EIn fact, nobody needs a wristwatch anymore. If you want to know the current time, you can look it up on your smartphone or in the taskbar on your computer. However, the fact that the owners of their timepieces are about much more than the function was shown in an auction for the “FAZ readers help” campaign. The technical prototype of a Guinand HS106 was worth more than 3000 euros to one bidder, ultimately 1046 euros more than the pilot’s watch model with four complications normally costs.
But why would someone spend thousands of euros on a watch? In the case of the Guinand that was auctioned off, the assumption is that the buyer wanted to do good for others, but also for himself. He wanted to acquire something special in an unusual way, a unique piece with a story. A handmade one-off in a world of machine mass production. Which also makes its wearer stand out from the crowd.
Feel the ticking of the clockwork
In addition, many watch buyers have the feeling that they understand the function, explains Matthias Klüh, owner of the Frankfurt watch manufacturer Guinand. They enjoyed visible and tangible technology: the wearers feel the ticking of the mechanical movement, they can watch it at work through a transparent case back in front of the system. And of course a hand-wound watch or an automatic watch is a piece of jewellery. One of the few that you can still afford in times of tieless office suits. “A luxury product that is somewhat out of date,” as Klüh puts it.
Watches, he says, also stand for deceleration. This is surprising, since it is precisely clocks that indicate the incessant passage of time with their incessant ticking. But Klüh reports that young customers in particular talk about slowing down when they buy such a watch.
In a world that feels like it is turning ever faster, a hand-wound or an automatic with a Swiss movement would not be subject to the blemish of soon becoming obsolete again. A smartphone is overtaken by the successor model after a few months, and then there is a lack of suitable connectors very quickly. A watch, on the other hand, especially if it is mechanical, does not become incompatible, does not need updates. She appears constantly. Or simply: timeless.
Extravagant with Alexander Shorokhoff
There is a lot that can be said about watches from the Alexander Shorokhoff brand, but one thing that cannot be said for certain: that they are discreet. Floral backgrounds, avant-garde patterns, latticed watch glass and most recently a watch in the bright national colors of Ukraine and with a huge peace symbol – anyone who wears the watches from the Alzenau manufactory provokes a conversation with them. Anything but functional, says Moscow-born designer Alexander Shorokhov.
His watches should arouse emotions, they are intended for all those who have a sense for art and aesthetics – and want to show it. “Art on the wrist” is the target for the employees in the manufactory in Lower Franconia, whose works of art are sold worldwide and advertised by the actor Robert Redford or the cosmonaut Alexej Leonow. And as befits art, the watches – which usually cost between 1200 and 6000 euros – are almost unique, most models are made in small series of 25 to 100 pieces.
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