Every spring the same questions come round. What do you buy your godchild for their confirmation? What do you give the newlyweds that isn’t one more envelope? In Croatia, where we come from, the answer has been the same for decades: gold. A chain, a small cross, a bracelet.
We have nothing against gold. It is beautiful, it lasts, and it is always worth something. But hand on heart, a good part of it ends up in its little box in a drawer once the celebration is over, and comes out twice a year, if that. A gift that is kept is not the same as a gift that is worn.
So we suggest something else, which is really something old: a watch. Many people of the older generation remember getting their first watch for their confirmation, from their godfather. Somewhere along the way the custom faded, and we think it deserves to come back.
Mraz and Zora
There are five watches in the Knez collection, and for an occasion like this we would pick out the two white ones first: Mraz and Zora. They share a case and a clean white dial, and one detail sets them apart. Mraz has a blue seconds hand and comes on a navy leather strap. Zora has a pink one and comes on light grey suede.
A white dial goes with a suit or a dress on the day, and just as well with jeans on Monday. With a gift, that is what matters most to us: that it isn’t a watch “for special occasions”, but a watch that gets worn. The case is slim and moderate in size, so it also sits well on a narrower wrist, whether that is a teenager’s or a bride’s.
Inside is a Swiss automatic movement. There is no battery: the watch winds itself from the movement of your wrist as you wear it. The crystal is sapphire, which in practice means it is very hard to scratch. The case is stainless steel, and the leather strap is made by hand in Tuscany. The markers on the dial are in Glagolitic, the script that was kept alive in Croatia for more than a thousand years.
Will it last as long as gold?
It is the question we would ask ourselves, so it deserves an honest answer. Gold asks for nothing. A mechanical watch asks for a little care: every few years it should go to a watchmaker for a service, the way a car goes in for its regular check. And it is not an investment the way a gold bar is. Its value is in being worn.
With that care, though, it lasts for decades. There are no electronics in it to go out of date and no battery to leak. The Sellita SW 200-1 is one of the most widely used Swiss movements, so any serious watchmaker will still know how to service it thirty years from now. Steel doesn’t tarnish or rust, and sapphire stays clear. Mechanical watches half a century old still run perfectly well today, often on the wrist of a grandchild of the person who was given them. Nobody will be able to say that about a phone or a smartwatch.
An engraving on the back
Every Knez comes with sapphire crystal on the back as well, so you can watch the movement at work. For a gift there is another option: a solid steel caseback, laser engraved. The date of the confirmation or the wedding, a name, a short message. Or just two words. The one in the photo says “od kuma”, Croatian for “from your godfather”.
You don’t have to picture the engraving in your head. Every Knez page has a “Design your engraving” button. It opens a tool where you type your text, choose a typeface and a symbol, and see straight away how it will all look on the back of the watch. Glagolitic is among the typefaces, and the symbols include a cross, a dove, wedding rings, a swallow and pleter, the old Croatian interlace. You can upload a drawing of your own as well.
The engraving is included in the price of the watch. We start engraving in December, which leaves plenty of time before the spring confirmations and weddings.
For a confirmation
You remember your first real watch. A confirmation comes at the age when a young person starts choosing for themselves what to wear, and there is every chance the watch will still be on their wrist at graduation and at their first job interview. Mraz is the obvious choice for a boy and Zora for a girl, though there are no rules: the difference is one hand, and the strap changes in a few seconds, without tools.
And a watch that carries the date on its back, and the name of whoever gave it, is unlikely to end up at the bottom of a drawer.
For a wedding, as a pair
Mraz and Zora are the same watch with one difference, so together they read as a pair without looking like a uniform. Mraz for him, Zora for her, and the same date on the back of both.
It can be a gift to the couple from the best man and the maid of honour, a gift from the parents, or what the bride and groom give each other on the morning of the wedding. It works the other way round too: a pair of watches is a lovely way for the couple to thank their best man and maid of honour.
We made a short film about it. There isn’t a word in it until the last frame, which reads, in Croatian: a moment to remember, a keepsake for every day.
A gold chain is not the wrong gift. But if you are looking for something that will be worn every day and still remember one particular day, have a look at Mraz and Zora. If you have an idea for an engraving and aren’t sure how to carry it out, get in touch.