Roland Iten came up with the idea of a mechanical belt buckle well before his first collection launched at Baselworld 2004.

In the late 90’s he created and patented a simple lever expansion buckle which he licenced to Bally. This early version, in cast steel, won awards and sold thousands of pieces inflight on Swissair and in airport duty-free shops around the world.

But it wasn’t until Roland started designing watches for Bally in the early 2000’s that he discovered watch-making machinery. Its precision ignited his quest to show the world what else could be done using haute horlogerie know-how.

Identifying this gap in the men’s jewelry market, Roland launched his own brand in 2003. His first creation, the R8 Mark I Mechanical Belt Buckle, transformed the same five-component lever expansion concept into the world’s first CNC* engineered and manufactured mechanical belt buckle. This one was in gold and titanium, with 140 moveable mechanical features.