Well, I never studied design and I went to art school to study art, you know, sculpture and things like that, and ended up making things like sculpture and started making chairs and jewelry together and that's how I started.

If I can feel freedom then I can create.

Studing jewelry gives you an incredible technical background. If you can work on very, very small things, then, I think, typically you find it easier to go bigger rather than the other way around. I think a lot of architects have struggled with small things. Whereas if you start small, it's easier to get bigger.

You know that's history, that's why some people say that my stuff is retro, but I don't agree.

With the Solaris, however, I wanted to design a very simple, elegant dress watch

I have to confess that I'm in a constant state of evolution in terms of the way I feel about it. When I was doing early pieces, I wasn't exactly in love with the idea of building the stuff. I could do it because I had the skills, but I really did it because I couldn't find anyone else to build it for me.

So if I design it and then go away, it's still living somewhere and it still exists by itself without me.