About the Inveniō PROJECT
THE WORD INVENIŌ, AMONG OTHER INTERPRETATIONS, means "I find" or "I come upon" in Latin, which is an accurate description of how Inveniō began.
If it hadn't happened to me, I wouldn't believe it. But just as we sometimes hear that the best ideas seem to come as if from another plane of existence in unexpected situations, this is exactly how the proto-idea of this watch was born.
My name is Armando Legin, I was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1987, and for the past 15 years I was best defined as a passionate entrepreneur owning a family business with my brother David Legin. Throughout it all, even since when I was only a child, there was an intense interest in mechanical watches and their inner workings. However, it took me too long, or maybe just enough time, to figure out what exactly is my passion.
Being a watch collector myself, I would often think about concepts related to watchmaking. So, on an ordinary day in 2019, something came upon me, and I envisioned a completely new way to display the time on a wristwatch dial. It took one blank sheet of paper, a pen and simply sitting down to instantly get the idea and make the first sketch.
The idea to display time with a single watch hand instead of two, while also obscuring unneeded information, was somehow plainly there - all it needed was to be sketched and acted upon.
And so, I came upon the idea or the idea came upon me. Now all I had to do was to force it in to existence.
ARMANDO LEGIN
Who are we
The "Armando Legin" watch brand sprang from a single sketch, flourishing into an unexpected collaboration with Marc Jenni, an inventive independent watchmaker, and Vicente Mafe, a seasoned industry veteran. Both brought indispensable expertise into the often intricate and secretive process inherent to the Swiss horological tradition.
Having a dedication of excellence in all facets of life, Inveniō deserved nothing less. If I were to make it, it had to be perfect. A decision was therefore made, to set the standards of excellence so high, the craftsmanship would be nothing less than state-of-the-art.
This, of course, complicates things. When the standard for every single component is set so high, the manufacturing process becomes increasingly more challenging and prone to component rejections due to the uncompromising quality control standards we adopted. This currently limits us to being able to produce and hand-assemble only 2 or 3 timepieces per month in Zürich, Switzerland.
And since I uphold the same standard not just for manufacturing quality but also for design itself, we developed it with, in my humble opinion, the best watch designer currently alive: Fabrice Gonet.
Teaming up with Fabrice Gonet & Olivier Leu in July of 2020 enabled us to bring the sketches to life in the most sophisticated and technically imaginative way possible. After countless iterations and discussions, we agreed upon the final version of Inveniō in March of 2021.
At this point we were already deep in to the technical development of our proprietary in-house module that enables the different speed transmission for the patented display of time with a rotating sapphire hour disc. By October of 2021 we had put everything together and suceeded in making a fully operational 3D model of the watch.
What followed was a technical preparation of the manufacturing-ready schematics and eventually by the end of 2022 we started the manufacturing process itself.
Current state
On the 24th of April, 2023, we've assembled the first working prototype and officially introduced the watch to the public. After three years of energy, focus and perseverance, Inveniō was finally available to collectors from around the globe.
June, 2023: Even now, the complexity of the project allows us to assemble only a few watches a month, however by the end of this year we intend to complete the production of all 25 timepieces.
August, 2023: First collectors get the Inveniō Genesis series delivered.
October, 2023: We've streamlined the assembly and testing process and can now deliver watches without any constraints. We've also started working on the next BLACK series which will be manufactured in a larger 50-100 pieces collection.
May, 2024: We're granted the patent for the multi-layered dial and our unique transversal indicator.
invenio@armandolegin.com