Independents
Z3's photo essay captures a unique gathering with independent watchmaker Don Corson, showcasing his three personally crafted watches. This piece highlights Corson's remarkable journey from music history and engineering to self-taught watchmaking, emphasizing the truly in-house nature of his creations. It offers readers a rare look at the progression of a passionate independent watchmaker's skill and artistic vision.
A Relaxing Afternoon with Don Corson and Friends
- A photo essay of interesting time pieces.
On Sunday June 14, a group of Purists welcomed a special guest in New York City - Mr. Don Corson, met up for a leisurely lunch at Le Pain Quotidien in Union Square.
It was a great together - Don brought with him the 3 watches (succinctly named as "No. 1", "No. 2", and "No 3") that he made personally. These watches, along with their creation processes, have received a decent amount of coverage on our forum. However, seeing them and handling them in person are very pleasant treats.
Don, who is the moderator of the AHCI and Independent forum and currently resides in Switzerland, has a very eclectic background. From our conversation, I learned that Don was born and grew up in Connecticut and New Jersey. After receiving his training in music history, he went to Europe, worked for a while on pipe organs, later received further training in engineering, and then worked on various engineering projects. A man who enjoys workings with his hands, as the watch hobby became more entrenched, he decided to make his own watches - a daunting undertaking unthinkable for many.
The watches were made completely from scratch - movements, cases, hands, dial, everything, making them truly "in-house" creations.
The results were a marriage of interesting designs and marvelous mechanical executions. I will let the photos do the talking.
From left to right: No. 2 - a ladies watch Don made for his wife (yellow gold case, black MOP dial, and stingray strap). No. 1 - Don's very first creation. No. 3 - Don's latest work and his most complicated movement to date.
The finishing on the movements, from No.1 to No. 3, gets progressively more decorative - from the non-finished No.1 movement, to the tastefully decorated, ruthenium plated "grayed" movement found in No.3
No. 1. in more detail
The crown on No.1 is interesting...
No. 2 in more detail:
No.3 in more detail, along with a hardcover book documenting the watch making process, which is given to every buyer of No.3.
The dial has beautiful Cote de Geneve decorative pattern, the sub-dial are made of precious stone with nice looking speckles.
The hands are of Don's signature design.
We also saw some very interesting pieces today at the table.
Once again, my most sincere thanks to Jay (jaysny) for his fantastic organizing effort, and fellow Purists for coming out!
My best wishes to Don on his venture as a budding independent watch maker. We will all be waiting for his new design with bated breath.
Hope you have enjoyed the post.
Truly yours,
Jon (Z3)
This message has been edited by Z3 on 2009-06-20 08:53:42
Sticky off:
This message has been edited by MTF on 2009-06-26 09:06:50Don's progress as a watchmaker is evident, a journey that a few begin and very few succeed at. It is a tough process, taking passion, dedication and an unfailing willingness to do what it takes. In the few short years since Don has started on this path, what an amazing realization of his dream. Those of you who admire and feel compelled when seeing a timepiece by a living watchmaker, will possibly find Don to be almost unique in his watchmaking way. Not trained at a traditional watchmaking schoo
Also thank you Jon for being our photographer. I would like to say a few things, as I am sure Don does not want to appear shilling for his own watches. Yes, one could be bought............ still......I think. And before I say a few things, one should email Don directly for more information. First let me discuss the number 1 watch. It is Dons personal watch, his first one, he put it in a Silver case, and the movement finishing was not the priority. It reminded me very much of a prototype I once s
Thanks for sharing photos of Don's work with us. I have a lot of admiration for Don's ever-increasing skills as a watchmaker. He knows that I very much like his latest creation in particular. I think there is something marvelous about what Don is doing. So many of us wish we could create watches, but so few really ever try, much less succeed in this endeavor. I'm in awe of what Don has accomplished in a relatively short time. You can see the progression of his watchmaking skills reflected in the
And thanks to jaysny for helping with organization of this luncheon! Quick question for Don: Which tool(s) do you plan on purchasing next? And why this tool(s)? Cheers, Anthony
Thanks for the report, Jon. Some PuristS may know that Don is self-funding his hobby (Yes - he has a day job as well as being PPro moderator) by selling watches after Nos. 1 & 2 that obviously belong to Mrs Corson and Don. As he is a moderator, Don would not "sell" his watches personally on our website but he stil needs equipment and raw material to continue. So, Mr PuristSPro (our anonymous website person) will sell the watch for him. Check out the listing in our Market Place: click here Please
Great Report Jon, and impressive watches Don! It's a pleasure to see we have someone who actually makes their own watches. I've been considering attending some crash-course two full day seminars about how to assemble wristwatches where they give you very basic ETA movements and ask you to assemble/disassemble them; but making your own watches is really taking it to the next level. Best of luck Don!
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