24/09/2026
A bespoke Pelagos FXD, customised around one word: Resilience.
With a PhD centred on Resilience Engineering & Strategic Feasibility, you might think Ali’s brief was about celebrating academic or career achievements.
It wasn’t.
He asked me to transform two of his own field worn watches, each tied to a chapter of his life, into something he could one day leave to his two daughters.
This first piece, his Pelagos FXD Alinghi Red Bull Racing, carries memories of his work in naval hydrodynamics and maritime capacity building. The watch already had a story. The brief was to add the people who matter most to it.
A Highland cow and Kuwaiti camel represent two worlds that shaped him.
A Celtic knot for continuity and resilience.
His daughters’ birth dates, alongside a little nod to the CMD 40 that takes him back to early childhood and his late friend Jaber.
A ribbon marks his ongoing experience with cancer, a chapter that made this project rather more meaningful than either of us expected.
A small star marks a recent chapter, his 2026 recognition for contributions across GCC Commonwealth policy, academia and cooperation. More than an award, it is a reminder to his daughters that knowledge means most when it is used in the service of others.
At the heart of the dial is a father holding the hands of his two daughters, their hands continuing outwards to others around the world.
It recalls Ali’s childhood and years later, his participation in Model United Nations connected that chapter to one of his earliest watches, depicting children of the world holding hands around the globe. An image that stayed with him as a symbol of togetherness, peace and nations standing together.
Finally, the Poppy and Kuwait’s Al Arfaj sit side by side.
They honour the frontliners who served, sacrificed and protected others.
Two flowers. Two cultures. Service, sacrifice, friendship and resilience.
One day, these watches will stop being field watches and become family watches.
Two watches. Two daughters. Different chapters of one life.
And through all of them, togetherness
