San Francisco Frontiers - Jeweller's eye-popping watch is love letter to Albania

Now the timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November.

Set under a sapphire dome, the hours are marked by 12 golden folk dancers -- each in different regional dress -- set on Murano glass, the minute and hour hands adorned with eagle talons in homage to Albania's national symbol.

Ruco's rollercoaster rise mirrors that of Albania, from poverty and isolation as the most closed communist regime in Europe, to rollicking capitalism.

Along the way the jeweller overcame jealousy, the secret police and being sent into internal exile to rise to the pinnacle of his profession.

It all began for Pirro -- as he is known in his homeland -- in 1985 when he was asked to make a medal in red and gold bearing the head of Enver Hoxha, the paranoid dictator who ruled the small Balkan nation with an iron fist for more than four decades.

"That saved me," he told AFP from his workshop tucked away in an alley in the capital Tirana.

The medals were awarded to the regime's most loyal supporters and later caught the eye of Hoxha's wife.

The turn of fortune saw thousands more produced and worn by communist cadres across Albania.

"All the congressional delegates had to wear it. I made a name for myself with it," he said. It also saved him from the textile mills where he had been sent because his family had been deemed "rebellious".

- 'Priceless' -

All this, however, was nearly derailed by an anonymous letter sent to authorities accused Pirro of working with foreign agents.

He was questioned by intelligence agents and his workshop raided.

Down but not out, he was able to bounce back after crafting a ring bearing the image of the late husband of a member of the communist politburo and in July 1990 won a prize for a piece featuring Albania's 15th-century national hero Skanderberg.

But the very next day history intervened. The regime began to crumnble and the collapse of Albania's communist rule in 1991 was followed by years of violent tumult as the country transitioned to a free-market economy.

Amid the ups and downs, Pirro stayed busy designing pieces for officials and celebrities.

During a trip to Basel in Switzerland in 2016, something new caught his eye.

"I wanted to make a watch. It was my new dream," he told AFP.

For the next five years, Pirro said he focused on "doing something special, Albanian, and at the same time completely new and never before seen in the watch industry."

The new timepiece which he calls Primordial Passion was designed in collaboration with the Swiss watchmaker Agenhor.

"I never wanted to make jewellery, but art," the jeweller said.

"Sculptures, images of the country, pieces of culture... This watch is the culmination of all that, of this love for Albania," he added.

"It is more than just a watch. It combines the rich heritage of ancient Albanian culture with the notion of chronometry."

Pirro refuses to divulge the methods used to craft the watch, but remains hopeful the painstaking details will be recognised by the judges at the Grand Prix in Geneva.

Several collectors have already contacted him about buying the timepiece, he said, though it would be difficult to part with his creation.

"I set a price because I had to. But for me, it is priceless."

G.Collins--SFF