With its crown uniquely located at either the ten o’clock or two o’clock position, and packaged in a handcrafted watch box wrapped in boar-skin leather, one can already tell that a Manometro timepiece would be different. Its creator, Giuliano Mazzouli would precisely want it that way as his dream of designing a watch unlike anything produced has been his most ambitious project.
Before entering the ranks of making fine watches, the Mazzouli family business revolved around the Italian paper making industry, producing high quality paper products. With Italian craftsmanship and quality known worldwide as first rate, the company started producing advertising catalogues for the furniture and interior design industry, another well known bastion for Italian artistry and craftsmanship. Soon after he took over the reins of the family business in 1993, Giuliano Mazzouli began to flex his creativity by taking other everyday objects and transforming them into functional works of art. His design philosophy of taking the same objects produced over and over again and present them in a different way has led to the creation of various items bearing his name. These included the “Officina” collection of writing instruments, inspired by a box of tools from his grandfather’s bicycle shop which he frequented as a child.
This passion for creating art from the most common everyday items served as Giuliano Mazzouli’s inspiration to develop a fine watch that would bear his name. For years, he acquired a vast collection of books and magazines determined to find the right inspiration and design idea. Pouring over the datathat he had accumulated, he came to the conclusion that this would only lead him to be influenced by something that had already been done. Refusing to produce a timepiece based on something tangible, he throw out all his references and searched for the inspiration elsewhere. True to form, he found it while gazing at a simple pressure gauge. This paved the way for the Manometro (Italian for pressure gauge) to come to life.
True to form, the Manometro is simple yet unique in design. Featuring a handcrafted stainless steel with a polished or brushed case combined with a calf-skin leather strap, it embodies both elegance and simplicity. It is also a synthesis of Swiss mechanical automatic movement and a minimalist approach to design that is not superfluous. The combination of colors for the dial and the hands were meticulously chosen to provide maximum readability and legibility.
The Manometro quietly debuted at a few selected watch and fine jewelry handpicked by the maker in 2004. Because of its limited numbers, it caught the eye of celebrities and other high profile personalities from the world of fashion, sports and politics. It became the watch to be seen in when mingling in power circles. Amazingly, all this was achieved by word of mouth. Mazzouli had asked the exclusive network of the world’s leading watch and jewelry retailers not to display his watch in their stores but instead propose it to their top clientele. This became more evident when Signor Mazzouli launched the Manometro Titanium Limited Edition.
This Limited Edition (365 pieces produced) features a specially treated titanium case finished in a unique brushed bronze color. A date function can be seen in its ivory colored dial as well as the serial number of the watch. A handcrafted, reptile skin watch strap was chosen to compliment the antique bronze finish of the dial. Serving as inspiration to this endeavor was the titanium pieces and other fittings found in super sports cars, which caught the designer’s eye and once again launched a new design concept to the horological world.