Gabriele Ribolini

Story

Born in 1947, Gabriele Ribolini is an artisan and restorer of antique clocks, a “maitre horloger”. He began his career as a mechanical designer, but his passion soon led him to become a watchmaker, refining the art of restoration of old watches as well as the design and construction of new ones.

His origins as a mechanical designer have led him more and more often to accomplish projects tailored to his clients, studying and constructing every component of with unmatched precision.

For Ribolini, restoring an ancient clock is not just a matter of reassembling the pieces of an old object. The real challenge today lies in finding the tesserae of a damaged or partially lost mosaic, reconstructing not only the watch and its cogs, but also identifying oneself in a bygone era.

Taking a journey back in time, it is possible to rediscover techniques, technologies and ancient materials that are brought back to the present with great care and attention in order to relive every detail in full coherence.

Achievements

Author of several books on mechanics and the history of watchmaking, he is now president of the Italian collectors' association, curator of a traveling exhibition between the cities of Viterbo, Corte Franca, Modena, Rome and finally Milan, where the exhibition finds its definitive placement in the Museum of Science and Technology for which Ribolini is a scientific consultant. Known and esteemed by the Watchmaking Museum of La Chaux-de-Fonds, the English Horological Institute and the American Collectors' Association, he writes about history and mechanics in several trade magazines.

Gabriele Ribolini