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Crowd Funded

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For all you fledgling watchmakers out there who want to get their project off the ground, you could save yourself a little work and study what Redux & Co. have done with their first watch offering. First off, make an attractive watch. Second, make it a good value. Third, engage the press and build up supporters ready to jump as soon as the gun goes off. In less than 24 hours on Kickstarter, the Redux & Co Courg titanium watch already has over 400 backers and is over triple their funding goal of $30,000.

I do sometimes complain about the lack of real individuality in crowd funded watch projects, so when something unique comes across our Tips line, I want to cover it, even if it not something I could see myself wearing. The Thirsty Watch Co. Vintage Soda watch on Indiegogo is exactly that type of project. It is unique, it will probably appeal to a fair number of people, but it just isn’t for me. But that does not mean it is without merits.

There are a number of watch complications out there, and one that Patrick and I both really like is the GMT. With the Mercer Watch Company Wayfarer GMT, this new company is bringing this complication to market in their sophomore watchmaking effort. I wrote about the Brigadier automatic back in March, and it looks like that watch is getting in the hands of the backers, with a positive response. With that project in its final stages, Mercer is back on Kickstarter looking for funding for project #2.

Crowd funding a project can be hit or miss. There are a lot of watch projects out there, and it is tough (even for us folks who look at a lot of projects) to predict which ones will make it, and which ones won’t. I know of a few watches that I thought were sure fire hits that never made it, and others that I thought were just average that blew up (no names in the latter), and then even more that either deserve their success or obscurity. Lionstone has tried to launch a couple of times, and never quite hit the mark, in spite of what I think is a pretty intersting campaign. They are at it for one final go, with the Lionstone SuperSlim and Ceramic Watches, currently on Indiegogo.

Fresh of the heels of their first crowdfunded success, ManchesterWatchWorks is back at it again, with a modern looking diver recharged by the sun (really any light). These quartz driven, photovoltaic recharged watches are not new, companies have been making them for decades, but the ManchesterWatchWorks Armada is the first crowd funded dive watch I have seen with this technology, and it looks to be an attractive package.

We get a lot of notifications of crowdfunded projects crossing our virtual desks here at WWR, and the honest truth is that we don’t always have enough time to feature all of them. So for you readers out there, check out the various platforms and search for watches, and for you budding watchmakers, don’t be discouraged if we can’t get to your project, and keep sending them in. One bit of advice I would give to a new brand is to make an attractive and unique (or at least somewhat unique) watch, and make it a value. Those categories fit the Stewart Dawson Belgravia Automatic, a new watch from a new watch company in London.

I mean that title literally, Kickstart a movement. OK, it is a watch movement, but it is a movement none the less. With this Kickstarter campaign (closing soon, I have been remiss in browsing the site), a group of industry insiders and outsiders have banded together to create a new watch movement that they hope to mass produce and compete against ETA and the other available mechanical movements. The Accurat Swiss Jonas K1 is the first watch to house this movement, like the Sistem 51 was the first watch to house that movement.

Melbourne Watch Co is one of a handful of new watch companies that have embraced and excelled in the crowd-funding market, offering multiple time pieces and, more importantly, delivering a quality product to their backers. We have looked at all of their watches over the last few years, including a hands-on review of the Flinders. Their latest watch is the Melbourne Watch Works Carlton, a chronograph that utilizes a mecha-quartz movement.