William Henry– a luxury design studio crafting exceptional heirloom-quality creations.

William Henry is a luxury design studio specializing fine pocketknives, jewelry, watches, and other lifestyle-centered creations using heirloom-level craftsmanship, story-rich materials, and a global network of artisans that practice rare and deeply nuanced techniques. Our aim is to create heirloom-quality pieces that tell an incredible story and bring a sense of refinement to everyday life through unparalleled craftsmanship, rare techniques and fascinating materials. 

A Brief History: William Henry was founded in 1997 by Matt Conable, a well-known custom knifemaker with a vision to bridge the gap between one-off custom knives and higher quantity production knives. He achieved this by creating designs that fuse the highest levels of handcraft with ultra-precise modern technologies like CNC machining. These designs also incorporate some of the rarest materials and embellishment techniques on the planet to create limited editions where the material combinations within an edition may be the same, but the organic nature of each individual component creates a completely unique experience in your hands. As we became world-renowned for making some of the best pocketknives, we sought to branch out and apply our design language to jewelry, watches, and other lifestyle-centered categories—all with the same focus on rare, story-rich materials and heirloom-level craftsmanship. 

Design Philosophy: At William Henry we subscribe to the idea that the objects you choose to surround yourself with tell a story. We aim to make that story as nuanced and memorable as possible, whatever the circumstance may be, by designing objects that add interest to your daily life. There are many opportunities to turn everyday activities, that are often overlooked into acts of ceremony. Opening an anticipated letter with a stunning pocketknife that you are proud to own is immensely more enjoyable than using a lack-luster object that just happens to be nearby.

This logic can be applied to all our categories whether they are function-forward, or not. By applying our story-focused design language to our jewelry collections, we create pieces that complement your unique character, rather than detracting from it. 

Materials, Artistry, and Craftsmanship Philosophy: Integral to our design language are the materials, artisans, and craftspeople that bring each William Henry creation to fruition. In our effort to impart as much depth of character as possible to each piece, we often utilize incredibly rare and unique materials that most luxury designers, if not most designers in general, shy away from. These materials, such as fossils, hand-forged metals, exotic woods, and materials with historic provenance all come with unique production challenges that only feed into the rarity and individuality of each finished piece. We work with a global network of artisans and craftspeople, some in-house and some out-of-house, to do the type of craft that only human hands can do. Some of these include our in-house jewelry and knife studios, Damascus steel master smiths, world-renowned hand engravers, Balinese silversmiths, Indian Koftgari artists, Japanese Maki-e artists, and so many more. Dozens of hands, and countless hours go into each William Henry creation, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. It is the human talent, ingenuity, and universal language of heirloom-level quality that connects us all.