Who we are, how we live our lives and our perceptions of the world around us are heavily influenced by where we come from and the family we grew up with. You might not think about it on a daily basis but the decisions and character of your parents, grandparents or even great grandparents impact even the smallest decisions you make all the time. However, one watch brand that does think about this fact is Nostas, founded by designer Francesco Nostas who channels all he has learnt of his family history into the modern, brutalist design of the Audace collection.
While the watch brand Nostas is thoroughly Italian, the family Nostas has a heritage that spans the globe. Francesco’s father, Hermes, grew up on the other side of the planet in Bolivia, South America, and moved to Italy in 1990. However, he only did so because his father Pietro had moved to Bolivia from Italy in 1945, after the war, where he then married into the Nostas family, who were prominent fabric traders in Santa Cruz.
In the span of just four generations you have multiple examples of people willing to uproot their entire lives and set out across the world to discover their fortunes. And by doing so become newly ingrained in the cultures and lifestyles they discovered there. How then do you express this familial willingness to sacrifice safety and security in order to follow your passions in the form of a wristwatch?
Well, first of all you have ensure that if you decide to suddenly up sticks and head off into the jungles of South America or disappear along the coast of the Mediterranean, your watch can keep up with you. It has be versatile and a natural explorer. Secondly, the design simply cannot be conventional – a plain circular case is not an option – in order to push the edges of your comfort zone.
With all this and more in mind, in 2023 Nostas launched the Audace. A collection that today consists of the standard Audace and the Audace 500 (there was also a limited production GMT edition that has sold out). Each variant has a case heavily influenced by brutalist architecture, bold and imposing. There are few architectural movements that push the boundaries of people’s artistic comfort zones as much as brutalism. The brand is also partners with Roberto Conte, a photographer known for his book “Brutalist Italy”, which documents how brutalism and Italian style go hand in hand and so in a roundabout way brutalism is also part of the Nostas heritage.
In terms of design, the watches are octagonal in shape with large, flat surfaces sitting at sharp angles and prominent facets. In watch design terms we would classify this as a late 1970s, 1980s style of design that was spearheaded by prominent figures such as Gerald Genta. They also have a tapering body that leads into the bracelet giving it an integrated appearance despite being interchangable.
As for being versatile and keeping up with the daring, explorer attitudes of the Nostas family, the Audace couldn’t just look the part, it needs specs to match. The standard Audace has a 200m water resistance rating and is equipped with a reliable Sellita SW200 movement. It’s ready for life on the move.
Pushing the collection even further in the tool watch direction is the Audace 500, a true dive watch interpretation of the piece. It adds a dive timer bezel to the watch and increases the water resistance rating all the way up to 500m, which is seriously impressive for a family business microbrand. This model also houses the Sellita SW200 with 38-hour power reserve, a widely used movement among microbrands and independents.
Nostas really offer a great example in how to take a concept and translate it into a product. However, I think the greatest trick that Nostas have managed to achieve is that you can know absolutely zero of the heritage behind the brand or their reasoning behind certain design features and the Audace is still a great accessible timepiece. The standard edition costs £712 while the Audace 500 is £1,000. I would happily pay that price for a watch with fundamentals as rock solid as this. This is the kind of foundation that can set a brand up for multiple generations and as we’ve seen, that’s what Nostas is all about.
Price and Specs:
More details at Nostas.
