Danilo Villanueva

It started out with a need for a creative outlet and time away from my daily advertising job while at Interone BBDO. I wanted to create a company that allowed me to come up with products which I have complete creative control of. What started out as a passion project became a steady business for me. That’s how Makina Watches was born. And ever since then I’ve been designing our own products since 2017 til this very day, onwards.

Makina Watches is a watch brand from the Philippines. All watches are designed, engineered and made in the Philippines with movements coming from Switzerland and some parts coming from Hong Kong. Although it is a business, our intent is to maintain our passion project mindset when developing products and building our brand; we release products based on our own personal taste and not popular trends or what sells more. Even though Makina primarily targets the niche world of watch enthusiasts, we are comfortable in pushing watch design archetypes towards directions that may not sit comfortably well with watch purists whom Makina intends to speak to.

To me, design is when idea, beauty and function come together.

This changes all the time for me. Flavor of the month is Brutalist. I love its monumental beauty, brute character and timelessness.

Good design is one that looks good, answers the brief, adapts to users and fits in this day and age.
Great design is one that has a defining personal touch, goes beyond the brief, one that users are willing to adapt to and is timeless.

In the rectangular watch category, we recognized that designs often came with the same character that comes with the usual dressy, art deco, conventional watch designs. We wanted to add muscle, athleticism and coolness to the category and used this direction as a beacon to small and large design decisions we made when building Makina Andras_I.

We are truly honored and humbled to receive this award. It certainly gives us inspiration to do better and to build more.

We wanted to design a black sheep in the 3-handed rectangular watch category that’s known to have a plethora of art deco inspired dress watches. That’s pretty much why Makina Andras_I was born as a rectangular sports watch with a more modern and more aggressive approach. Its intense black shell is composed of angular shapes that make up its multifaceted design and pronounced edges with gloss and brushed finishings. Its dial is multi-layered and full of depth. Its strap is muscular and shapely, echoing its chiseled case and 3-dimensional dial. We intently designed it in a way that looks photogenic from every angle. We really liked this design and wanted to test the waters with organizations like London Design Awards to see if design experts and jury members felt the same.

Production budget is usually a challenge we have. We overcome it by building in small quantities and small batches which makes things better anyway since it makes every model we put out there more special not having so many of them out in the world.

Although we will never lose sight of our primary principles of putting stuff out there that we simply like and that we think will add newness to the industry, winning this award has certainly raised the bar and will be used as a secondary filter for upcoming designs.

The part where you’re exercising your brain 24/7.
The never ending search for new.
The idea that the objects you make can evoke an emotional response.

It is more and more difficult to predict nowadays than ever before with new technologies and new trends that come and go faster than ever. What I do want to say is: even though designs will change in terms of what they will look like and how they will get crafted, what will not change are the fundamentals. The importance of Insight, idea and purpose will never change. Sometimes these new technologies and new trends distract from these things; they should not distract from remembering who we’re designing for, how they will use our designs, and what we want our designs to say to them.

Definitely participate in award programs like London Design Awards and get inspired by its standards but never make getting an award the key objective of your craft. Stay true to your brand or your style. And stay true to why you fell in love with design in the first place. Awards should simply be a byproduct of effort and talent combined.

Design magazines and blogs are great sources of inspiration but I would probably recommend spending time away from the computer for the early portion of the conceptual process. I would recommend pulling inspiration from your own brain and personal experiences first and really spending a significant amount of time thinking it through as I think it's one way to not just come up with another thing that looks beautiful but personal too.

If I have to think of people who has consistently inspired me in doing what I do, it would be my parents. They are not designers at all. But they have taught me two things: discipline and follow-through. Talent simply is not enough without these two things.

What success means to one person may not mean the same to another. One’s definition of success may not be the popular definition as society would dictate but that’s ok. Having said that, anyone can achieve success in their own vision of it which is what matters.
One thing that is consistent with those who achieve success, whatever that may be, is ambition. It’s about where you are now, where you want to be, and how hungry you are to get there. Ambition is important and should always be moving just like the person chasing it. Everyone should have one. Big or small.