For WatchTime?s upcoming Design Special 2018, we sat down with several different design professionals ? including independent industrial designers, freelance watch designers, lead designers of large brands, and even a movement designer ? to talk about how they see the role of design in watchmaking, where they get their ideas from, and what they think good design is. Here is what Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, Director of Bulgari Watches Design Center, had to say.

“The designer is not just someone that has to be able to make sketches on the paper,

but has to be able to imagine products that don’t exist yet,

and has to be able to convey the values of the brand.”

WT: What is the role of a designer in the watch industry"
FBS: It depends. If you have a very small brand, you have to make a lot of different things. If you have a big group, or a big brand like Bulgari, you have to manage the heritage of the brand. At the same time you have to make an improvement, each time, about this heritage. So, at Bulgari, my role is to manage this impressive archive and, at the same time, imagine the scenarios for the future. So, the designer is not just someone who has to be able to make sketches on the paper, but who has to be able to imagine products that don’t exist yet, and who has to be able to convey the values of the brand. If you are alone, a small brand without heritage, without roots, it may be that you have to invent the brand from scratch. It c...