Chiseled from the finest marble the world has to offer, Giuliano Mazzuoli’s Carrara wristwatch is a tribute to his Florentine origins. Available in standard three-hand and chronograph variants, each piece is a unique work of Italian artistry driven by a Swiss mechanical movement.

Marble is the new carbon! Well, not exactly. In their efforts to differentiate themselves and demonstrate their artistic creativity, brands are recently turning to marble. We already wrote about a start-up brand challenging the high-tech smartwatch trend by offering a new minimalist timepiece that is "dumb as a brick”, or in this case, marble.

And we just came across another company – named after its founder Giuliano Mazzuoli - that is chiseling their timepieces out of marble. And while marble will not become as common as carbon in watch case design, the new trend – if we can already call it that - is certainly getting noticed.

This marble wristwatch is called the Carrara, and it is conceived by designer and entrepreneur Giuliano Mazzuoli. The Italian’s creativity is rooted in the bond he feels with his origins and traditional family values. Known for his handcrafted writing instruments, he is relatively new to the world of watchmaking. But Giuliano is making an effort to recapture the legacy passed down to him from an ancestor who was a master watchmaker that constructed tower clocks in Tuscany.

In his previous design works Giuliano has transformed common objects into contemporary works of art. And he has done something similar here, applying a material that has nothing to do with traditional watchmaking and making something unique. But marble is intimately connected to his Florentine heritage.

Florence was where the Renaissance began, home to some of the greatest masters of the arts the world has ever known. Giuliano Mazzuoli is proud of his roots, and this time his inspiration comes from a piece of marble extracted from the caves of the Apuan Alps in Carrara, near Florence, which gives the watch its name. It is where Michelangelo personally went to select the marble to make his stunning sculpture of David that stands in Florence today. It is also where the Romans extracted the marble to build the great Pantheon. Carrara marble is the most prestigious marble in the world, and the watches that would be carved out of it have no choice but to be works of art.

The marble case, which houses a high-performance Swiss automatic movement, is hand-made in Italy by master marble workers. It is reinforced by an inner metal ring that is bonded to the marble, making it less susceptible to breakage. Because each stone has its own characteristics, every example of the Carrara marble wristwatch is unique.

The dial comes in either ceramic gun metal, blue or white colors. The cuboid rectangular minute indexes are raised, giving a three-dimensional feeling to the dial. As is typical in all of Giuliano Mazzuoli watches, a strap with a steel deployant buckle is inserted directly into the case and it is made in Tuscany in calf-skin leather.

Giuliano Mazzuoli’s marble Carrara wristwatch is a tribute to his Tuscan origins. But it is also more than that. Along with the other marble wristwatch offerings, it is also a counter movement to the increasingly common high-tech smartwatch trend.

Technical information:

Case:

• 45 mm diameter; 13.5 mm height; cylindrical case made in Italy of fine Carrara marble

Movement:

• Three-hand (time-only) version: Swiss Made; self-winding automatic movement; ETA 2824/2 movement with Incabloc anti-shock system; 25 jewel movement at 28,800 beats per hour, and a 40 hour power reserve.
• Chronograph version: Swiss Made; self-winding automatic movement; La Joux-Perret LJP 7771 with Incabloc anti-shock system; 25 jewel movement at 28,800 beats per hour, and a 48 hour power reserve

Dial:

• Ceramic dial in gun metal, blue or white color with raised three-dimensional metallic rectangular cuboid minute indexes

Crown:

• Screw-in crown positioned at 3 o’clock with white “o” ring

Functions:

• Three-hand version: hours, minutes, and seconds. Chronograph version: hours, minutes, and seconds. Seconds counter positioned at 3 o’clock Start-Stop Button at 2 o’clock; Reset Button at 4 o’clock. Crystal: Convex sapphire crystal; anti-reflective

Strap:

• Strap made of calf-skin leather in Tuscany

Buckle:

• Deployant steel buckle with logo

Water Resistance:

• 5 atmospheres (50 meters)