When speaking about their watches, Alfredo and Martijn are very explicit: “Fromanteel has a style of its own and prefers to maintain this unique style.”While designing their first collection, the limited edition ‘Day & Night’, Alfredo and Martijn discussed extensively every considerable and small detail in the design. This proved to be a very hard, though intense and successful cooperation. “Without friction, there is no shine.” Same as the fact that without ‘Day’ there is no ‘Night’—hence the name of the collection.
The two say rarely to be guided by the will of other people. They are inspired by the modern man, but deliberately choose not to base their decisions on what others think. They design watches according to their own taste. It has to be something they would like to wear and what they think will look good on them.
A Fromanteel watch is not some trendy, fashionable watch that is easily adopted by the masses. A Fromanteel watch has a story that only the wearer can tell: the story about the history of the name, its origin and the fact it is a limited edition.
It’s also not a conspicuous watch. Fromanteel watches are subtle, stylish and only the wearer himself knows it fits his personal taste and style.
In the end, it is the contrast and connection, found in the brand, its history and the characters of the designers that make the slogan ‘History is Now’ a perfect fit for the brand.
Before drawing our first packaging proposals we decided to first study how goods were packaged and shipped in the era of Fromanteel, some 400 years ago.
We discovered that the materials, which were used at that time, were made to withstand even rougher transport conditions than nowadays found with modern cargo transport.
The 2010 CollectionWhile designing the 2010 Collection we stood still at what motivates the modern man when it comes to watches and style in general. We discovered that men are very different in their style preferences. The motivation behind these different style preferences is what fascinated us and drove us to design the 2010 Collection.
To men, style is something personal and cannot be compared with a fashion statement or simply what is in trendy at the moment. Fashion has always been, and always will be dynamic. But style is timeless. Fashion is largely concerned with what is cool, or what trends are at what time, etc. While just a few men exhibit true style, timeless cool and display of good taste.
In our study we found three interesting style archetypes. One is the Dandy—or as we would like to call him ‘The Cultural Creative’ man. The Cultural Creative is our informal interpretation of the Dandy. Where the Dandy is cockney and expresses a foremost English style, the Cultural Creative is not. He dress and grooms himself every day by set of formal rules but knows how to play around, expressing a creative style of his own.
The ‘Johannes’ timepiece is inspired by the lifestyle of the Cultural Creative. The man that recognizes all the efforts and contributions that a single, well interpreted, detail, does for an outfit.
The ‘Rebel without a Cause’ is next archetype we studied in detail. An important era for the ‘Rebel’ – as we abbreviate him, was the 60’s of the last century. Raised in a very formal era (the 1950’s) the Rebel saw the world differently and defined freedom as one of his highest goals. Freedom to express and to live his life the way he wants. The Rebel lives by this credo and knows that the credo also implies freedom of movement. To be, to travel and to go wherever you want to, whenever you want to. The world as he sees it, is on the palm of his hands. The ‘Vintage1607’ is our interpretation of this style archetype.
Before designing the ‘Time MachinE’ we realized that the third style archetype we based our design on is actually not a style archetype pur sang. It might be the result of a transformation of any archetype.
This sub-archetype comes out at night. We call him the ‘Nightlife Smart Casual’ man. He is the self-confident cosmopolitan man. His playfield is the city at night. The night flirts and presents many temptations. The faith hearted obeys the night, however the strong seizes it and makes the night his own. The ‘TimemachinE’ is all about reliability and precision designed to fit this style ‘archetype’ .
The result of our study is the 2010 Collection. This collection is a stylish ode to the modern man.
The Generations Series ‘Johannes’ Named after the oldest son of Ahasuerus Fromanteel and limited at 1638 pieces in black & white, this first Fromanteel watch of the Generations Series represents in its design and detail everything the modern dandy, or as we like to say; the cultural creative man would like to see in a watch.
Johannes Fromanteel was born in 1638. As the oldest son he got to spend much time in the clockmaker’s workshop learning and observing the magnificent craftsmanship of his father. After years of practice and study, Johannes eventually followed in his father’s footsteps and became a master clockmaker.
The watch ‘Johannes’ is an ode to the passionate son and the first watch in the Generations Series.
The design of the watch is inspired by the lifestyle of the Cultural Creative man. The man that recognizes all the efforts and contributions that a single, well interpreted, detail, does for an outfit.
The Generations‘Johannes’ is a watch for the man who knows that life has to be lived by a set of informal rules. The ‘Johannes’, a proud son’s story about detail and craftsmanship.
Photos Copyright Fromanteel.
