The world's most recognized name in pianos now appears on a distinctive wrist watch collection. In fact, it is more more than that, Steinway & Sons has launched its own stand-alone watch brand.

Music and horology, grand pianos and wristwatches, the question begs to be asked; 'Why?'

While the link between them may appear tenuous, the story of how talented pianist Fabrizio Cavalca added designer and watchmaker to his CV before launching Steinway & Sons Watches, is not only remarkable, it is one of the most amazing examples of synchronicity yet seen in the world of high-end watches.

Co-branded or cross-branded watches i.e., those where the name on the dial (or elsewhere) has nothing to do with horology, usually appear to be no more than cheap - though in reality probably very expensive - marketing gimmicks.

Where co-branding takes place, it is usually a case of nebulously linking the watch to a fast car, fast driver, fast plane or fast boat, and even in best-case scenarios, the visual association is usually minor and the emotional bond virtually non-existent.

Fashion brands appear to be the happiest to risk their names and, more importantly, their reputations, on any product that offers a quick (potential) buck, but when your name is synonymous worldwide with excellence and your clientele is as upmarket as they come, discretion is generally deemed the better part of valour.

So what has induced and inspired Steinway & Sons to branch out of the aristocratically civilized world of concert halls and onto the boisterous rough-and-tumble universe of the wrist?

The answer, 'Fabrizio Cavalca'.

It is difficult to imagine anyone better qualified to launch Steinway & Sons Watches than Fabrizio Cavalca.

Born in Neuchâtel Switzerland, he moved to Lyon in France with his parents at the age of six and from then, until the age of 15, studied piano and music at the Lyon Conservatory of Music.

In his teens, shapes and forms began to play an increasingly important role in Fabrizio's life and they appeared to lead to a more agreeable career path than that of a professional musician, so he went to study in the cradle of design, Milan, Italy.

His professors there were strong on design based around the Golden Ratio (also known as the Divine Proportion and the Golden Section) and this school of thought strongly influenced Cavalca.

Artists and architects have proportioned their works to approximate the Golden Ratio since before the Renaissance—especially in the form of the Golden Rectangle, in which the ratio of the longer side to the shorter is the golden ratio of approximately 1.62:1 - because it appears to be naturally pleasing to the eye.

One of the great contemporary masterwatchmakers, Michel Parmigiani, is also a devotee of this mystical ratio.

But Fabrizio Cavalca's designs were influenced by more than pleasingly gilded proportions, they were also strongly shaped by music.

Just as attractive design centers on visually pleasing ratios related to length and volume, captivating music revolves around the enchanting ratios of the length of notes and the spaces between the notes.

Chords for example are groups of notes arranged in harmonically pleasing proportions.

For Cavalca, visual designs and auditory compositions are holistic and are part of the same continuum: when he hears music Cavalca sees shapes and forms.

Note: the phenomena is scientifically documented and is called synesthesia, though the majority with this ability usually associate colours with sound rather than shapes.

This coherence of sight and sound in Fabrizio's mind is the origin of the Steinway & Sons Watches motto of, 'Understanding a Glance, Contemplating a Whisper'.

Synesthesia is a condition in which one sense (for example, hearing) is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses such as sight.

Another form of synesthesia joins objects such as letters, shapes, numbers or people's names with a sensory perception such as smell, color or flavor.

The word synesthesia comes from two Greek words, syn (together) and aisthesis (perception).

Therefore, synesthesia literally means "joined perception."

Synesthesia can involve any of the senses. The most common form, colored letters and numbers, occurs when someone always sees a certain color in response to a certain letter of the alphabet or number.

For example, a synesthete (a person with synesthesia) might see the word "plane" as mint green or the number "4" as dark brown.

There are also synesthetes who hear sounds in response to smell, who smell in response to touch, or who feel something in response to sight.

Just about any combination of the senses is possible. There are some people who possess synesthesia involving three or even more senses, but this is extremely rare.

Synesthetic perceptions are specific to each person.

Different people with synesthesia almost always disagree on their perceptions. In other words, if one synesthete thinks that the letter "q" is colored blue, another synesthete might see "q" as orange

After successfully working in industrial design for a few years, fate then decided that the time was right to add watchmaking to Cavalca's musical and design skills.

A friend's father worked for Rolex and he introduced Fabrizio to the micro-mechanical world of horology.

Fascinated, Cavalca's Saturdays were then spent at the bench learning the basics of the art.

It was not long before the germ of an idea to design a watch grew into launching his own successful brand, Prano. Prano united two of Cavalca's passions i.e., Design and Watchmaking.

While selling more than a couple of thousand watches each year, Prano are basically ladies fashion watches with a distinctive, and naturally Golden Ratio inspired, form, and are predominantly marketed in Japan, the Middle East and the USA.

Steinway & Sons Short History

Steinway & Sons was founded in New York in 1853 by Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg. Heinrich Steinweg was a German piano maker with the family Steinweg brand, and he emigrated from Germany to America in 1850 with his family. One of his sons, Christian Steinweg, remained behind in Germany and continued to manufacture Steinweg pianos there.

Demand for Steinweg's technically innovative high-quality pianos grew quickly and the the family anglicized their name to Steinway in 1864.

There are well over 100 patents registered by Steinway & Sons including cross over-stringing of the bass strings in grand pianos to allow more length (and so more volume) and the current iconic case shape of the grand piano (note that these patents have long since expired).

Titbit: The world record for the highest price ever paid for a piano is $2 million paid by George Michael for the Steinway piano on which John composed "Imagine".

And things may have rested there, with Cavalca playing the piano for himself and friends to satisfy his passion for music and designing his own line of fashion watches to satiate his need to create visual forms.

But fate was not yet finished and synchronicity has a habit of calling when it's least expected. Steinway & Sons has a twice-yearly in-house magazine which they send out to clients and interested parties.

Cavalca was known to Steinway & Sons both as as a pianist and as the owner of a small watch brand and he was contacted in early 2007with a view to Prano buying advertising in the magazine.

While on the phone, Cavalca declined the offer to buy advertising - Prano's models target a different client base than Steinway & Sons - but he immediately saw the possibilities in launching a Steinway & Sons watch.

A couple of months spent designing watches and developing a business plan were rewarded with a chance to pitch to the Steinway family and their representatives including Frank Mazurco (S&S Vice President) and Leo Spellman (S&S President of Communications) - in New York.

Cavalca's proposals appeared to be well appreciated but the collaboration was not sealed until, after tour of the Steinway & Sons factory, he was asked to play a few concert hall pianos.

This appeared to be part of the test as Steinway & Sons (understandably) believe you cannot really understand their business values unless you can truly understand music. Cavalca passed the audition!

The first adjective that comes to mind when seeing a Steinway & Sons watch on the wrist is, 'Elegant'.

These are very original and stylish dress watches with a design that is both simple and sophisticated that simply 'works'.

The distinctive form of the case is immediately recognisable from across a room; however, it is only on closer inspection that the Steinway & Sons piano motives make themselves known.

And the Steinway grand piano design cues not only influenced the design of the watches, they dictated the design of the watches.

The (soon to become) iconic lyre-shaped form of the strings over the gold soundboard on the dial provides an instant bond between watch and grand piano . . . right down to the posts and lugs attaching the string.

However, there are more subtle clues re-enforcing the association including curves in the watch's hand-polished solid-gold case forming an almost eidetic image of the curves in the grand piano's highly hand-polished body.

The discreet Steinway & Sons lyre logo in its own uncluttered space on the dial leaves no doubt as to the quality and pedigree watch.

The Swiss automatic movement is a customised ETA 2000 - a movement also used by Cartier in some of their wristwatches - and while it may be expected that the majority of clients for these timepieces will be more interested in the brand and case and dial design rather than the calibre within, turning the watch over reveals an intriguingly gilded-black rotor and bridge.

Intriguing that is until it is pointed out that that the black mirrors the lacquered black timber of a Steinway grand piano.

An enormous amount of work and detail has gone into the dials of these watches.

The 12 strings are hand-soldered over a solid-gold soundboard, and while that provides a fairly complex visual feast, the fact that much of the dial remains 'clean' embodies the ensemble with a very cultivated look, as do the bespoke hand-crafted hands and unique tuning-fork second hand.

The quartz movement of the ladies diamond set models allows for a smaller and thinner case and the 140 scintillating diamonds on its soundboard bring the watch alive with brilliant sparkles of light.

Indications: Hours, Minutes and Seconds

Bespoke hand-crafted hands with unique 'tuning fork' seconds.

Case: Available in either 18k white gold, 18k yellow gold or 18k red gold. Limited edition of 1853 pieces of each model (1853 saw the founding of Steinway & Sons)

Dimensions: 43.7 mm x 26 mm x 10 mm Water resistant to 30 meters

Crystal : Sapphire crystal with anti-reflection treatment. Display back.

Dials: Grand piano sound board shape in either 18k white gold, yellow gold or 18kt red gold (depending on case) with 12 hand-fitted strings.

Strap & Buckle: Calibrated Louisiana alligator strap.

Movement: Calibre S-1853

Automatic winding, high quality Swiss Movement.

Balance oscillating at 28,800 bph.

Gilded black-gold winding rotor and match bridge.

Number of jewels: 21

Indications: Hours and Minutes

Bespoke hand-crafted hands.

Case: Available in either 18k white gold, 18kt yellow gold or 18kt red gold.

Limited edition of 1853 pieces of each model (1853 saw the founding of Steinway & Sons)

Dimensions: 36.7 mm x 21 mm x 7.3 mm

Water resistant to 30 meters

Crystal: Sapphire crystal with anti-reflection treatment.

Dial: 18k gold dial - colour matching case.

Soundboard: 140 diamonds D E F, internally flawless, set by hand.

Strap & Buckle: Pure silk strap

Custom solid-gold buckle complimenting case shape.

Movement: Calibre SQ-1853

High quality Swiss quartz movement

Number of jewels: 4

In an era when so many brands appear to be substituting quantity (size) over quality in design, Fabrizio Cavalca's Steinway & Sons Watches is a welcome counterpoint. In a market full of Panerai and Royal Oak Offshore wannabees (and the real thing), it's refreshing to see not only a highly original idea, but one with such simple elegance.

And Steinway & Sons Watches is perhaps the best example of a cross-branded watch with substantial context (Parmigiani's Type 370 Bugatti might be considered another contender). These timepiece are a synthesis of Fabrizio Cavalca's three passions, Music, Design and Horology . . . and it shows!