"IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE I THOUGHT WHITEbIRD NEEDED A WATCH BRAND BUT HAD NEVER COME ACROSS ANYTHING THAT REALLY FELT RIGHT. WHEN I DISCOVERED UNIMATIC'S CONFIDENT AND BOLD DESIGN, IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT." - STÉPHANIE ROGER
TO CELEBRATE UNIMATIC' ARRIVAL AT WHITEbIRD WE ASKED ITS CO-FOUNDER GIOVANNI MORO TO ANSWER A FEW QUESTIONS:

1- Tell us about your background in industrial design and how you and Simone met?
Simone and I met at the Politecnico di Milano in early 2000, where we were on the product design course. After graduation, our lives took different paths, with Simone moving to London (where he’s still based) and me working in the furniture design sector for many years. We were, of course, in touch during these years and talking about watches quite a bit, collecting and analysing many different brands and models.

2. How did you decide to launch UNIMATIC? What was the first piece you created?
We paired our personal watch obsessions with our product and graphic design skills. We daydreamed about the design elements which would be essential to the product; what was best practice to solve this or that function; and which would be the most elegant way to synthesise everything in a coherent product. At some point, we decided to come up with a re-imagined minimal and functional diving watch, just for the sake of having it in real life after so many imaginative talking sessions: and so the Modello Uno was born.

3. Can you tell us about your creative process and your inspirations?
I stand by Tom Sachs’ motto “creativity is the enemy”, trying to avoid flights of fancy when it comes to product design. We do our best to measure, analyse and improve what already exists in a never-ending honing process (I personally like to pair this approach with the consumption of alcoholic drinks:))

4. Are you attached to any of your watches in particular? What is the story behind it?
This is the hardest question since each watch we have made is meaningful to me. We have never made a watch we wouldn’t love to wear and each one is linked to a particular person, event, or brand that somehow resonates with my personal life experience. Unfortunately, I can not pick one in particular - that would be like asking a father which son he most likes from amongst all his kids.

5. Can you tell us more about the limited editions you create? How often do you create them and where do the ideas come from?
We like to work on small batches trying to hybridise the DNA of Unimatic with some meaningful traits we can get from other companies or individuals. We don’t have an exact schedule or recipe for this to happen and usually the evolution happens naturally when we meet new people we feel are somehow resonating with our work.

6. Which are your favourite watch brands apart from UNIMATIC?
Ressence and Seiko.

7. What would you have done if you had not become a designer?
In my dreams, I’m a still-life photographer.

8. What would you say to a young designer who is starting out?
Take an MBA, go find an internship in the largest company you can find -  and take the measure of reality before beginning to dream.

9. A Chinese mini-portrait:
If I were...
A stone I would be: Granite, usually cheap and widely available but you can build pyramids out of it
A perfume I would be: Prickly pear
A dish I would be: Pizza Margherita
A song I would be: Albinoni adagio in G minor
An author or a book I would be: The Myth of Sisyphus - Albert Camus
A country I would be: “You may have the universe if I may have Italy” - Giuseppe Verdi
An animal I would be: A pig.