Time, Unbuttoned: D1 Milano and the Art of Italian Irreverence.

Time, in most of Switzerland, is treated like a religion. In Milan, it’s treated like a medium. D1 Milano, founded in 2013 by Dario Spallone, doesn’t so much make watches as it orchestrates design experiments that happen to tell time. It rejects horology’s holy trinity of precision, prestige, and pedigree in favour of something far more Italian - that effortless instinct to turn functionality into attitude, and refinement into quiet rebellion.

Its manifesto begins with a shrug: “We are not a watch brand. We are not a Swiss company.” And they mean it. What they are instead is a small, meticulous band of design obsessives who treat watches not as relics of mechanical virtuosity but as cultural artefacts - hybrids of industrial design, fashion, and architecture. Milan might be home, but the brand has already outgrown geography; with offices in Dubai and Hong Kong and stockists in more than 160 countries, D1 Milano has become a kind of global Milanese export - sharp, self-aware, and charmingly allergic to excess.

That ethos makes perfect sense in a city where Gio Ponti once made furniture an aesthetic revolution and Achille Castiglioni turned domestic lighting into cultural commentary. D1 channels that same mischievous energy - the belief that everyday objects, when designed intelligently, can become quietly subversive.

The heart of that subversion beats in the D1 Lab, the brand’s collaborative playground with the Politecnico di Milano’s Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta.” This is not innovation for the sake of novelty; it’s a pursuit of material intelligence over marketing gloss. Here, polymers are reimagined, metals re-finished, and the conversation around “innovation” shifts from technological bravado to tactile experience.

Current projects examine materials that can subtly alter colour or texture in response to light or temperature - a poetic nod to the idea that time itself is a mutable medium. It’s the kind of quiet futurism that Milan does best, a conceptual descendant of the Memphis Group’s irreverent 1980s experiments, now expressed in nanotech rather than laminate.

While most of the watch world clings to heritage as a badge of seriousness, D1 Milano wears curiosity as its signature. And that might be its most Italian quality of all: a belief that curiosity is more enduring - and more sophisticated - than tradition.

Time-travel, but make it Italian and impeccably dressed.

If the lab represents the brand’s cerebral side, D1 Arts is its cultural heart. A curatorial platform that draws contemporary artists into dialogue with the brand’s geometry and form language, it turns timepieces into miniature canvases - objects where art, design, and utility converge. These aren’t collaborations designed for marketing spectacle but for mutual provocation, continuing the Italian tradition of blurring boundaries between art and applied design. Think of it as Prada’s Fondazione meets Marni’s artist series, only distilled into something you can actually wear.

All this philosophy would ring hollow without the watches themselves, which embody the brand’s “form, memory, and mischief” credo. Take the Ultra Thin “Groovy Green” 39mm, a timepiece that channels the optimism of 1970s design but strips away the excess. Its rounded bezel, fluid proportions, and Petrol Green dial evoke the golden age of Italian industrial design - the era of Olivetti typewriters, Pirelli calendars, and Giugiaro’s futuristic curves. Powered by a Miyota GL22 movement, it merges retro spirit with modern precision, its slim 39mm frame dressed in quiet confidence. It’s a piece for those who prefer their nostalgia filtered through modernism - a conversation between past and present told in brushed steel and restrained colour.

When Milan dreams in polycarbonate and wakes up on time.

Then there’s the Polychrono 40.5mm - a watch that feels like Daft Punk’s Digital Love played on a vintage synth: nostalgic, yet resolutely futuristic. Made entirely from ultra-light polycarbonate with a soft-touch finish, it’s a monochrome study in tactility. The Neptune Blue variant feels like a blueprint materialised, its skeleton dial offering just enough mechanical voyeurism to intrigue without slipping into exhibitionism. Every line and surface - from bezel to butterfly clasp - has that deliberate Milanese poise: nothing shouting, everything whispering. At just 55 grams, it’s light enough to forget, yet sculptural enough to remind you of its intent when you pause to notice.

In the end, D1 Milano’s true provocation lies not in its aesthetics but in its attitude. It refuses to play the tired luxury game of price-point posturing or artisanal theatre. Its pieces are accessible, yes, but conceptually loaded - every dial, clasp, and contour infused with design intelligence and cultural wit. It’s post-luxury, post-heritage, and comfortably self-assured, like wearing a fragment of contemporary Milan that just happens to tell time.

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Words by AW.

Photos courtesy of D1 Milano.