Get to know the artisans behind each Nunc
Each Nunc is unique, crafted by Italian artisans in the most skillful of processes. The case, casted from the highest grade 316 stainless steel, carries a prestigious Carrara or Marquina natural marble stone. The wooden packaging, which transforms into a plant pot, is hand made with traditional tools.
All of the handcrafted elements ensure that each Nunc is like no other and carries with it its own sense of flair. Rare and exceptional.
Timeless ingredients and traditions make a nunc.
THE NORTHERN VALLEY
The case is crafted from the highest grade 316 stainless steel in Valle Trompia.
The valley that already 2,000 years ago supplied metals to the Romans.
“Of all the metals, stainless steel is the most complex one: he is tough, and won’t make it easy for you to craft him. And that’s a beautiful challenge, every time. The programming of the machine is my real tool. It’s math, it’s x, y, and z.”
Valle Trompia doesn't really fit the picture most people have of Italy. A rainy valley nestled at the foot of the Alps, it is known for its laborious people and a long standing tradition in metal crafting. And when we met Oliviero for the first time, we realized he represented Valle Trompia's perfect expression.
Pragmatic, outspoken, hard working, with a genuine passion for his craftsmanship. We enjoyed learning from him. He said: "if you want the best quality we need to do it in stainless steel 316, and we need to do it with a CNC lathe machine with 4 axes of rotation. The quality is much higher compared to casting". And so we did. And while we were looking at the first pieces being crafted we understood what he meant.
THE SCULPTORS
The marble stone is engraved by sculptors in Bologna.
Who took on the challenge of carving the white Carrara and black Marquina Marbles to unprecedented levels of accuracy for natural stones.
“Thanks to the variations that are typical of natural stones, each project becomes unique, and you will never find a product that is like another. And that’s just so fascinating”
The first time we met with Andrea and Daniele from StoneLab, we knew right away that the partnership would mean much more than business. They embarked a few years before on the challenge of re-thinking the limits of use for natural stones. When we presented our vision, they fell in love with it right away.
They knew it would be a challenge to carve the natural Carrara and Marquina marbles to tolerance limits of 0.05 mm. But there was clear excitement on their faces, and it didn't take more than a few minutes until they enthusiastically said: yes, let's do this! This will be fun!
THE OLD CARPENTER
The wooden box, designed to be used as a plant pot...
...is handcrafted with traditional tools from a single block of Fraxinus, famous for its regular grains, each carrying a story.
“Wood ... you need to know it. It’s like a person. It breathes, it transforms. The way it was born, the way it lived, when and how it was cut: all this affects each piece after it is crafted. I remember this piece of wood I took from a roof to make a table, years ago. It had been exposed to the wind for 100s years. I swear that the leg of that table kept shaking”
Tarcisio is not a typical supplier by any means. The road to get to his workshop is full of narrow curves, immersed in an alpine forest. He apologizes for that, but he says that he likes to live close to the woods. He loves to give shapes to the wood, and it is clear that wood has shaped him. The valley where he is from has many carpentries today, and the young carpenters say he has been like a father to them.
His passion for craftsmanship is fascinating. He still operates with traditional tools, as he claims that computer controlled machines have taken away the beauty of what he calls his art. Yet, he is extremely precise. "Be careful, though: the wood is alive, it is constantly transforming. The cap that today fits well the box, it might grow in size in just a few weeks. Make sure to tell your customers, it's not my fault if it won't fit perfectly, it's the wood that is alive"
Yes, Tarcisio, we will make sure to tell them.
An amateur video capturing Tarcisio during the creation of Nunc's wooden pot.
CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
We are trying to keep our CO2 footprint to the minimum by leveraging artisanal processes and materials, with most of our partners in Italy within a short drive from one another. We have estimated that the production of one timepiece creates 1.8kg of CO2e.
Our goal is to over-compensate our carbon footprint impact. For this reason we have decided to support the Swedish organization Vi-Agroforestry (Vi-Skogen), active in planting trees in developing countries in Eastern Africa, while taking local populations out of poverty.
