At Qannati Objet d’Art, a watch is an artwork that speaks to the wearer’s emotions, not the brand’s ideals. Mahmood Qannati, Founder & CEO of the Bahraini maison, believes your wrist can tell your story, not just the time.
OHLALA – As a seasoned banking professional, what pushed you to conceive and establish Qannati Objet d’Art?
Mahmood Qannati – My whole career has been about telling other people’s stories. I have spent more than 26 years in marketing across banking, insurance, telecoms and aviation, and you learn very quickly that people do not connect with products. They connect with meaning. Qannati came from wanting to make that meaning something you can hold.
Four thousand years ago, in Mesopotamia, people pressed their stories into clay so they would not disappear. I started Qannati for the same reason: to preserve people’s stories and to leave something behind that outlasts us. I grew up surrounded by objects that did this. My grandfather’s West End self-winding watch and my mother’s Cartier bracelet are still clear in my memory. They were not valuable to me because of the brand on them, but because they carried the people who wore them.
I believe the wrist should say who you are. Everyone wants you to wear their story. I want you to wear yours.
OHLALA – What is unique about a Qannati creation, by way of its tangible and intangible aspects?
Mahmood – On the tangible side, every Qannati is built by a remarkable group of hands across three countries. Our cases are produced in Switzerland and every watch carries a Swiss movement. The designs come from France. The miniature sculptures inside our pieces are made in our ateliers in Nice and Manama. Each piece is then assembled depending on where its dial sculpture was made. We work with precious and unusual materials, rare stones and sometimes heirlooms that clients bring to us, so that a family’s history becomes part of the piece itself.
The intangible side matters even more. Our design language is drawn from the art and symbolism of ancient civilisations, above all Mesopotamia – the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Flower of Life; the six-petal rosette carved on the thresholds of Nineveh.
For our commissioned pieces, the client is the brand. We listen to your story and we design a universe that belongs to you alone.
OHLALA – Please tell us about the recently unveiled Quantum 3 line of watches.
Mahmood – Quantum 3 began with one question: what is the thing on your wrist actually for? For a century the answer has been time. Our answer is art. Time is included. The campaign line is ‘It Was Never About Time’. The art takes the whole dial and the hours and minutes are given a small off-centre subdial in the corner. The watch reads first as an object and only second as an instrument.
This is our first ready-to-wear collection. It is unisex, for men and women who have more personality than the watch category usually allows.
OHLALA – What is Qannati’s philanthropic mission?
Mahmood – We call it the Art of Giving, and it lives in Qannati Lab, one of the pillars of the house. For us, giving does not only mean presenting a beautiful object. It means opening a door and passing on knowledge.
Through our partnership with Bahrain Polytechnic, university students work in a dedicated laboratory and asse
Read more from original article, all rights reserved Mahmood Qannati on the Bahraini Maison’s Bespoke Creations
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