IFL Watches paints Munch's The Scream on a 300-piece Bulova Super Seville

IFL Watches has turned Edvard Munch's The Scream into a hand-painted dial on the Bulova Super Seville. The Dubai-based brand will make 300 pieces, which go on sale on 4 October at 16:00 CEST for €1,190, US$1,190 or £990.

The canvas is the blue-dial version of the retro-styled Super Seville, a stainless steel watch measuring 37.5mm across, 10.5mm thick and 42.3mm lug-to-lug. Applied hour markers stand over the artwork, so legibility survives the color.

A white minute track and Roman numerals on the chapter ring frame the painting, and the date window blends into the composition rather than drawing the eye. The artists chose the blue dial specifically for how those applied markers hold the time-reading job.

The dial recreates Munch's anguished figure in IFLW's modern pop-art style, with KAWS-inspired crossed-out eyes replacing the hands pressed to the face. Around the figure spreads a bright rendering of the Norwegian setting Munch witnessed in 1893.

The paint itself carries the trick: under UV light the entire artwork glows. It is the same party trick the brand has used before, and the source text notes it will put a smile on the wearer, though not everyone is sold on needing a UV lamp to see it.

Why The Scream exists in many versions

Munch painted The Scream after a dusk walk above an Oslo fjord in 1893, when the sky turned blood red and he sensed what he called an infinite scream passing through nature. The figure with hands to its face gave that moment form.

There is no single Scream. The famous version hangs in a dimmed room at the National Museum in Oslo, while the Munch Museum holds a 1910 painted version and an 1893 pastel. Munch also produced lithographs and sketches that rotate on display.

That multiplicity matters here. Munch reworked the image repeatedly, and the painting has since been recreated by countless artists, so IFLW's is another link in a long tradition rather than a shock to it. More than 130 years on, it remains among the most iconic works of art.

What is inside the watch

Inside is the Bulova NM10 Precisionist movement, a high-frequency caliber running at 262kHz. It keeps time to within a few seconds a year and tolerates extreme temperature swings, and its seconds hand glides rather than ticks, mimicking a high-beat mechanical sweep.

Bulova is a brand we cover closely in our watches and jewelry coverage. The Super Seville is one of its retro-styled models, and IFLW has used the case for a range of hand-painted dials before this one, making it a familiar canvas for the collaboration.

An integrated three-row bracelet completes the exterior, which the source describes as comfortable on the wrist. The compact proportions keep the watch wearable despite the busy artwork, and the Precisionist movement suits the 1970s-inspired design with its distinct, colorful dial.

We have reviewed the Bulova Wilton GMT, an affordable true GMT in the same catalog, and named the Bulova Sutton our value pick among women's watches. The Sutton Automatic tops our dress watch list as a 43mm gold-tone piece with a skeletonized dial and 21-jewel self-winding movement. The brand's range spans quartz to high-frequency quartz.

The Sutton Automatic leads our dress watch guide as a 43mm gold-tone piece with a skeletonized dial and 21-jewel self-winding movement. That mechanical side of the catalog is a different proposition from the Precisionist in the Super Seville Scream.

The price is quoted in three currencies, €1,190, US$1,190 and £990, and the sale opens today at 16:00 CEST. Buyers go through the IFL Watches website, which is where the limited edition is listed.

One commenter on the original coverage wondered who actually buys these, calling all but one of IFLW's past dials hideous while conceding the underwater glow-in-the-dark theme was fun. The brand keeps producing them, so a market clearly exists somewhere.

The objection about the UV trick is that it needs a blacklight to show up, the same grip leveled at the Snoopy Moonswatch. The commenter suggests lume would serve better, but IFLW has run with the neon party piece again regardless.