Fernanda Zapata, Founder of Gigantem (New York, NY)

Note from the lecturer: Bring a watch with emotional significance to you!

A fine watch, unlike many other luxury items, often carries with it a strong emotional significance to its owner. Steeped in history and craftsmanship, watches are both utilitarian and artistic, useful, and decorative. Watch companies, in turn, understand this, and use these values to their advantage when selling their timepieces.

Using organic storytelling, brands can effectively connect and communicate with potential clients — all without resulting to the marketing "fluff" to which modern consumers are sensitive to. At the December lecture of the Horological Society of New York (HSNY), Fernanda Zapata, founder of Gigantem — an agency that specializes in public relations and events for brands such as Parmigiani Fleurier, H. Moser, Zenith and Girard-Perregaux — will discuss how watch companies engage in marketing using their history and ethos to connect with customers based on shared interests and values. 

*Doors open at 6PM ET, lecture to begin at 7PM ET. RSVP is required.

** The lecture video will be available to members immediately, and to the general public following a two-month delay.

About Fernanda Zapata

For over fifteen years, Fernanda has developed a well-curated career specializing in immersive storytelling for the luxury industry. She delves into her clients' history, ethos, passion, and dedication. As founder of boutique marketing, communications, and events agency Gigantem, she builds integrated marketing and communications programs, ideates unique branding concepts, and produces compelling experiential events. Constantly inspired by music, films, yoga, and her genuine interest in other people’s life experiences, her communication strategies are designed to share compelling stories that emotionally connect with like-minded individuals and make indelible impressions.

Roland Murphy, American Watchmaker, Founder of RGM Watch Company (Mount Joy, PA)

In the mid-1990s the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC) Museum asked American watchmaker Roland Murphy to repair a Patek Philippe Grand Complication — an important timepiece in the James Arthur collection. They were making a video and needed the repeater mechanism to function. Additionally, photographs were taken during the repair and restoration process to give a glimpse inside the extremely rare and complicated watch.

The 35mm negatives were recently scanned and were shared for the first time in the spring of 2023. At the November lecture of the Horological Society of New York (HSNY), Murphy will share the scans and his experience of repairing one of the most important watches in horological history.

*Doors open at 6PM ET, lecture to begin at 7PM ET. RSVP is required.

** The lecture video will be available to members immediately, and to the general public following a two-month delay.

About Roland Murphy

Roland attended Bowman Technical School in Lancaster, PA in the early 1980s. In 1986 he furthered his watchmaking training in Switzerland at the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Educational Program (WOSTEP). He has also trained at Audemars Piguet, ETA, and Girard Perregaux. After WOSTEP he was hired by SMH to work in product development as technical manager for the Hamilton Watch Co. He remained there until he started RGM Watch Co. in 1992.

Many of his ideas come from his vast knowledge and love of watchmaking, watch history, and from his many years of restoring watches which he still enjoys doing to this day.

Wilhelm Schmid, Chief Executive Officer, A. Lange & Söhne (Glashütte, Germany)

At the October lecture of the Horological Society of New York, Wilhelm Schmid, CEO of A. Lange & Söhne, will explain how the vision of Dresden watchmaker Ferdinand Adolph Lange, who laid the cornerstone of Saxony's precision watchmaking industry when he established his manufacture in 1845, still defines the philosophy of A. Lange & Söhne today. After his great-grandson Walter Lange had the courage to relaunch the brand together with the industry expert Günter Blümlein in 1990, A. Lange & Söhne quickly worked its way up to the top of the watchmaking world again.

Since its new foundation, developing and producing movements has been the Saxon manufacture’s special expertise. Every timepiece that bears the brand’s logo is equipped with a manufacture movement crafted in-house. Over the years, this has resulted in 71 distinctive masterpieces in a relatively short time. Each one combines traditional elements with groundbreaking innovations and is distinguished by an extremely high level of craftsmanship. Discover what factors have contributed to this extraordinary achievement and what future strategies A. Lange & Söhne is pursuing.

*Doors open at 6PM ET, lecture to begin at 7PM ET. RSVP is required.

** The lecture video will be available to members immediately, and to the general public following a two-month delay.

About Wilhelm Schmid

Wilhelm Schmid, born in 1963, has been CEO of A. Lange & Söhne since 2011. Being both a watch lover and a petrol head, he therefore succeeded in making his passion a profession for the second time in his life, as his previous professional stations were in the automotive world. After his time at Burmah Oil Germany (Burmah-Castrol) from 1989, he held senior positions in sales and marketing at BMW AG between 2002 and 2010.

Richard Newman, Antiquarian Horologist (DeKalb, Illinois)

Robert Leslie was at the forefront of invention and innovation in 18th-century Philadelphia and was awarded America’s first clock and watch patents. However, his contributions were discounted until one of his patented watches was found in 2012 which prompted renewed research. The trail amazingly led to George Washington and the time of his death on December 14, 1799, when his last breath was preserved for eternity on the dial of a colonial-made chamber clock.

At the September lecture of the Horological Society of New York, antiquarian horologist Richard Newman will discuss Leslie’s legacy as the greatest American clock and watchmaker of the 18th century.

*Doors open at 6PM ET, lecture to begin at 7PM ET. RSVP is required.

** The lecture video will be available to members immediately, and to the general public following a two-month delay.

About Richard Newman

Richard Newman became interested in the history of early American watches and clocks following in the footsteps of his father, Walter. He is Chair Emeritus and a Fellow of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC), and Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. He currently leads NAWCC’s British Horology Chapter and the USA Section of the Antiquarian Horology Society based in London. Newman has lectured and published articles on early clocks and watches in the U.S. and abroad and hosts a website on early watchmakers, colonialwatches.com, to promote research and education.

Dr. Paul Lawrie, Associate Professor, Department of History, York University (Toronto, Canada)

Time — much like race — possesses an ostensible ‘naturalism’ which often obscures the various historical factors which went into its making. Dr. Paul Lawrie’s research asks if time is indeed relative — as something born of specific historical contingencies — then how do different peoples experience time differently? Moreover, how does the lived experience of time create or reinforce racial inequality within cities? Time and race intersected to inform the landscape of modern urban America in a number of ways: from curfews and commutes to time work management and timekeeping itself.

At the June lecture of the Horological Society of New York, Dr. Paul Lawrie, Associate Professor, Department of History, York University, will examine the remarkable life of one Peter J. Huffstead — Harlem's self-described "master clockmaker" — and one of the earliest Black members of the Horological Society of New York. An analysis of Huffstead's career reveals key insights into the racialized nature of expertise, migration, the politics of respectability and the making of urban community in early 20th century America. Positing time as a past, present and future agent of urban development and racial identity, this lecture presents new perspectives into the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban race relations from the assembly line to the city streets. 

*Doors open at 6PM ET, lecture to begin at 7PM ET. RSVP is required.

** The lecture video will be available to members immediately, and to the general public following a two-month delay.

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About Dr. Paul Lawrie

Dr. Paul Lawrie is an Associate Professor of History at York University, Toronto, Canada. He is a historian of modern African American culture with specific interests in urbanism, labor, disability and technology. He is the author of “Forging a Laboring Race: The African American Worker in the Progressive Imagination” (NYU Press, 2016) which examined the intersections of industrial science and racial management in early 20th-century America. His current research, supported by a grant of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Committee of Canada, entitled “The Color of Hours: Race, Time and the Making of Postwar Urban America,” links African American, labor and urban histories to the emerging field of time studies to chart the temporal geographies of race in twentieth-century urban America.

Brittany Nicole Cox, Antiquarian Horologist (Seattle, Washington)

Birds are a wonder, not just for their vocal abilities or their powers of prediction, but for their biology. The iridescent colors some feathers generate are the result of the refraction of light. A bird's feathers weigh more combined than its skeleton. A bird is capable of singing two notes simultaneously. Mankind has attempted for centuries to emulate their song and their beauty. The mechanical singing-bird tabatière was born during the late 18th century and continues to enchant today.

At the May lecture of the Horological Society of New York, Brittany Nicole Cox will examine the history behind the lineage of the mechanical singing-bird along with a case study.

Special thank you to the Toledo Museum of Art for allowing Brittany Nicole Cox to share this talk. Photo credit Ben Lindbloom.

*Doors open at 6PM ET, lecture to begin at 7PM ET. RSVP is required.

** The lecture video will be available to members immediately, and to the general public following a two-month delay.

Want to be notified as soon as ticketing is live? Follow us on Eventbrite!

About Brittany Nicole Cox

Brittany Nicole Cox is an artist, antiquarian horologist, guillocheuse, and scholar based in Seattle. Her lifelong passion for horology has seen her through nine years in higher education where she earned her WOSTEP, CW21, and SAWTA watchmaking certifications, two clockmaking certifications, and a Masters in the Conservation of Clocks and Related Dynamic Objects from West Dean College, UK. She founded Memoria Technica in 2015 where she teaches, makes original work, and operates her conservation studio. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and was featured in National Geographic and two feature-length documentaries. She has written for Vanity Fair and is working on a manuscript to be published by Penguin Press.

Eric Wind, Founder and Owner of Wind Vintage (Palm Beach, Florida)

In March of 2019, Eric Wind lectured at HSNY on the topic of collecting vintage watches. This lecture proved to be extremely popular with both the in-person and online (YouTube) audiences. On March 6, 2023, Wind will return to HSNY to follow up on the topic of collecting vintage watches. Wind will cover trends he has been seeing in the watch market during the last three years and present ideas to help advance the future of watch collecting.

Doors open at 6PM ET, lecture to begin at 7PM ET. RSVP is required. Due to the anticipated demand for this lecture, tickets will be released according to this schedule:

• February 27, 2023: HSNY Gold Members

• February 28, 2023: HSNY Silver Members

• March 1, 2023: HSNY Bronze Members

• March 2, 2023: General Public

The lecture video will be available to members immediately, and to the general public following a two-month delay.

Want to be notified as soon as ticketing is live? Follow us on Eventbrite!

About Eric Wind

Eric Wind founded and owns Wind Vintage, a company he started in 2017 that is dedicated to offering exceptional watches for sale at all price points and providing advisory services to top vintage watch collectors around the world. Eric previously served as Vice President, Senior Specialist for Christie's where he helped lead the sale of a number of important watches at auctions around the world and through private sales. Eric served as an early contributor to HODINKEE starting in 2010. He has been featured and quoted in a number of publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune, HODINKEE, GQ, Robb Report, Fortune, Men's Health, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. He is recognized as a foremost expert on vintage watches.

Kari Voutilainen, Founder and Owner of Voutilainen SA (Switzerland)

Watch manufacturing has always been a complex endeavor that requires expertise in many different areas. That expertise is usually spread out with a network of suppliers or a large manufacturer. Being able to concentrate that expertise with one small team, independent of traditional industry suppliers, is not an easy thing to do. But some watchmakers have done exactly this and have shown remarkable success. One such independent watchmaker is Kari Voutilainen.

At the February 6 meeting of the Horological Society of New York, Voutilainen will discuss his journey from a "one-man show" to a small and totally independent workshop producing incredible mechanical watches.

Doors open at 6PM ET, lecture to begin at 7PM ET. RSVP is required. Due to the anticipated demand for this lecture, tickets will be released according to this schedule:

• January 30, 2023: HSNY Gold Members

• January 31, 2023: HSNY Silver Members

• February 1, 2023: HSNY Bronze Members

• February 2, 2023: General Public

The lecture video will be available to members immediately, and to the general public following a two-month delay.

Want to be notified as soon as ticketing is live? Follow us on Eventbrite!

About Kari Voutilainen

Kari Voutilainen was born in Rovaniemi, Finland, in 1962. He studied watchmaking in Finland from 1983-1986, and subsequently traveled to Switzerland to study at WOSTEP from 1988-1989. After WOSTEP, Voutilainen worked at Parmigiani Fleurier from 1990-1999, honing his skills on creating unique pieces. From 1999-2002, Voutilainen taught courses at WOSTEP on complicated watches. And finally in 2002, Voutilainen launched his eponymous brand, which today creates some of the finest mechanical watches in the world.

Joshua Shapiro, CEO J.N. Shapiro Watches LLC (Los Angeles, California)

American watchmaking had a meteoric rise in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The U.S. made millions of highly precise and beautiful timepieces. The means of producing these timepieces heavily influenced manufacturing techniques within watchmaking and industry at large. However, within a relatively short time period after World War II, mechanical movement watch companies would disappear completely from America. Now the U.S. is experiencing a resurgence of American watchmaking.

At the January 2023 lecture of the Horological Society of New York, Joshua Shapiro, CEO of J.N. Shapiro Watches LLC, will explore the rise of American watchmaking, the factors behind its demise, and lastly, share the exciting horology currently happening in the U.S.

Doors open at 6PM ET, lecture to begin at 7PM ET. RSVP is required.

The lecture video will be available to members immediately, and to the general public following a two-month delay.

About Joshua Shapiro

Joshua Shapiro is the founder and CEO of the eponymous brand J.N. Shapiro Watches. He is also an educator with a Bachelor's and Master's in U.S History.  Shapiro began by making traditional engine-turned dials for other watchmakers. In 2018, he launched the Infinity Series, which featured highly complex engine-turned dials with traditional and exotic materials. Soon after Shapiro and his team produced the first tantalum wristwatch cases made outside of Switzerland. Now they are tackling the final and most important component of the watch.