Mr Bamford, the Bamford Watch Department personalises a wide range of luxury watches, but one common factor is the black colour of the cases. Where does this love of black come from?

For my 18th birthday, my father gave me a vintage Rolex Daytona with a black dial. I loved this watch, it meant something special to me and I was very proud to wear it. A few years later I was sitting at a large dinner table where six other gentlemen were wearing almost identical watches with black dials. Even though I am a Rolex fanatic, this experience showed me that older Rolexes have lost some of their rarity value. So I decided to change this, through customisation – and we decided to blacken the famous watch casing with a special coating.

Which watches did you start with?

We started with two timepieces: a vintage Rolex Submariner and a classic Omega Speedmaster. Both watches were worn during a summer holiday in Sardinia – and by the end of the holiday, we had 15 orders for personalised black watches.

But surely the timing wasn’t quite right in early 2000, as loud, gold watches were in fashion?

Quite right! It was a time when large and gold was the latest trend – the ‘bling-bling’ fashion that spilled over from the U.S. to Europe. The louder the better! My idea was a reversal of bling-bling. I wanted to create individual watches that were calm and discreet. This, incidentally, is another reason why all the watches from the Bamford Watch Department are black.

Nevertheless, your black watches attract a lot of attention. How does that work?

In my view, this kind of attention is completely different. If you see a huge watch studded with diamonds it attracts obvious, almost vulgar attention. My timepieces, on the other hand, provide a more subtle sensation. I always call our products ‘underground watches’; it’s only on a second glance that they reveal what they are.

What can a customer expect from the Bamford Watch Department?

On the one hand, we have an existing collection to choose from, including Rolex Submariner, Royal Oak and Patek Nautilus. On the other, customers can express specific desires and requests, which we discuss with them. At the creative department in our London studio, there’s the opportunity to take inspiration from books or other beautiful things. From an agreed sketch, our watchmakers then create the personalised timepiece – but we do impose some limits on what we do, due to our respect for the history of each brand and also because, at the end, my name is on every one of these watches.

Photos: Bamford Watch Department