3 days ago
A Watch That Protests the War in Ukraine
The Ctrl-Z wristwatch by Leo Winter, a Finnish watchmaker, got its name from the 'undo' command used in computing and the 'Z' that Russia has used to signal support for its invasion of Ukraine.
In other words, its name means 'undo the war.'
But the protest goes further: Mr. Winter built it with metal from a Russian tank destroyed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which he obtained through the help of two fellow Finns, a volunteer soldier and an aid worker.
The idea was 'to build something good out of something bad,' Mr. Winter, 33, said of the 55-piece series, the first design produced by his workshop, the Rebuild Watch Company in Helsinki, Finland.
The Ctrl-Z watch identified as No. 1 was presented to Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, by Petteri Orpo, Finland's prime minister, when Mr. Zelensky visited the Finnish capital in March. (An article in the Helsingin Sanomat, Finland's national newspaper, included a photograph of Mr. Orpo and Mr. Winter with the watch.)
The series has sold out, he said, and as of late last month, he had delivered about 20 of the watches to their buyers; the rest were still in production. He has pledged to donate half of each 7,500-euro ($8,830) sale to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society and had already sent more than €40,000 to the charity.
While he is still working on the design of the next watch, named Ctrl-SHIFT-Z, he has begun accepting preorders on his company's website.
The case of the 44.5-millimeter Crtl-Z was made of low-alloy carbon steel from a Russian T-90 armored tank, angled and beveled to resemble the tank's profile, Mr. Winter said. The manual-wind model has a mechanical movement produced by Jurmo Watches of Finland, and was assembled by Mr. Winter in his workshop. Leather straps were made by Raju Leatherworks, another local firm.
Mr. Winter said he came up with the idea for the watch in 2022, shortly after Russia's invasion in February. At the time, he was studying micromechanics at Kelloseppakoulu, or the Finnish School of Watchmaking.
His hunt for the tank's metal led him to contact several organizations; officials, including the Finnish president; and embassies for Finland and Ukraine, before he finally reached a humanitarian organization called the Ukrainian Association in Finland.
'I almost dropped to the floor,' when he found out the group could put him in touch with a soldier, Mr. Winter said. 'I thought, 'Is this really happening?''
The soldier, a Finn who volunteered three years ago, asked not to be identified. But he confirmed in a WhatsApp message that he had delivered two large pieces of metal — each about the size of a doormat and about an inch thick — to Antonio Nyman, a Finn who was in Ukraine at the time to distribute aid.
Mr. Nyman wrote in a WhatsApp message that he had not known how the metal would be used. But he had loaded it in his van, which already held three evacuees, and driven nearly 2,000 kilometers (over 1,200 miles), finally taking a ferry in Estonia to reach Finland.
'I just thought, 'This must be a joke,'' Mr. Nyman wrote. 'I thought maybe it was a souvenir for someone, but when I met Leo and he said he would make watches from the tank parts, I was so tired, I didn't know what to think.'
