The man to watch
JOAN VERDON
When Kathryn Longo talks about her first encounter with Eduardo Milieris, it's obvious it was love at first sight.
What's less obvious is whether she fell more in love with the man or his watches. For Longo, like other Milieris fans, it probably was a little of both.
Longo, owner of the Eco Galleria gift store on Teaneck's Cedar Lane, vividly remembers her first encounter with Milieris, who is making a name for himself as the designer of signed, limited-edition watches with hand-painted faces and antiqued brass, copper, and silver bands that are more like wearable sculptures than timepieces. Longo met him six years ago at the Buyers Market of American Crafts in Philadelphia. "I heard this fabulous Brazilian music coming from a booth. I really liked the music so I went to investigate, and I found Eduardo," she said.
Longo was just getting started in the gift business then and hadn't yet opened her store, but she immediately invested in four of Milieris' watches, figuring she could easily sell them to friends. She ended up keeping two for herself. She now owns four Milieris watches, and her husband owns one.
Since then, she's stocked his watches every year and seen other Milieris collectors covet his work. Rachel Lerner became an Eco Galleria customer when she spotted a Milieris watch in the window. Lerner already owned a Milieris watch purchased in 1998 at the American Craftsman store in Manhattan.
Lerner, a therapist and Teaneck resident, said she collects Milieris timepieces and other watches because they are beautiful and practical. "I believe in the marriage of form and function," she said. "I don't wear bracelets. My watches are my bracelets, and my watches are very pretty." Her Milieris watches, she said, also do a very good job of keeping time.
Connie Lior, who owns the CBL Fine Art gallery in West Orange with her husband, has sold Milieris watches for six to seven years and said the response from customers has been good. "They're not for someone who is looking for a Rolex," she said. "They're for someone who is looking for something artsier, more cutting edge. They're for someone who is comfortable enough in their own sense of style to not need a status watch."
Milieris, who produces his watches in a Long Island City factory under the brand name of Watchcraft, has seen interest in his work increase dramatically during the past year. Sales of his watches, most of which are priced between $200 and $400 and are sold at gift shops, jewelry stores, and art galleries, are up, and two limited editions from the current collection are sold out. One of his early watches, signed and numbered by Milieris, recently fetched $1,700 in an online auction.
This year's Buyer's Market show was held last weekend in Philadelphia, and Milieris' booth had one of its busiest shows ever, attracting buyers from across the country, according to Alex Beitler, general manager of Watchcraft. At this show, the Brazilian music was playing at the booth, as always, and Milieris' sales reps were serving espresso and wine, two of his traditions to draw buyers at trade shows. But the crowd around the booth included gift-shop owners asking, "Where's the naked guy?" a reference to an ad Milieris took in the show magazine in which he posed nude, wearing only a half dozen watches.
The naked guy wasn't at the show. He was in Uruguay, on a trip to his native land to celebrate his father's 80th birthday. In a telephone interview from his Long Island City factory the day before his departure, he said the music at his booth, the espresso and wine, and the adventuresome ad campaign are part of his philosophy that work, and trade shows, should be fun. "It seems to be working," he said.
Milieris, 42, said he began creating one-of-a-kind watches when he was 10, growing up in Montevideo, Uruguay. He used to draw on the outside of his watch faces with markers, but those drawings usually just rubbed off on his shirtsleeves. Now, he noted, his hand-painted dials are inside the watch cases.
He studied photography, video art, and sculpture at the School of Liberal Arts in Montevideo, and in 1987 was the cameraman in a group of nine adventurers who made an 18,900-mile trek from Alaska to the tip of Argentina.
Milieris, who lives in Jamaica Estates, came to New York City for his honeymoon and "stayed for a long, very long honeymoon," he said. He began his Watchcraft factory and has seven craftspeople putting his creations together. At first, he signed his watches with the name "Melies," a name Beitler describes as his "nom de guerre" - a name he chose as his artistic signature. But as his work - and his given name – became better known, he switched to signing his watches with "Milieris."
Milieris said he has always been fascinated by the passage of time, and he tries to reflect that in his watchbands and faces by using unsealed metals that age and change color as the watch is worn. Longo said she likes the fact that her first and oldest Milieris watch is acquiring a patina that deepens with each passing year.
One of Milieris' first art projects as a teenager was a clock that measured only the seconds, with no hands showing hours or minutes. A sign below that clock face read "Ars Longa, Vita Brevis" - Art Lasts, Life Is Brief. Milieris said that motto remains a guiding principal. For the moment, at least, he looks like an artist whose time has come.
Staff Writer Joan Verdon's e-mail address is verdon@northjersey.com.
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Finding the timepieces
The following stores carry Eduardo Milieris watches:
Eco Galleria, Teaneck, (201) 836-3200
CBL Fine Art, West Orange, (973) 736-7776
Valley Jewelers, Upper Montclair, (973) 746-0505
Zephyr Gallery, Princeton, (609) 419-1616
An American Craftsman, New York City, (212) 243-0245
National Academy of Design, New York City, (212) 369-4880