Cuervo y Sobrinos Watch Review

Revived Cuban watch brand Cuervo y Sobrinos celebrates its 125th anniversary this year – a milestone marked with élan on 27th June in Madrid. The La Zarzuela racetrack was transformed into a replica of 1950s Havana, evoking the seductive, languorous rhythm of life that once made the city the ‘Pearl of the Caribbean’, attracting a global, cosmopolitan clientele to D Armando Cuervo’s famous family jewellers. While the watches themselves were always Swiss, Italian entrepreneur Marzio Villa relocated the whole brand to Lugano in 2003 and the current watches have quickly reignited that Latin spark, styled as voluptuously as a 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville parked outside the Hotel Naçional. Villa himself played host to over 300 guests in Madrid, who were kitted-out with Panamas for the men and fans for the ladies as well as binoculars for a series of three horse races. Cuervo’s historic store in Havana was faithfully recreated (the original store can still be seen today, half hidden, on San Rafael street), and even Hemingway or Sinatra would have felt at home in the Cuban mirror bar, nursing a mojito and freshly rolled cigar. A special edition watch was of course on display, too: the ‘Hippodromo Madrid’ Robusto, limited to 125 pieces, in a delicious, mint-green dial.