Watchmaking Storytellers

This past Tuesday, I had the privilege of attending an event held at Cipriani Dolci in Grand Central for Girard-Perregaux, makers of Swiss “Haute Horlogerie” timepieces since 1791. I had no idea what to expect, nor was I even planning on writing a blog post about it. I was simply there enjoying free bellinis and all the orderves that passed near my vicinity. Four drinks and countless mini pizzas and chicken croquettes in, I started really examining what was going on. The event consisted of young watchmakers flown in from Switzerland doing what they do best —assemble watches from hundreds of different parts —surrounded by editors and photographers and drunk guys (me). Their concentration in such a hectic environment (this is Grand Central we’re talking about), and their enthusiasm for their jobs, was truly inspiring. I started to think about the correlation between building watches and story-telling. Both require patience, concentration, solitude, and time —one tourbillon watch takes up to six months to finish. But the most striking connection is that both consist of arranging and putting together hundreds of different components, whether it’s dialogue and character development in a plot or the minuscule hairspring and balance wheel inside the watch, to create a finished product… one that tells time, the other a story.

-C.E. Santana