Founded in 2005 by Sassoun Sirmakes and Antonio Terranova, Cvstos has distinguished itself with cutting edge designs and high quality watchmaking. The Cvstos workshops are located at the bottom of rue Voltaire, in Geneva’s historical watchmaking quarter of Saint-Gervais.
The best-selling watch from Cvstos is the Challenge Sea-Liner, and the fact that this collection is even in the Cvstos brand is a bit of a lucky accident.
“We first created the Sea-Liner in 2007 within our Yachting Club line, and it was initially designed in cooperation with a group of Italian boat builders,” explains Antonio Terranova, chief designer and co-founder of Cvstos. “We were going to build 20 exclusive tourbillons in platinum, but the worldwide economic crisis hit and they stopped the project. We had 20 pieces in our hands, so we had a big problem - the investment was really large. We decided to sell the watches ourselves and it took just two weeks to sell 20 platinum tourbillons. We had a lot of success with this line.”
“In 2010, I had a special request from our Japanese agent to reduce the price and make it a larger volume product, respecting all the design features and the philosophy of this model,” he continues. “I redesigned the model and the result is the new three-hand Challenge Sea-Liner, which sells for 16,000 CHF. We kept a number of design elements for yachting – for example, the main bridge of the movement is made of titanium inlayed with teak wood. This watch doesn’t have any dial, it is an open-worked watch, so you can see the movement from the back and the front, and from both sides, through portholes we put in the side of the case.”
Terranova says that the reason for the open-worked dial is because the original Sea-Liner was inspired by mega yachts and the desire was make a watch that was completely transparent, where all the mechanisms can be viewed from every angle. “We play with colors and coatings and with materials, like Alcantara on the bracelet, which is water resistant and washable,” Terranova details. “It’s very suited for the lifestyle of boating. This watch is for the Runabouts that you can find on the lakes around Europe.”
The Sea-Liner Challenge comes in two sizes, and the idea is that this base model will be the foundation for a number of new developments. Terranova shared with WorldTempus that a white ceramic version is in the works (quite complex due to the all the windows in the case), as in an automatic chronograph with GMT, with night and day indicator and big date. After that, Terranova states that Cvstos will be doing a perpetual calendar with tide indicator in the Challenge Sea-Liner collection.
We can’t wait.
