Topographical engraving

November 28, 2019

In September, we made it possible for you to add custom engraving to your watch casebacks, allowing the opportunity to attribute meaningful words to your timepiece. Since then we’ve inscribed many charming and personal messages, imbuing each watch with sentiment, and giving it a value to the owner far greater than any trading worth. By choosing to engrave your watch, it becomes an inalienable part of your identity.

The permanence of mark making, however, can be daunting, with carved words carrying a heavy weight and a compelling duty to honour your adage. That’s why, in December, we’re offering you something new. When you select the engraving option on any of our watches, you will now find a map option. Here, you can find anywhere on the globe - be it the land you call home or the place you met your sweetheart - and transform your spot into a topographical engraving.

But why a map, you might ask? At anOrdain, we believe that we all have these symbolic landscapes - a place that represents something special in our lives, a spot we instantly zone in on when handed a map, like second nature. It was this idea that got us thinking about how, in the same way our possessions become inalienable from us, so too do our surroundings.

We’ve long had an attachment to the signs and symbols illustrated on Ordnance Survey maps, so much so that at anOrdain’s inception, we drew inspiration from these maps, reinterpreting the marks and lines to form a visual language that informs the way we design our watches and defines us as a brand. In observing the topography around Lochinver and Loch an Ordain, we’ve attached our own meaning to these OS maps, and the landscapes they represent - what was originally intended as a means of wayfinding, has for us become a symbol of our identity.

The marks we leave on the landscape act as clues that represent our cultures and values: from the prehistoric stone circles that scatter Scotland - resembling sundials, to the steeples, the highrises, the roads and telegraph poles that stand as monuments, connecting us both spiritually and physically, and anchoring us to our surroundings. In turn, the landscape leaves its mark on us too, and acts as a symbol for what matters to us.

Let the contour lines of your symbolic landscape stand in for words. Like a thumbprint, these concentric lines represent a slice of your identity, each engraving unique and intimate.