Made in America: Slow Watchmaking at Schon Horology
A few minutes into my phone conversation with Ian Schon, the 29-year-old mechanical engineer and product designer touches on an aspect of his creative process that immediately grabs my attention.
?My watches are a result of ?slow watchmaking,? ? he tells me. ?Watchmaking where you really take your time. Where you have a lot of hands in the process so there?s not a lot of automation.?
The Dot Prismatic
Schon is prescribing the Slow Movement, which has found its footing in the worlds of fashion, design, food, and cinema, to watchmaking. What the Slow Movement does is flip ingrained public institutions like ?fast food? and ?fast fashion? on their head to emphasize quality and the benefits of taking one?s time. I was familiar with its application in other subcultures, but this was the first time I?d heard it directly applied to horology. As it turns out, watchmaking is an ideal fit for the concept. While automation runs the gamut across most of the industry these days, haute horlogerie is still alive and well and there are plenty of independent makers that present themselves as strong ambassadors for the benefits of handcraft.
Ian Schon
Schon approaches his operation a little differently than a Swiss purist with decades of horological experience might. Like many of his contemporaries in the growing American watch scene, Schon doesn?t profess to be a trained watchmaker ? at least in the traditional sense. What does differentiate him from the proliferation of ?microbrands? that r...
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A Week in Watches Ep. 79 – Swiss Leftovers
29-04-2024 05:06 - (
Luxury Watch )