I decided to make a linoprint of a pocket watch for a person I know who has a slight obsession for watches and he talks about them a lot. As a result, I've learnt more about watches than I ever thought possible. I'm an enthusiast for traditional craftsmanship, so it didn't take long to come to appreciate the history and the craft that goes into making mechanical watches. I especially have a fondness for vintage pocket watches that have fancy engravings. I've seen some of these incredible ornamental pocket watches at the Patek Philippe Museum and the IWC Museum during my travels to Europe and I wanted to create a pocket watch similar to the ones I had seen in person.
I also looked at a lot of vintage pocket watches online and in the library, before coming up with some sketches of my own. I wanted to create a design that wouldn't be too detailed for lino but still similar to the lavish ornamental engravings I really liked. After coming up with a sketch I was happy with, I scanned it and then recreated it in Adobe Illustrator to further perfect the design. I transferred the finished design onto lino before cutting. I then hand printed the linocut and for a more personal touch, I added his initials as a monogram using an ink nib. I've found that using pen & ink is a nice way to get extra detail that can't be achieved with lino. And incase any detail oriented people were wondering why I used the roman numeral IIII instead of IV, it's not a mistake, I swear! Quite a few early pocket watches represented four as IIII, and even some watch brands today do it too, I'm going to guess it comes down to it looking more symmetrical. Really happy with how it came out, and glad to see it go to a nice home!
