By Umer Nangiana

It has a case made with 18 karat gold and stainless Damascus steel. The glass is flat sapphire with double sided coating. Visible is the 192 layered Damascus steel dial with a wildflower pattern and an index ring and hands made with solid 18 karat red gold — polished by hand.
Finally, the 9mm crown is finegrained stainless Damascus steel. Bridges are manufactured in Sweden from one piece of handforged Damascus steel that has a woodgrain pattern. The movement has a centre second hand, a 120 hour power reserve.
It is the unique handmade GoS watch which is impossible to duplicate with its handforged pattern made of the best steel in the world. It starts from QR200, 000 and comes with customisable strap, handcrafted with soft Nubuck or Crocodile leather fitted with 18K gold buckle.
Coming from Scandinavia, the unique manually operated time-pieces are exclusively available with Ghaith Essence of Swords Qatar, the official dealer of the watches that has set up a stall at Eidul Adha Market near Katara Cultural Village.  
“These watches are made with the world’s best Damascus steel and every tiny detail in the watch is made and finished by hand before being embellished with gold and silver. They are manual and unique as there can be no other watch like this with special patterns,” Mohamed Aram, the sales person at the store, tells Community.
Gustafsson & Sj?gren (GoS) Watches is a partnership between the bladesmith Johan Gustafsson and watchmaker Patrik Sj?gren. They first met during 2007 and soon realised that both shared a deep passion for their respective craft and for the ancient Scandinavian craft tradition.
They both work with pattern welded steel or Damascus steel. It is a technique that has been used for centuries, believed to have been independently developed by different civilisations around the world.
The process of handforging Damascus steel results in every forged piece containing patterns with a different character and personality. This means that every GoS watch is truly one of a kind and a piece of art.
There is also an option to uniquely customise the handcrafted watches in addition to the existing models. You can request patterns and colours based on the broad range of Damascus techniques. “They are not just watches, they are pieces of art. We exclusively stock as an official agent of GoS all the watches models,” says Aram.  
Influenced by the Scandinavian weather and different aspects of the environment, the watches come in different models. Winter Nights Gold is one such, bi-colour watch. It has a 5-day power reserve and has a GoS triple blade symbol in gold fixed to the dial.
The dial is manufactured from two different Swedish tool steels that are forged together and folded to reach a total of 192 layers before Johan Gustafsson applies his trademark techniques to create the wildflower pattern. Given the nature of Damascus steel, every Winter Nights is a unique piece and is numbered in production sequence.
Ghaith Essence of Swords Qatar was founded by Khalifa Ghaith al-Kuwari in a desire to re-establish the craftsmanship of sword and dagger making in Qatar. Since its establishment, al-Kuwari has been instrumental in re-introducing the ceremonial and traditional use of swords in Qatar.
They are traditionally used at weddings such as pure silver swords during Ardha, a folk dance performed at weddings and on special occasions. They are also presented as gifts to friends and family. The swords are partly made by hand and partly by machine in Qatar, says Aram.
GoS watches are not the only unique pieces stocked by Ghaith Essence of Swords. There are popular swords and daggers and then the unique home accessories made by artisans from Syria. The salesperson says young Qataris and some tourists from outside purchase these swords.
There is a large variety of swords with prices ranging from QR10,000 to more than half a million Qatari riyals for a single piece.
Some are pure iron or pure steel while others are a combination of the two. Aram says there are some made with Damascus steel as well having gold and silver plated variants. Then, there are antique models as well which are very popular among people from the region.
The covers are made with leather and decorated with different kinds of jewels and pearls. Offering forging services, the shop also makes customised swords in accordance with the choices of pearls and stones preferred by the customer.
That is not all. The store has countless unique items to offer. A wooden cabinet designed and manufactured with pine wood and decorated with sadaf, the mother of pearls, from Syria, for instance.
Priced at more than QR25,000, these wooden cabinets are often gifted to women on their wedding.
“In Arabic, we call it Biroh. It has many drawers and you can put clothes and other stuff in it. It is very heavy and the front is all done in sadaf, wood, silver, camel bone and ivory. We do it in our company. The tradition of making such cabinets is about 400-500 years old,” says Aram.
In Syria, he says, it is considered to be as valuable as gold in your hand. “It does not drop in value which, in fact, increases with time. It is like gold. Whenever you need money, you can instantly sell it off for extra cash. It is made with pine wood which is very durable and solid,” adds the salesperson.
With the Damascus steel swords, he is selling one of the helmets used by the Muslim Commander Salahuddin Ayubi (Saladin). It is made in bronze with brass on it. There are walking sticks made entirely from camel bone with artwork done in camel bone, amber and turquoise stone.
The board games of Tawala (Arabic) and chess coming from Ottoman Empire era are also available in different patterns, sizes and designs.
However, the most prominent pieces of artistry from Syria are the clothes with Arabic verses engraved in embroidery on them.
“We call it Sermah in Arabic. This art also dates back to 400-500 years. We do not have factories because of the war these days in Syria. These clothes are normally made by women at home who do the embroidery with hand and sell these clothes for extra money,” says Aram.
As a tradition, women have been doing this for centuries. Such clothes would be given as gifts to their daughters on their weddings and other social occasions. “These days, women would do this kind of art to help their husbands with extra income because you know things are not good these days due to the war and they need it,” adds the salesperson.
A shirt also comes with a matching Bisht, also made from silk. The embroidery on the shirt is done with silk and silver-plated thread. It sells at about QR2,500. People in Syria wear it in the summer as it is not too heavy, says Aram.
It can also be hung on walls for decoration as it offers great value and is durable.