Dante Marconi and Mario Bertozzi two Roman watchmakers

It all started when an horology aficionado, familiar with my writing, handed me an elegant business card. On the beige background there was an address – 1, Via di Torre Argentina – which I decided to visit during a trip to Rome. Nothing there seemed to indicate the existence of this recondite space adjacent to Santa Chiara church. This atelier is situated on two stories, the second one boasting a magnificent crossing vault. It may once have served as a side entrance to the convent for the Order of Saint Clare, which resided here between 1628 and 1814. Proof that times have changed is the wall planner worthy of any modern engineering workshop that hangs imposingly near the attic on the second floor.

One thing is certain: Dante Marconi has been practicing his horological art here since 1976, with the precious  support of his childhood friend Mario Bertozzi, who has meanwhile become a master in restoring clocks from many different eras. “We became friends at school in 1963. We studied together at Edmondo De Amicisinstitute in Via Calvario, here in Rome. Our friendship is a matter of mutual patience”, acknowledges Dante. “After our diploma, Dante joined Omega. I joined Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato (State Mint and Polygraphic Institute) to study precision mechanics. After that, I started practicing in Dante’s workshop. It has now been fifty years since we started working together in this field,” adds Mario. His narration is interrupted by the shop bell and a client enters the workshop. The interview then resumes:

Mario: “What motivates us is the passion for reviving idle – even dead – mechanisms! We have even repaired clocks at the Italian Senate. That said, it would take more than a master watchmaker to repair the mechanisms of Italian politics… (he smiles). Those kinds of mechanisms often go beyond our understanding…”

Which mechanism was the most problematic?

Mario: “The ETA 2829 calibres! As soon as they are dismantled, they start presenting problems, and we don’t really feel that motivated to take care of them.”

What brands do you like the most?

Dante: “Omega is one of them. I apprenticed at their facilities in Rome after finishing horology school. Other than that, we have great respect for other brands, be they medium-market or haute horlogerie. For example: Longines, Zenith, the old UniversalGenève… But Rolex is number one in terms of prestige and reputation. Omega never managed to reach their level, even though they use the same quality materials and mechanisms.”

What do you think makes Rolex so successful, then?

Dante: “Their prestige. They have dressed the mechanism in such a way that people can associate their personalities to a watch. Needless to say, Rolex is also a brand with a global reputation. It is also the most  counterfeited.” (At this point, we raise a toast to horology with some Prosecco).

Mario: “The problem with counterfeits is quality. We refuse to repair them.”

What do you think of the Russian watchmaking tradition?

Mario: “They did have some good things. Some of their models even included the Breguet balance-spring used in haute horlogerie. However, their design was rather coarse.”

Dante: “The Communist Bloc’s watchmaking was a reflection of Swiss watchmaking except when it came to the watch’s finish. Lange & Söhne, in East Germany, was even converted to produce bicycle chains. Communist dogma considered luxury to be superfluous. Nowadays Lange & Söhneeven manufactures some watches that are better than some Patek Philippe pieces, in my view.”

What do you think your future holds?

Dante: “There will be no passing of the baton in our business. My sons work in entirely different sectors. One is an attorney, the other one is in film making. We could have found an apprentice, but their return is not good enough. It takes six to eight years for a watchmaker to be able to work independently and that is only the beginning since training is an endless procedure in our field.”

Mario: “My son is not at all well-versed in the art of horology. When I was a kid, I used to open my toys since I was curious about what was inside. To date, there are only five regional training centres for watchmakers in Italy. You can’t improvise watchmaking; it is a bit like surgery.”

What do you do with a dead calibre?

Dante: “We look for the reason the watch stopped working. People have this misconstrued notion that watchmaking is an easy profession… On the contrary, repairing a watch creates a lot of stress, especially when it has great value, when it dates from a particular period, or when spare parts are no longer available. Working on such an object is like performing open-heart surgery. Your hands shake and if you lose one piece, the whole operation is over. So sometimes we actually succeed where the big brands fail, because they favor new products. For us, however, succeeding in repairing a watch means making one client happy.”

Mario: “These pieces often have sentimental value. Here, it is not only the real value of the pieces that counts, but what they represent in terms of memories, what it means to the client. And that goes far beyond the simple fact of repairing a valuable object.”

What is your connection to Switzerland?

Dante: “We go there once a year, to La Chaux-de-Fonds and the Jura particularly, to buy our supply of spare pieces and our stock of watches from the 50s. We use the term ‘New Old Stock’ because they are new watches from the surplus production of companies that are now out of business. We buy from wholesalers. The straps are rarely original since they have deteriorated with time…”