Wisdom

The engraving on the back of my Reverso is important to me for several reasons, but the story really begins with my father. He is an architect, and one of the things we have always shared is a love of Art Deco. I was born and raised in New York City, so when we began thinking together about what should go on the back of my Reverso, it felt natural to look toward the Art Deco architecture and artwork that have always been part of the city around us.

We eventually came to Wisdom, the monumental work by sculptor Lee Lawrie above the main entrance of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. It is one of those images that is so much a part of New York that you can walk past it without really stopping to think about it. Created by Lawrie with colorist Leon V. Solon, the enormous Art Deco figure looks down over the entrance to Rockefeller Center from Fifth Avenue. Wisdom is meant to represent the creative power of the universe and is flanked by two other Lawrie works, Sound and Light.

For my father and me, though, there was something else in it that spoke to us. Rockefeller Center belongs to an era of extraordinary industrial development and optimism, when architecture, art and engineering were being used to express ideas about progress and what human beings could achieve. That idea mattered to both of us. We also kept the inscription associated with the original artwork: “Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of thy times.”

I have always loved what those words represent. To me, they are about reason, learning and the pursuit of knowledge, and about the belief that progress ultimately depends on our willingness to understand more than we did before. That made the engraving personal in a way that simply choosing a beautiful image never could. It brought together New York, where I was born and raised; Art Deco, which my father and I both love; his life as an architect; my own interest in watches; and an idea about knowledge and progress that means something to both of us.

Over time, something I created with my father has also become something of a calling card for me in the watch world. People have come to recognize the Reverso and its one-of-one engraving, which is something I never really expected when we were first deciding what to put on the back. It even had its own little New York moment. During an event at the Rainbow Room, the watch was photographed and later appeared in The New York Times. There was something particularly fitting about that: a Reverso bought in New York, engraved with our interpretation of one of the city’s great Art Deco landmarks, photographed high above the city at Rockefeller Center itself.

I would still like to take the idea further one day and create a version in color enamel. There is much more that could be explored in the original artwork, particularly through color, and I like the thought that this may not be the last interpretation my father and I inspire from Wisdom. But whatever comes next, this one will always be the first. More than anything, when I turn the watch over, I don’t think about having created a unique Reverso. I think about sitting with my father and deciding what belonged there. The engraving may have become recognizable to other collectors, but for me it will always be a memory my father and I created together.