison between the strong lines of the modern, avant-garde timepiece and the strong lines of the perfectly trained athlete’s body.”

When Ritts shot the photos this spring, he used only sunlight to illuminate his subjects flexing, curling and leaping across the frame. The results--40 to 50 images--are riveting as art but their connection with the 137-year-old watch company’s latest product is less obvious.

That may be why the company includes with every press packet this endorsement from British hurdles champ Colin Jackson: “I broke the world record wearing my TAG Heuer, and I never take it off,” he said. Unlike his clothing.