Most of my friends own either one watch or a couple at best. However, as a watch writer and designer, I speak with many collectors who own several models. In fact, a Singapore businessman I met about five years ago owned approximately 250 exceptionally rare timepieces, mostly from independent brands. He described to me how he had commissioned a craftsman to make ten individual cases that were stored in bank vaults. On a weekly basis, he would rotate them and so he could wear a different watch to work each day. At the time I was pretty astounded that anyone could have amassed so many exquisite timepieces. However, he explained that his bounty was small compared to some in the region.
At any given time, the businessman I referred to would have at least 25 timepieces in his possession. The majority were Swiss automatic and he didn’t have the time to adjust them on a daily basis. Therefore, he installed some custom made watch winders in his home to overcome this issue. For most people, this isn’t an option or necessarily an issue. If you only own a couple of watches, which you alternate between a decent single watch winder will definitely do the trick. One I would highly recommend investing in is the Masterbox from Swisskubik.
Swisskubik was established in 2007 and was taken over by Xavier Castelli, president of Elix Holding SA in 2017. The company headquarters are located in the heart of Geneva, Switzerland. Very kindly the company sent me the black calf leather model with matching black stitching. On the first inspection, I was surprised at how compact (10x10x10 cm) it is. However, as the old adage goes “good things come in small packages.” Certainly this a good case in point with the Masterbox. The design is cohesive and it is exceptionally user-friendly. Even more in impressive is they can be tailored in different colours, materials (even brand logo’s) to the customer’s precise specifications.
In the watch industry, the term ‘Swiss made’ is too readily bandied around. Essentially, this means that at least 60% of manufacturing costs are produced in the country of origin. However, the Masterbox actually is 100% made in Switzerland at the company’s production facilities in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. Ultimately that means that Swisskubik has a very tight rein on quality control. What makes this watch winder so special is the state of the art (low magnetic charge) silent motor, which is programmable via USB or Bluetooth. It is also highly efficient and will run up to three years on two batteries (supplied).
Overall I was highly impressed with the Masterbox aesthetically and operationally. Another cool feature is after each rotation the winder resets automatically to the 12 o’clock position. For more information about SwissKubik follow this link
