Harmony, aesthetic, color, setting of stones…Technical work, watch making know-how patience and precision….For more than fifteen years, de Grisogono has unveiled jewelry creations and luxury watches that are detailed with passion from the finest craftsmen at the top of the their field. Christmas is once again the occasion to dream about these exceptional pieces, these objects of art which enhance mysterious creativity, always renewed.
As a symbol of power, passion and love, jewelry has always been considered one of the most beautiful artistic expressions. But not everyone can be an artist. Harmonies of design, proportions of colors are gifts which can not be taught. Fawaz Gruosi, President and Founder of de Grisogono, is one of those rare artists who was born with great design talent. His imagination and use of stones are unmatched in today’s market. The house of de Grisogono’s creativity can be seen by the jewelry itself. The jewelry emphasizes unique and unusual shapes while enhancing rich stones in the settings.
For example, a brown, grey and white diamond bracelet in the form of a Hippopotamus or a highly jeweled ruby Butterfly cuff bracelet with diamonds and spinels. Other examples of the aesthetical innovation created by de Grisogono include the famous large bracelet from the “boule” collection and a pair of earrings set with diamonds and briolette sapphires, a design shape that Fawaz Gruosi particularly likes.
An Art of Exception
The uniqueness of de Grisogono designs is the choice of warm colored stones. Much like the creative designed jewelry, the house of de Grisogono also creates wonderful watches. In just nine years, the brand has managed to make a name for itself with its watch collection around the world. From the Instrumento N°Uno to the Meccanico dG to name just a few, de Grisogono is always looking for the next new uncharted territory to emphasize unedited complications.
Whether it is the jewelry or timepieces, de Grisogono creations are trendsetters as well as being timeless in their design. So if you find a de GRISOGONO Christmas gift at the bottom of your tree this year, consider it like a precious object similar to a painting that you will always keep throughout the rest of your life.

We had a chance at BaselWorld 2009 to sit down with De Grisogono and see this masterpiece. It lives up to it’s beauty and fame. The unique dual time feature it has dazzles us all and provides an look at what we are going to see in the future from De Grisogono.

Watch in matt blackened 18 carats white gold and polished 18 carats white gold set with 154 baguette-cut white diamonds of 18 carats Matt black dial with twelve-blade titanium diaphragm, Arabic numerals, dauphine hands in polished 18 carats white gold Hour, quarter and minute repeater strike on three gongs with the diaphragm open Cathedral gong Genuine matt black alligator strap with blackened 18 carats white gold de GRISOGONO butterfly buckle Sapphire glass and case back  Crown with de GRISOGONO crest Water-resistant up to 30 meters

Dual analog and digital display. These Gold Watches are a real piece of art! In fine watchmaking, you can decide to reinterpret existing concepts or choose to steer a pioneering course. Founder and CEO of de Grisogono, Fawaz Gruosi has deliberately chosen the second approach. With the Meccanico dG, the Geneva based manufacturer’s most recent entry, de Grisogono presents a design stemming from the purest watchmaking tradition and projects it into the future. With a total of 651 components, the Meccanico dG’s mechanical movement is one of the most complex ever made. A masterpiece of fine watchmaking, designed to display the time in two time zones, it ranks as the world’s first watch with a mechanical digital display as well as an analogue face. This world first – based on a de Grisogono patent – places a startlingly complex mechanism in a very contemporary design.

To celebrate his company’s 15th anniversary, Fawaz Gruosi decided to explore an area where no watchmaker had ever been: the digital display driven by a mechanical system exclusively. Despite the considerable audacity and the measure of recklessness this extraordinary project demanded, Fawaz Gruosi never looked back. For him, watchmaking goes hand in hand with innovation. With its patented dual analogue and mechanical digital display, the Meccanico dG springs from a totally innovative concept in the world of traditional horology. A single mechanical movement, two time zones, two types of display: the Meccanico dG breaks truly new ground; for the first time in watchmaking history, a digital display and mechanical power come together successfully.

A NEW DIMENSION
Digital displays came into their own in the quartz era. Electronics dominated the industry and mechanical watchmaking seemed seriously threatened. Thirty years later, highly intricate mechanical movements exert unprecedented fascination as Haute Horlogerie continues to prosper.

In the meantime, traditional watchmaking has undergone radical change; through wave after wave of innovation and increasingly impeccably finished products, it has conferred on the most highly complex timekeepers the status of objets d’art. But watchmakers had up to then never challenged the digital display’s basic technical principle. Meccanico dG has now achieved this, making history as it propels Haute Horlogerie to a stunning new level.

The Meccanico dG is an assemblage of microsystems featuring highly sophisticated cam and gearing mechanisms. A proprietary de Grisogono calibre, its hand-wound movement comprises 651 components. It offers an analogue display of the hours and minutes on the upper dial and the digital display of a second time zone on the lower section. The latter features the tens of hours, the hours, the tens of minutes and the minutes. The mechanism is activated via movable micro-segments driven by a set of 23 cams combined with gears plus a triggering and synchronization device.

23 horizontal and vertical micro-segments are involved in displaying the time digitally. The vertical segments are 4.55 mm high and the horizontal segments have a display length of 1.80 mm. Each segment has four faces: two visible faces opposite each other with coloured inserts and two invisible faces, also opposite. One or more segments rotate 90° to turn one time indication into the next. The jump is instantaneous while anywhere from 1 to 12 segments move, depending on the time being displayed.

AN INNOVATIVE DESIGN
This radically new dimension in fine watchmaking extends to the Meccanico dG’s trim contemporary design. Its intricate mechanical construction, not least the cam and gear systems, can be observed through the watch’s transparent dial. Also fitted with coloured inserts, the hour markers for the analogue display seem suspended in mid-air to allow a glimpse of their mechanical driving system. Just like all de Grisogono movements, the Meccanico dG calibre features an immaculate black finish. “de Grisogono” and “Swiss Made” are inscribed on the movement itself while the back of the watch features a small plate inscribed with “Meccanico dG”.

Despite the power required for the dual mechanical and digital display and the torque essential for the instantaneous rotation of the micro-segments, the proprietary de Grisogono hand-wound calibre fitted in the Meccanico dG has a power reserve of some 35 hours. The latter is displayed by a hand in a 90° sector on the back of the movement and is visible through a shaped crystal caseback giving a glimpse of the brand’s famous emblematic scrolls.

The Meccanico dG case matches its outstanding movement. Imposing in size (56 x 48 mm), innovative in design, water-resistant to 30 metres, it comes in a choice of pink gold, titanium, titanium and rubber, titanium and pink gold or titanium and platinum. In keeping with the watch’s futuristic character, its correctors and crown cover are vulcanised rubber. A crown at 3 o’clock controls the analogue time display. Two correctors serve to reset the second time zone; the left-hand one controls the hours, the right-hand one the tens of minutes and minutes. The strap is also fashioned in natural vulcanised rubber and features a deployment clasp adorned with the de Grisogono emblem.

An outstanding design enhancing an exceptional de Grisogono watchmaking year, the Meccanico dG is being fashioned in a limited edition of 177 watches.