A Ukrainian watchmaker only uses wood

People's traditional impressions of Ukraine are mostly concentrated in heavy industry and agriculture, then art and sports, and they may know little about other fields. Are there any well-known watchmaking brands or watchmakers in Ukraine?

Valerii Danevych was born in Kyiv in 1968, a Ukrainian person. Valerii was an unknown and inarticulate carpenter in his early years. Like his parents, he made woodware for a living. However, unlike his parents, he likes to use wooden materials to make some smaller versions of objects, such as a 3 cm long guitar, and he never tires of it, and gradually he has some unique experiences and ideas.

He has been involved in the production of timepieces since 2004. From the inside to the outside, all of them are made of wood materials. There are many people who use wood as a watch material in the history of watchmaking, but there are very few who have made them special, and today is even more unique. Most of the wooden table clocks, wall clocks, and Black Forest wall clocks on the market are well-known, but there are many metal parts. Wooden watches like WeWood are mainly made of wood, the case, dial and strap, and the movement is the usual metal movement. Wood is used more as a decorative material than a functional material. Only Valerii Danevych is finished with wood material, which is both functional and decorative at the same time.

He is also currently the only member of the Independent Watchmakers Association (AHCI) in Ukraine. He started in 2012 and will be exactly 10 years old this year.

Necklace watch

Valerii's experience as a carpenter makes him very familiar with the properties of various woods, so he can make full use of the excellent qualities of various woods, which not only meet the functional requirements, but also have artistic beauty. Just right. Similar to Australian Guaiacum, Bubinga, walnut, bamboo, etc., you can see it in the work of watchmakers. The combination of different woods gives the timepiece a pleasing beauty and layering.

The necklace watch has a diameter of 30 mm and a hollow disk design. It is all made of wood, including the movement of course. This is not the key. All works weigh only 4 grams. It is estimated that many friends who are obsessed with modern carbon fiber materials will be amazed.

The movement of the necklace watch uses hornbeam, apple, birch, and most importantly, the watchmaker did not use a metal screw. Of course, the mainspring is still metal, with a 20-hour kinetic energy reserve, considering that the necklace watch is so small, 20 hours is acceptable.

The case is finished with a whole apple wood pomegranate carving. It seems that the watchmaker's woodcarving work is also quite skillful, and it feels like a woodcarver in the south of the Yangtze River. The cover is decorated with a piece of mother-of-pearl, which is an extra material. After all, it is a necklace watch, and a little finishing touch is still needed.

Flyback tourbillon

How complicated can a wooden timepiece be? Considering the performance of wood, after all, it is different from metal, so everyone has gradually accepted the reality that wooden timepieces have no complicated functions, and will not change again, which seems to have become a deep-rooted belief. Until Valerii launched the flyback tourbillon after 2010, pushing wooden timepieces to an unprecedented peak, this Ukrainian Luban watchmaker is enough to go down in history.

A total of 8 different wood materials are used to complete the flyback tourbillon, some functional and some decorative.

From 12 o’clock to 4 o’clock, the sector scale is the hour flyback function, the hollowed out snail-shaped gear at 10 o’clock is the functional gear that drives the flyback pointer, the 1-minute tourbillon at 6 o’clock, the real knife and real gun Handmade tourbillon. And some of these materials, such as Australian Guaiacum, are also used in high-precision timepieces such as nautical clocks, and are more widely used today, which makes Valerii’s tourbillons different from CNC-manufactured batch tourbillons. What is even more amazing is that the guaiac wood itself has a certain amount of oil, so it does not need additional oil for lubrication, which overcomes a major problem in modern watchmaking.

The work has a 24-hour kinetic energy reserve and is a work that can be worn, not a gimmick. At 9 o’clock on the dial, the watchmaker proudly engraved his name. This is the highlight of the entire watchmaking industry. Watchmaking itself is creativity, vitality and passion, not just commercial and industrial products.

The wooden movement consists of 154 parts, the smallest part including the pivot made of Crimean boxwood is only 0.9 mm, and the guaiac wood shaft teeth connected to it are only 0.12 mm (with lubrication). Truly handcrafted, each part is made of solid wood, not only that, but the base plate and bridge plate take the trouble to add various decorations of green leaf lines. Thinking about the workload and difficulty, it is quite a saint's practice. The feeling, over the years, without distractions. In addition to the case, there are 188 parts in the entire work, metal parts are used in a few places, such as hairsprings and springs, and all others are made of wood.

The finished watch work is 46 mm in diameter and 18 mm in thickness, which is on par with the first-line diving watches, so it is not very abrupt.

Wooden tourbillon

In fact, the flyback tourbillon is not the only tourbillon work of Valerii. From the mature technology of the flyback tourbillon, it can be judged that the watchmakers can be proficient in this way, and they have worked hard for a long time. The tourbillon mechanism introduced by the watchmaker puts the tourbillon at the 12 o’clock position, which is similar to the design of some big brands, as if the moon is in the sky, which is pleasing to the eye.

The tourbillon itself is made of wood. Unlike the flyback, the solid wood case is also decorated with carvings, which is similar to the effect of the Patek Philippe super complex and the Vacheron Constantin loft series, which is exciting. Judging from the color, I thought it was made of ivory at first glance. Maybe watchmakers will develop ivory works in the future.

In the past 20 years, with the revival of watchmaking, most of the elements in the periodic table have been greeted, and all kinds of new and exotic materials have emerged in an endless stream, but Valerii Danevych has taken a unique approach, using the common wood to build extraordinary. All wooden watch world.

Although there are mixed reviews for his works, some people think that the use of wood and the structure without a single screw is simply ingenious; others think that wooden watches are always slightly rougher than other materials, and they do not match the exquisite luxury. Moreover, as a watch, it may also have problems in daily wear and maintenance…

But in any case, we always firmly believe that the watchmaking industry has always been a splendid polyhedron, with high-tech technology that requires years of professional training and experience accumulation, as well as uninhibited design and creativity. This is an arena of imagination. Everyone can use their imagination, which is the charm of watchmaking.

The situation in Ukraine, which is now under the war, is doubly affecting people's hearts. We especially looked at Valerii's Facebook, but unfortunately we did not see any updates about his current living conditions. We can only hope that his watchmaking career will suffer less.