Timeless allure

While the casual observer may see the whole of Switzerland as a country where they make watches, for the connoisseur the fine art of watchmaking has precise geographic boundaries, defined by mountains and suspicious denizens that protect the age-old craft from alien prying. But are we sure that in Switzerland time has stopped in the Jura region alone? The Lonville Watch Company has managed to expand the narrow horizons of watchmaking and now aspires to become a new manufacturing hub of excellence in Ticino and beyond.

We enjoyed a lively chat with Matteo Faoro - who has a distinguished nautical past, with Prada Americas Cup in 2000 and then with Ferretti and Azimut Benetti Groups - since 2015 he is COO of Lonville and is the operational mind behind the brand, capable of taking ideas «from paper to production»; but it may be more pertinent to present the brand and its ambitions in the official words pronounced by Faoro himself at the November 10 event «Lonville, luxury made in Ticino»: «For over a century, 90% of watchmaking manufacturing has been centered in the Jura region. This technical and artistic heritage has been exploited by those in charge of promoting tourism and is presented under a single identity and brand: ‘Watch Valley’ - Land of Precision. The Land of Precision, though, has much wider boundaries. It actually extends as far as Ticino, including Lugano, where medium-small companies work and manufacture with such passion and expertise that they sometimes surpass the Jura model. It is our ambition to help the excellence of Ticinese watchmaking to design, a model of communication that underscores its originality. While this is the identity and strategic high aspiration of the brand, let’s talk about the Lonville uniqueness through its products. Founded in Langerdorf in 1873 before stalling and halting production in the late 1950s, the company was revived in 2008 after half a century of silence at the wish of Joost Vreesvijk - trained in Supply chain management and now Managing partner at EY - who wanted to create his own watches out of a true passion.

The first collection, Virage, was presented in 2016, exclusively in white gold and with only 18 pieces of each variant, which by mechanical content, design and price made it clear the importance of the project. The 6-bridge LV1 calibre, designed by Schwarz Etienne in a creative dialectic with the pocket watches made by Lonville at the end of the 19th century, required eight years of engineering; it boasts high-level finishing for an industrial product, a characteristic blue microrotor and an 80-hour autonomy. The Virage’s 40mm case has a slender bezel that sheds light on beautifully polished dials, where the significant «All Swiss» watermark can be seen in place of the more ordinary «Swiss made», as certification of a product «entirely made in Switzerland», Faoro is keen to note. The design evokes the watchmaking of the 1950s, but the allure is timeless. The second collection, named G24 and produced in 24 pieces, is dedicated to performance. With a G24 prototype on his wrist, Gabriele Gardel won the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours in the GTE-Am class in a Corvette. This version chooses the lightness of titanium in a black Pvd and features the design by Matthew Humphries, who car enthusiasts will know as the designer of the famous Morgan Aeromax.

The result is aesthetically captivating - with skeletal lugs and a dial featuring «parabolic» retrograde date and power reserve displays - and technically challenging: the two LV2 barrels offer 120 hours of power reserve. Noblesse oblige, the Virage and G24 have received COSC certification. The brand’s latest creation, the Rallymaster, an elegantly sporty chronograph, hints to the epic of vintage racing. A 40 mm steel case crafted by Erbas in Mendrisio, three silver compasses immersing themselves in vibrant dials of sober colors, and a fair price. Also of proven reliability is the automatic caliber, made by Sellita. The automotive spirit of the golden era throbs in the lines as it does in Lonville’s engines and is celebrated by the Lonville Classic, a vintage car race that moves between Lugano and other Italian locations that still preserve the flair of the Dolce Vita; a race that is a celebration of an imagination that is capable of making classicism run with class. Whether Lonville will be able to become the cultural driving force behind a new manufacturing hub, we do not know; certainly the timepieces are well made and of taste, capable of putting Lugano on the map of connoisseurs.