An Invitation to the Inner Circle
There is a tier of independent horology that exists beyond the catalogues, beyond the boutiques, and beyond the familiar names that populate the auction rooms. It is the tier of the single hand — the individual artisan working alone, in a private workshop, producing pieces in numbers so small that most collectors will never encounter them at all.
Marco Guarino works in this tier. An AHCI candidate — the gateway designation of the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants, the most selective body in independent watchmaking — he operates from a single Italian workshop, using manual tools, producing each piece by hand. There is no production line. There is no repeatability beyond the sealed edition. There is only the work.
At Beckham Intemporel, this is the kind of maker we exist to find. The Marc & Darnò Moon Phase is the result: a high-complication astronomical instrument from a singular hand, issued in a closed run of twenty-five pieces, and engineered to a standard of lunar precision that most established houses do not attempt.
Le Temps, est Intemporel
The Moon Phase Module — 122 Years of Accuracy
A moon phase complication is one of the oldest and most romantic additions to a mechanical watch. It is also one of the most frequently compromised. The standard moon phase module found in most watches deviates by one full day every two and a half years — a figure that collectors with genuine astronomical interest find difficult to accept.
Marco Guarino did not accept it. The brass moon phase module at the heart of the Marc & Darnò is hand-crafted in his Italian workshop and engineered to a 29.53125-day gear ratio — a figure that mirrors the actual synodic month with uncommon fidelity. The result: a deviation of only fifty-eight seconds per lunation. A single day of accumulated error every 122 years.
This is not a complication worn for sentiment. It is a precision astronomical instrument, built by hand, from a single maker who understood that the moon deserves better than approximation.
The Marc & Darnò — Reference MD-MP-25
The case is 39mm sandblasted 916L stainless steel — a material choice that speaks to Guarino's commitment to longevity and wearability over ornament. The dial is open-worked, exposing the raw brass top plate of the hand-crafted lunar module beneath. It is a design decision that is both honest and arresting: the mechanism is the aesthetic.
At 6 o'clock, a pointer date tracks the calendar in quiet counterpoint to the moon phase display above. The base movement is a modified ETA 2824 automatic — a reliable, serviceable foundation that Guarino has overlaid with his custom-engineered module. This is a considered choice. The complication is Guarino's own. The base is a platform he trusts to carry it across decades.
The piece available at Beckham Intemporel is No. 14 of 25 — a mid-edition serial that carries the full provenance of the closed run. Full set.
1 of 25 — The Sealed Edition
Twenty-five pieces. That is the entirety of the Marc & Darnò Moon Phase edition. Not twenty-five per year. Not twenty-five per market. Twenty-five in total, worldwide, from a single hand, in a closed run that will not be reopened.
For the collector who understands rarity as a function of genuine scarcity rather than marketing, this number requires no elaboration. When a maker produces twenty-five pieces and stops, the secondary market has nowhere to turn but the pieces already in circulation. The collectible floor is not a projection — it is a structural consequence of the edition itself.
AHCI candidacy places Guarino on the most exclusive path in independent watchmaking. The makers who have walked that path before him — and earned full membership — are the names that now command the highest prices in the independent category. The collector who finds a candidate's work at this stage of their career is not speculating. They are reading the room early.
A Final Word for the Collector
Marco Guarino is not yet a household name in horology. That is precisely the point. The collectors who will speak of him in twenty years are the ones acquiring his work now — before the AHCI membership, before the auction appearances, before the waiting lists that follow recognition.
The Marc & Darnò Moon Phase is the clearest expression of what Guarino is building: a body of work defined by astronomical precision, hand-crafted integrity, and a refusal to produce more than the work demands. Twenty-five pieces. One hand. One workshop. One standard of accuracy that accumulates a single day of error across more than a century.
For the Beckham Intemporel collector, this is the kind of acquisition that does not announce itself. It simply endures.
Discover the Art of Rare Time.
Acquire the Marc & Darnò Moon Phase — Ref. MD-MP-25 | No. 14 of 25
1 of 25 worldwide. Full set. Available now in the Beckham Intemporel collection. Enquire or purchase directly here.
Le Temps, est Intemporel