I was six years old when I saw it. A futuristic flying machine, in a cartoon. I turned to my father and told him I wanted one.

He was a trained pilot. He told me it didn't exist.

But he said he could do the next best thing. He called his old instructor that afternoon. The next morning we were in a helicopter together. One of only three in Greece at the time. We flew together whenever we could after that.

Twenty years later, I got my own licence.

I still fly.

I built Esmont because of a question I couldn't stop asking. Aviation has been advancing since the Wright brothers. Every failure documented. Every weakness corrected. Aircraft are built to be kept.

Most things made today are built to be replaced.

We found our craftsmen in Sabae, Japan. Family workshops. Two and three generations. Three hundred steps. Eighteen months. Not as a number to put on a website. As the minimum the process requires.

Each eyepiece begins with a story. A specific aircraft. A mission. A moment that deserved to be permanent.

The design follows the story. Not trends. Not seasons.

That is why they age the way they do. The story only gets older. The object only gets more significant.

Every eyepiece is numbered. Every production run is small. Not because scarcity is a strategy. Because quality at this level cannot be produced any other way.

Esmont is for the person who already understands that.

— Yannis Makridis