A different kind of Zürich time.
An independent watch concept for Maurice de Mauriac, inspired by Letzigrund, the Zürich landmark that means more when you live here.
Zürich, if you know.
For a brand so rooted in Zürich, I wanted a starting point that felt like the city from the inside. Not another postcard. Not a familiar colour scheme pasted onto a dial.
Letzigrund made more sense: a place that matters to the people who live here, with an architectural shape that was already halfway to becoming a watch.
The design
A stadium. A movement. A small change of scale.
The architecture became the starting point for the case, rather than a motif applied to an ordinary watch. I developed the CAD and preliminary engineering around a Sellita SW200 movement: a familiar mechanical base for a less familiar shape.
Made after hours
Good practice.
Questionable restraint.
I have a nine-to-five. In the evenings, I make room for the ideas that might not survive a sensible meeting. Designing watches for fun keeps me curious, lets me follow my own taste, and occasionally prevents my brain from turning into office furniture.
This project was also a practical exercise in working with AI. I used custom AI-assisted code for CAD operations, then fed my design data into several models to produce images and video.
The concept, design, CAD and preliminary engineering are mine. AI helped with tools and presentation. The decisions stayed with me.
Letzigrund — an independent concept for Maurice de Mauriac.
Concept, design, CAD and preliminary engineering: Manfredi Calamai.
Designed around the Sellita SW200. AI-assisted imagery and video.
A personal design exploration, not a commissioned or production watch.