Collection Pan Arab Luxury Magazine
Related Articles
There are qualities that numbers can describe, and others that only reveal themselves when experienced. Lightness, it turns out, belongs to both categories. With the Redentore Levius, Venezianico opens a new chapter in its exploration of contemporary Italian watchmaking. The result is a 38mm dress watch measuring just 8.9mm thick and weighing a mere 48 grams on the wrist. And yet, to reduce the Levius to its measurements would be to miss the point entirely.
The name itself tells the story, Levius derives from the Latin “levis” or light, delicate, gentle. It speaks to a watch in which lightness becomes a form of elegance, something that doesn’t need to impose itself to be felt. The harmonious proportions and clean lines that define the Redentore collection remain intact, as does the neoclassical inspiration that has always shaped its design. What changes is the perception, on the wrist, the Levius seems almost to lose its physical substance, allowing light and form to emerge.
This is achieved through three defining elements, a Grade 5 titanium case, the Made in Italy hand-wound V5000 calibre, and a guilloché dial entirely hand-engraved by Linda Renzetti on an antique rose engine dating from the mid-19th century.
Grade 5 titanium was chosen for its exceptional balance of lightness, strength and refinement. The material is notoriously challenging to work with when the goal is polished surfaces and contrasting finishes, rarely seen at this level on titanium, which is more commonly associated with sports watches and their brushed or sandblasted aesthetics.
Venezianico alternates brushed and polished surfaces, creating a dialogue between the contemporary character of titanium and the soft, classical forms of the Redentore. The polished bezel captures light while the different finishes follow the contours of the case without adding visual weight. The case alone weighs just 12.9 grams; the complete watch head, 40 grams.
If titanium makes the Levius physically light, it is the dial that transforms that idea into an image. The guilloché motif created specifically for this watch is named Zefiro, drawing inspiration from Zephyrus, the West Wind of classical mythology, a mild and benevolent breeze heralding spring and the awakening of nature.
The intention is not to depict the wind, but to capture its passage. The undulating lines of the Zefiro pattern ripple across the dial like an invisible current sweeping across the Venetian Lagoon, continuously changing according to the angle of light and the movement of the wrist. The pattern seems to breathe, expand and contract, transforming physical lightness into its visual equivalent.
Each dial is created by Linda Renzetti, raised in a family workshop where the art of guilloché has been handed down through generations. She works on a machine dating from the mid-19th century, entirely devoid of automation, where every movement depends on the sensitivity and experience of the artisan. Pressure, rhythm and progression are controlled entirely by hand. Line by line, the motif emerges through a slow process in which every gesture is definitive, there is no possibility of correcting or erasing. It is precisely this direct relationship between hand, machine and material that makes every dial subtly different, transforming an extremely precise geometry into a living surface.
Beneath this dial beats the V5000, the hand-wound mechanical calibre entirely designed and manufactured in Italy, which with the Levius enters the third act of its story. Manufactured by OISA and designed by Fausto Berizzi and Andrea Menegazzo, Technical Director of Venezianico, the V5000 was born from one of the brand’s most ambitious challenges, to bring back to Italy not simply the design or assembly of a watch, but its very mechanical heart.
Conceived as a project capable of demonstrating that a high-quality movement could once again be built in Italy, the V5000 has progressively become one of the most recognisable elements of Venezianico’s identity. With the Levius, it finds a new expression particularly consistent with the watch’s philosophy: manual winding, slender architecture and the absence of a rotor all contribute to maintaining the sense of essentiality that runs throughout the project. Through the sapphire crystal caseback, the movement is revealed without mediation, bridges, gear train and balance wheel are on full display, reminding us that behind the apparent simplicity of the Levius lies a profoundly Italian mechanical project.
With the Levius, Venezianico continues the journey that began with Utopia while choosing to explore a different dimension. If Utopia transformed the ambition of a Made in Italy mechanical movement into reality, the Levius begins with that same technical heritage, no longer “utopian”, and asks what elegance can mean today. This time, the answer lies not in adding, but in subtracting. Less weight, less thickness, no superfluous elements. What remains is material, mechanics, the artisan’s gesture and light.
All contained within 38 millimetres of diameter, 8.9 millimetres of thickness and 48 grams of weight. Because sometimes, to give greater value to time, you simply have to make it lighter.
