The Watch

Formed in the late 1990s in Milan, Italy, The Watch continues the project The Night Watch initiated by Simone Rossetti. Rossetti—songwriter, singer and flautist—remains the group's constant core. After the album Twilight, released in 1997 under the original name, the lineup was restructured and the band permanently adopted the name The Watch, shaping an identity strongly influenced by the Peter Gabriel era of Genesis, both in Rossetti’s vocal timbre and in the songwriting. The Watch built a repertoire of long, atmospheric pieces, intricate instrumental passages, flute parts and retro-sounding keyboards, with lyrics largely in English. During the 2000s the band issued a series of studio albums—Ghost (2001), Vacuum (2004) and Primitive (2007)—followed by Planet Earth ? (2010), Timeless (2011), Tracks from the Alps (2014), Seven (2017) and The Art of Bleeding (2021), all confirming their leaning toward 1970s symphonic rock. On stage, The Watch primarily operates within the European progressive rock circuit—between specialist clubs and festivals—and regularly includes Genesis covers alongside its own material, while continuing to work with variable line-ups centered on Simone Rossetti.