Giovanni Moro, Interpreting Time In Italian Way: Unimatic Watch

“I was collecting cheap vintage watches from eBay, carefully observing and daydreaming about what I would have done differently design-wise.”

Please tell me your background, were you always a designer? 
(Giovanni Moro) I was trained as an industrial designer at Politecnico di Milano, and I’ve practised the craft in the furniture industry before starting Unimatic which supposed to be just a side-project or playground for me to combine my watch obsession and the few design skills I had. I couldn’t see myself running a watch company, but I’m very happy that this happened.

and how did you start making watches and Unimatic brand?
(GM) Since I was a student, I was collecting cheap vintage watches from eBay, carefully observing and daydreaming about what I would have done differently design-wise. My juvenile professional background was helpful to criticise this or that in detail. Taking measure, studying best practice, being familiar with proportions and details that are hidden to the naked eye… At some point it took me to a point in which I felt I had an almost sufficient experience in the art of the watch product. Together with my co-founder Simone Nunziato we decided to design and make our own watch. It was more a self-assigned design brief we gave ourselves than an actual business plan or something. The watch if you think about it, it’s a very accomplished, realised, completed item. Years of progressive improvement, trials and errors done by other big companies during more than one hundred years of design evolution lead to a checklist for what a good wristwatch should look like.

What is like building a watch brand in Milan?
(GM) Generally speaking Milano is a very good environment for business. It’s a city that magnetically attracts a number of smart people and supports business. This applies to Unimatic as well.

What is your typical day like? 
(GM) I wake up early in the morning, get my coffee and go to the office. Spend the entire day busy working. I like to stay in the office and I do it as much as possible. Unimatic is a little company so there’s a broad range of tasks that are awaiting every day, ranging from designing to receiving customers, through a number of daily activities that includes visiting our assembly line or suppliers, partner, errands and list goes on.

and what are the unique advantages of making watches in Milan that you don’t have in Switzerland?
(GM) I couldn’t live in Switzerland, so I would have given up already (laugh).

Where do you source the parts being used in Unimatic?
(GM) We make use of the best suppliers we can work with and according to the peculiar needs of this or that reference. Our suppliers are distributed mainly in Italy, Switzerland, Japan and Hong Kong. We always opt for quality and control we can have on those over its geographical origin. However, starting from the design stage we try to interpret products and watchmaking the Italian way.

What was the biggest inspiration for designing watches?
(GM) The art of watchmaking all together, the refinement that was carried over by many excellent companies before us. Having analysed and measured this we tried to summarise what we learned with our own personal approach.

Do you remember the first ever watch sold? and what was the feeling? Did you celebrate?
(GM) Of course I do. I went to Paris on some low cost flight, with the watches in my luggage. This was my first “sales” in life in general, and I’m not a seller-kind of person. So I was anxious but somehow we did it. The shop was Colette, and we couldn’t dream for a better start. I celebrate every day thinking back.

“Watches in general, and Unimatic in particular, are an amazing example of how many meaning layers can be stacking one another in a single and simple object.”

Who are your major clientele?
(GM) A tricky question because we have a very heterogeneous assembly of collectors. We have many watch collectors who usually buy much more expensive watches but like to collect Unimatic. Then we have people from the fashion and streetwear scene who find something nice in our products, but there are also design-aficionados, practical people looking for a tool watch, people who want to have a little piece of Italian lifestyle on their wrist, new customers that hear of us from some collaboration and want to touch the product with their hands… and the list goes on. Watches in general, and Unimatic in particular, are an amazing example of how many meaning layers can be stacking one another in a single and simple object. Symbolically the “watch”, more than others items, looks to me like a dense and multifaceted prism, to which each one looks at from variable angles, focusing on specific different qualities.

What is your next goal?
(GM) Every day we must learn something new, improve our process and skills in the work and as human beings. I try to do my best and to leave no stone unturned. We want to build a product, a company, a brand that will survive us. Bottom line I have one only task and goal, every day, and it is not to f-up.