Horological Meandering

SALMANPK
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Oan.Gio: Art of the World from Vietnam

One of the finalist at the GPHG last year was a brand called Oan.Gio, what fascinated me was the dial and that it was from Vietnam.









So I wanted to know more about Oan.Gio and their watches, as it is with all things horological such pursuits take you down a fascinating rabbit hole of discovery 😊













Vietnamese French Nghia Nguyen Dai returned to Vietnam in 2019 with a background in the watch industry and started Oan.Gio in 2024. Oan” is a phonetic echo of “one”, and the name of his wife, Oanh. “Gio” means “time” or “hour” in Vietnamese.





He discovered the traditional sơn mài lacquer used in furniture and decorative screens. A deep, multi-layered craft, involving weeks of applying, sanding, curing, polishing again and again until colors acquire an otherworldly depth and applied that craft to watch dials.















He formed relationships with artisans in Vietnam, China, France, Georgia, Japan, Russia, Spain, Ukraine and others that could bring their craft of lacquer, guilloché, enameling, raden, maki-e, Damascene steelwork and hand engraving to his watches.













A Collaboration with Japanese lacquer artist Keisuke Sano

















Collaboration with Guilloché Master Riccardo Renzetti



















The case size is a standard 40mm, 11mm in thickness, the manual-wind ETA Unitas 6498-2 movements are available in two versions, an Elaboré movement or the Ruthenium 3/4 bridge movement. Depending on the movement the finishing can be done with Ruthenium plating, Rose gold perlage, rhodium plating, and bespoke hand-engraving is by DK Precision Mechanics (DKM) in Glashutte, Germany.









The interesting thing is that DKM make their own watch as well.









They also use Ivan (@va.no130) an independent artisan and master engraver based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland for finishing movements, including black rhodium-plated, hand-decoration of movements.









The watches are Assembled by Renaud Louis Chavanis at Amplitude Hong Kong. He started his career in Saint-Étienne, France learning the craft and skills of Clockmaking, and then working at Rolex in Hong Kong for 18 years.





It's interesting that at Amplitude Hong Kong they offer different Watchmaking courses. This is the fourth one I am aware of besides Hampden of Chicago, OISA 1937 of Italy and Paul Gerber with his Uhrenkurs.





The Depth of Color and Vibrancy is unlike I have ever seen before, I love the story of Nghia Nguyen Dai and his efforts to bring the best Artists and Artisans together from Vietnam and the World to create beautiful watches. This is what makes his watches so Special and Unique.

Source: Google Images, Instagram