"The U-Boat Left Hook watch was designed in the 1940's in the "Officine Fontana" laboratory of high precision instruments and components.
Ilvo Fontana designed a professional wrist watch specific for pilots: The characteristics had to be great sturdiness, immediate reading under all light conditions and high precision.
The crown positioned to the left allowed practical advantages such as easier movement of the wrist and security.
The project was not completed for commercialisation, due to the instability in Europe at that time....but a first batch of watches was produced.
In 1999, Italo Fontana decided to resurrect his grandfather's project, from which he took his inspiration and developed a modern day time piece, combining a unique identity with a clear Dimension in Time.
Because of the size of the watch and Italo Fontana's proximity to the sea (Lucca, Italy) and love of boating and scuba diving, he originally wanted to call the watch "Your boat", which overtime became "Ur boat" and then "U Boat"
Flightdeck
Italo Fontana was visiting an aircraft carrier and noticed the similarities of the Flightdeck control panels on the ship with those of the fighter jets, taking off and landing. It was a great feeling of being in command of the sea and the sky at the same time. I stayed on the ship for one week to sketch out my first designs of this model.
Thousands of feet
Fontana was visiting a famous old airplane garage in the United States (Indiana), and as he strolled amongst all these flying machines that have made history, his eye caught the numerous altimeter devices that were used in the 1930 era.
These planes could only fly few thousands of feet above sea level , but I imagined the almost unlimited thousands of feet above and below sea level that modern technology allows us to span.
Here , in this…..garage of memory , Italo Fontana conceived this watch design.
Classico
Italo Fontana meets many people who are adventurous, but at the same time in command of major businesses. He noticed that their common feature is that they are alert day and night. They feel well, they are asservative, and they feel the power from within... Whether in the office, on a boat, flying, riding a powerful motorbike or clubbing in the night hot spots of major cities and holiday resorts. Fontana designed this watch for them"
Flightdeck
Thousands of feet
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