Lunch with Massacesi and Anonimo party

[Firenze]

On 10/10/2008 (even the year adds up to 10, the age of Anonimo!) Federicco Massacesi, founder and CEO of Anonimo, flew in from Florence to attend the official launch of the new Anonimo line organized by Citimex, brand distributor for Asia (Japan excluded) at Wild Oats.

Before that, Federico met with few Anonimists and others fora’s members for lunch (at Novus), kindly organized by Kelvin Yeo, GM of Dickson, a brand authorized dealer in Singapore, and Citimex. This was a unique opportunity for us to hear from the lips of its own founder about the past, present and future of this watch company. In fact, it is very uncommon for the management of Anonimo to go around and talk about their brand. Kelvin: “Thank you for this effort. You did a great job.”

Here is a summary of the lunch talk and the evening event. I did not take many pictures at the lunch since other much more competent watch photographers were present. Among them, Harry Tan, who has featured the event and one Anonimo watch on his blog. (Here is the lunch; here is the watch). SJX also wrote a very detailed and photographic report of the lunch on the Purists.
The pictures from the night event are taken by me, Elgin and another Anonimist, Alex. Elgin and Alex: “Thank you very much!”

Anonimo was created ten years ago in Firenze by Federico Massacesi, formerly in the management of Ferragamo. The main strength of his company, as Federico highlighted himself, is in the case making. The steel (or bronze) is in fact scooped from a cylinder rather than stamped. Apparently this choice is due by the need to avoid any molecular change in the metal. As I am not an expert, I let you folks decide on the matter.

Bronze case and Drass finishing are the distinctive features of this company. To my knowledge only Gerald Genta has used bronze as a material for the case. Other brands are now following this path. A bronze case is distinctive in the sense that its color and texture changes with time, because of the creation of a patina that follows from the oxidation of the case. In a sense, the watch ages with its owner and I like this philosophical aspect of watch ownership, as well as the aesthetical color of the bronze.
The Drass finishing is unique to Anonimo. It consists of a coating process that is applied to the steel, by hand, in several rounds. The final outcome is a grey and glossy case which is totally unique and whose resistance to scratches is supposed to be much better than normal PVD and even Ox-Pro, a system adopted in the past by Anonimo to get a PVD type of effect. Since the process is entirely hand made, each single case will be different, to some extent.

Anonimo is a small company (four people make the cases, while one designs them) and has a yearly production of 3000 pieces. In Federico’s mind this is a steady state feature of the company. When asked the usual comparison between his brand and a most famous one that originated from Firenze, Federico did not hesitate to say that without the latter Anonimo would have never been able to gain any visibility. He compares his company to a small ship that follows the icebreaker vessel into the Artic Ocean.

During the lunch and later at the event, it was made public that Citimex has bought some shares of the company (how many was not told) which should make the link between Singapore and Firenze even stronger in the next few years. Hopefully this will lead to more Anonimo events in the region.

I almost forgot: Anonimo watches are extremely comfortable to wear also because of their leather strap which is specially treated to resist long water immersions.

Here are the few shots I took at the lunch:

Federico with some Anonimists


Anonimo Militare 10 anniversary


Anonimo Militare Chrono 10 anniversary (That’s my favorite)



Anonimo Professionale power reserve (I like this case!)


The night event was held at Wild Oats. This is the e-invite


This is what I found in my mailbox


At the entrance faceless models wearing Anonimo were greeting the participants. In the past two weeks, these models were spotted around Singapore but no information about their presence was given. Finally we learned what they were doing!



The following shots portrait the venue and the guests that were gathering








Other shots of the faceless models




My wife and me having fun with the masks. A touch of Venice.




Federico Massacesi’s talk and toast with Mark, CEO of Citimex




Time to go see some watches


Sorry for the pictures, I ain’t a pro.












Let’s go upstairs see the anniversary line in its natural environment: the water.










This is clearly my favorite model


Now back downstairs, there are other models…




Me trying to take pictures


Three Florentines in Singapore


Federico with Kelvin and SJX


My lovely wife wearing the Millemetri Bronze Japanese LE (50 pieces only)


Two anonimisti wearing the Firenze Dual Time


Federico and anonimisti


And to conclude: wrist shot


Thanks for reading and watching.
Cheers
Massi

[Wimster]

Hi Massi,

thanks for the great report! looks like a very nice and original event!

cheers, Wim

[KokChoon]

Great report Massi, thanks for covering this in horomundi

I am sorry I cannot be there and glad that you guys had fun.


Cheers
KokChoon

[nasty204]

Just to share this some old and crappy shots of my Anonimo's

Professionale with the light yellow dial -- while this was limited to 250 pieces, there were actually two variation, a dial with lighter shade of yellow and the slightly darker with greenish tone. Beside it was the original Militare Chrono with brushed steel finishing.



Below is the Ox-Pro finished Militare Chrono with the carbon fibre strap.



Still love the rugged simplicity of the older range.

Cheers

Noel

[eddiesng]

Thanks Massi.

Wish I could have been there but was caught up. Any, nice report and I am glad all of you had fun.

Nice watches too...

[jimsbk]

Lovely fun event and nice watches. Sorry had to pass. Cheers, Jim

[Horolographer]

Thanks Massi for the wonderful and detailed report of the Anonimo Anniversary. I did enjoy the lunch meeting with Federico but was unable to attend the cocktail party. So it was a fascinating to read about the events that night.

I think the Anonimo decision to engage with collectors more proactively will help with the brand's positioning in the market. I believe there are some interesting developments in store in the near future so Anonimo fans can look forward to more exciting things ahead.

Cheers!

[watchculture]

Thanks for your invite Massi. As I have to work late, I could not make it. Glad to enjoy the evening thru your report here. Anonimo Militare looks great!

[Firenze]

The event was fun because it was different from the others I have attended but most importantly it was very useful. Anonimo is not a company that does those kind of things that often. On the contrary it is quite a unique opportunity to hear from its owner's lips the past, present and future.

I wrote this post having in mind an audience of non Anonimisti. If there are some who would like to know more in detail about the future lines, please check the post I wrote on an Anonimisti forum (Can I link?). There I reported all the detailed features about the new line that Massacesi said during the lunch.

Thanks again.
Massi

[zephyr49]

Great post fratello, especially when not much is known of Anonimo. I like the fact they are honest about their intentions on the future of the brand, especially when they like to focus on their unique case designs, construction and materials.

Too bad Colonel Dino Zei didn't come and too bad I couldn't make it for the cocktail too.

Ciao,
Lionel

[Firenze]

Originally Posted by zephyr49

Too bad Colonel Dino Zei didn't come and too bad I couldn't make it for the cocktail too.

Ciao,
Lionel

We have to make sure that at the next event Dino Zei will be in town too! So he can sign my copy of his Panerai book!

Ciao!
Massi