Says Selmoni, “the first 3D printed prototype of the Overseas generation three was made in 2012, so you can see how long we’ve worked on the design before we unveiled it. This was an important for us because it was first and foremost some design aspects of the second generation Overseas collection that we felt weren’t perfectly in line with the inclinations of today. It’s design codes needed to evolve.”
It was greatly fascinating to come face to face with the actual 3D moulds and even metal casts, that showcase the maison’s thought process in the various stages of design — as it set itself out to create a far superior version of the Overseas collection that would fit perfectly into 2016.
Adds Selmoni, “the second generation of the Overseas has served us well since 2004 — that is a long time — we needed to make sure that the third generation would be just as, if not more, long serving. This was extremely important for us.”
And all of this the maison has, no doubt, achieved with staggering success with a handsome roundup of six watch types in the collection — the highlight of which was no doubt the late unveiled Overseas World Time. Along with that, some progressive innovations in this generation include a complete collection of in-house movements for the evolved generation and an ingeniously practical strap-swap mechanism that makes dressing your watch for different occasions a piece of deliciously moist cake.
While the third generation of the Overseas collection is perfectly modern, Christian Selmoni’s demonstration of its development process and the location we were in was a pertinent reminder that all of this was in line with the maison’s 260 years of heritage, where crafting eternity has constantly required fresh perspectives.