Worn & Wound
Hands-On: the Apiar Gen1.0
The British brand Apiar has an intriguing slogan emblazoned across the front page of their website: Impossible Watches. Made Possible. If you spend enough time thinking about watches, collecting watches, and learning about watches, you begin to realize their limitations. Whether they’re chronometry related or have to do with the design and build of the watch itself, there are certain things that just can’t be done, or else stretch the limits of our current technology to the point where those things aren’t remotely feasible. The crazy idea you had for a watch case that defies the laws of physics might be something that only exists on paper. Additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies have the potential to change that. When a metal object is formed by adding material to it rather than stripping it away, a manufacturer can create shapes, textures, and structures that would be impossible otherwise. Apiar’s Gen1.0 is a thrilling example of the possibilities of 3D printing in watch manufacturing. They’re by no means the first to create watches this way, of course, but they’re part of a new class of brands using the technology in an experimental way that seems to finally make the most of it, creating not just beautiful objects that defy watchmaking convention, but watches that redefine our expectations around durability, lightness, and other metrics by which all of us evaluate these things. Importantly, the use of additive manufacturing also democratizes wat...
