Vieste, Where the Battista Family Started

My grandfather Felix Battista's parents, Mateo and Theresa, were from Vieste before they immigrated to America. That's the maternal side of my family — Rionero is my father's side, Vieste is my mother's, and the two watches are paired together in the La Famiglia bundle for exactly that reason.

Vieste isn't a quiet fishing village that got lucky with a coastline. People have been there a long time — the Daunians, an ancient tribe, settled the area before 1000 BC, and the Greeks and Romans both held it, under the name Apeneste. The Castello Svevo that still stands over the town was built in the 11th century and expanded two hundred years later by Frederick II.

The town's darkest chapter came in July 1554, when the pirate Dragut landed with dozens of ships and laid siege to Vieste. The townspeople barricaded themselves between the cathedral and the castle for over a week before the doors came open. What followed was brutal — thousands killed, thousands more taken as slaves, at a site in the old town still known today as the Chianca Amara, the “bitter stone.” It's one of the worst single days in the town's history, and Viestani still know the story.

That's the kind of place that teaches people to endure. Generations later, it's also the kind of place people leave when there's nothing left to make a living on — which is exactly what Mateo and Theresa Battista did, headed for America. I'm named after Mateo — it's where my own name comes from — and it's exactly why their great-grandson ended up naming a watch after the town they left.

— Matt