One of my core design philosophies is that objects should only get better with time.
My name’s Ian Schon.
I’m a mechanical engineer, product designer, entrepreneur…
I have a lot of different titles, but my current fascination is in horology.
Horology is the art and science of timekeeping.
I got really into the science and the mechanical engineering behind watches when I was in college.
Just astounded by the fact that something mechanical made of purely metal could run
for a hundred years and keep really good time, it was mind-boggling.
Metal is really interesting for me because it’s very human and it patinas and ages
like us.
It can be perfect but it can also be very imperfect.
I tend to leave a little bit of manufacturing history and remnants from the process in the
product to remind us that things are made by people.
Those things make it more valuable to us because it reflects its life and its story.
I started my career in product development.
You know, nights and weekends, I’d run away to my shop in my house and I’d start tinkering
on the watches.
It was this little escape where I could be very intentional and introspective and uncompromising
with design vision.
I started off making watch cases.
I purchased a mill and I had it in my house and I could mill little circles.
So I was like, alright, I’ll have milled indices on the dial.
And then from there, as my process evolved, and as I expanded my manufacturing capabilities,
eventually, you know, got to the point where I wanted to go a little bit deeper and get
a little bit involved in the mechanics of watchmaking
which is when I developed the running indicator.
So the running indicator is a pseudo-complication that I developed and it’s a small titanium
disk.
And essentially what it does is that it allows me to move time, the running of seconds, to
exactly where I want them aesthetically in the watch.
The irony of it is that it’s so many things together and it’s so technical and so intense,
yet it’s a really simple way to show that the watch is running and alive and well.
It’s a very slow animation.
The running indicator definitely reflects my current pace of life.
I’ve slowed things down.
I’m looking at how do I spend time in a way that is meaningful to me.
It’s this, like, marrying of what I can do, what I want to do, because it’s all
those things together.
It’s just such a wonderful combination of all the things I really enjoy doing.
And it’s, I think, the first time in my career that I’ve really given myself the
time to just care about one thing and, you know,
spend so much energy making it perfect.
And it just slows things down a little bit and allows me to appreciate the process and
the journey as much as the product.