GoS Winter Nights men’s watch featuring hand crafted Damacus steel dial with rose gold detail, in a Damascus steel case on moose skin leather strap with tang buckle.

When Swiss trained watchmaker Patrik Sjögren and master bladesmith Johan Gustafsson joined forces to establish their eponymous GoS watch company, the combination of the watchmaker’s deft finger work and the brutal noise and forces of the fiery forge would herald a style of watch, design and manufacture which is both instantly recognisable and outstandingly beautiful.

Handmade through a process of folding, layering and bonding multiple layers of molten steels from the extreme heat of the furnace, Damascus steel was originally used for the manufacture of bladed weapons thanks to its great strength, rendering the brittle steel blades, more commonly used around northern Europe, as no contest to their Viking owners.

Aside from its superior strength, Damascus steel also has a much more artful aspect, as its layers, when repeatedly fired, folded, ground, hammered and polished eventually reveal an individually unique inherent natural pattern – which means that no two pieces can ever be identical. In the hands of Johan Gustafsson and Patrik Sjögren, the two men have exploited this metallic phenomenon on the Winters Night to beautiful effect.

Drawing heavily on the influences of local legend and culture, each Winter Nights watch from GoS is a stunning and unique piece of Scandinavian craftsmanship which is as distinctive as it is fascinating, thanks to its case and dial which are made in hand forged Damascus steel, giving it an appearance and a brand identity like no other.

The Winters Night is a superb showcase for the workmanship of Gustafsson, whose hand forged Damascus steel features prominently throughout the piece; as on the hewn crown, the bezel and the caseband, as well as the dial. Beneath the sapphire crystal, the pattern on the dark steel dial goes from near black to grey to silver in its freeform finish. Around its edge, the hour markers protrude from a ring of rose gold, creating a wonderful, rich contrast and complementing the gold spear-like hands and the applied GoS ‘triskele’ motif above the 6.

Turned over, the polished and sequentially numbered steel caseback features a sapphire window through which the GoS02 manual winding movement within is exhibited. The base Technotime TT718 COSC calibre boasts two barrels, and so an impressive power reserve of five days, and has been further personalised in house with perlage finishing, adding polished bevels and edging, and with light skeletonisation revealing a peek at the gold plated wheels deeper inside.