My First Watch: Jaume Ferràs

On a warm, breezy evening at The Macallan Villa, the invitation-only house the distillery keeps in the hills off Mulholland Drive, the goal is connection via personalization. There are bartender-guided flavor journeys that walk each drinker to a Macallan cocktail built for them, a redesign of the brand's Timeless Collections by graphic designer David Carson, and a set of collectible glassware charms. Jaume Ferràs, The Macallan's global creative director, sat down with Crown & Caliber and a dram of Macallan 18, to talk about his favorite, and most frequently worn, watch.

"I wish I had a big story," he said. "It's my dad's watch."

Worn on a black perforated rally strap, the TAG Heuer Carrera was a retirement present his father bought at the age of 59. Six months later, he passed away. His father never got the chance "to wear it properly," so Ferràs made a decision. "I just thought, this is my watch."

That was 13 years ago. It is not his only watch, but it is the one he wears with "the biggest sense of pride." The exceptions are deliberate. He leaves it home when doing more intense activities ("I fear I can break it") or outings better suited for something a little less sentimental ("If I go to the beach"). "I have an attachment to it," he told Crown & Caliber.

Ferràs is also aware of the room he is saying this in. "You're in the world of Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet," he said. "This doesn't belong to this world, but for me it is perfect."

Emotional attachment supersedes everything for Ferràs. "It does. It's not about something being nice or not nice, I actually don't care. It's just, do you have a connection and what is your connection?"

The campaign turns that connection into something you can pocket. Among the glassware charms, three are cast as the Horse, a nod to the Spanish bodegas that season the brand's casks; finding one unlocks a journey to the estate in Speyside and the sherry bodegas of Jerez.

It is also how The Macallan works, and it is the side of the brand he says he rarely gets asked about. "We don't control the world of demand, we don't control the world of pricing," he says. "We just try to do the best job we can without showing off, without talking about it, really letting the product and the experiences speak for themselves."

His example is Time:Space Mastery, the $1,500 single malt matured across 14 cask types and designed by Ferràs for the distillery's 200th anniversary in 2024: a circular decanter housed in a red presentation case lined with 200 origami spikes. The circular shape stands for the circularity of life. The spikes mark the anniversary, and they borrow a mechanism nature uses to protect itself. The red is a warning color. "We are connected with nature, and we worry about nature, and we try to protect nature," he said.

Whisky and watches both track time, albeit differently. The oldest liquid in the Time:Space collection went into cask on January 1, 1940, and came out 84 years later, the oldest whisky The Macallan has ever released. The Carrera has spent 13 years on his wrist, fewer years than many of The Macallan offerings. 

“To simple and organic forms, beautiful designs and great connections,” Ferràs said.