Welcome to the era of Kickstarter watches. With the success of Daniel Wellington and MVMT it’s become undeniably clear that any schlub with a quartz movement supplier and a nylon band can make a mint. And I say go forward and multiply, fashion watch brands, the world needs thee!
But that doesn’t mean you should crowd fund a clone of those same watches. Please don’t. We are tired of seeing them and we’ve seen so many!
First, understand our mission here. We are trying to offer solid watches that offer something different, something new, or something important. Here’s what I mean by that:
We live in a world defined by evanescence. The things we buy today we throw away tomorrow. So I want to find things where it’s clear that the creator has put some thought into the design, the quality, and the durability of a piece. I like mechanicals because they are a throwback to the watchmaking tradition and I like modern-looking pieces because they remind us that we aren’t stuck in the 1800s.
So your slimline quartz on a nylon strap? Maybe not. Your Miyota automatic with nice lume and a good strap? Yes. Would your watch look at home in the Fossil display case at Sears? Maybe not. Would it look at home on the wrist of a young woman going to her first job interview or scaling her first mountain? Let us at it.
We’re not snobs. We know that watches are considered fashion accessories. But we also know that watches are tools and those that understand the history and story of the mechanical timepiece know better than to sully that memory with cheap workmanship and more flash than substance.
And does that mean we don’t like quartz? No. We love it, when used correctly. A Casio Pro-Trek can’t exist in the mechanical world. Sometimes you need the power of electronics to tell the time and we won’t begrudge that fact.
But make me feel something. Make us say “Wow, they did their homework.” We want to share the absolute best watches under $1,000 on this site and we want to bring more watch wearers into the world. We know that the Apple Watch is great but a beautiful Omega is better. We know that a thin quartz piece on a red, white, and blue nylon strap look great if you’re in a magazine spread but will fall apart if you smack it against a sea wall. So give us something amazing and we’ll respond in kind.
I think you’ll also find that the same is true for your crowdfunding experience. Just because you think you can make a better watch doesn’t mean you should. Think it through. Ask people. Tell the world a good story and they’ll love you. Hop onto a long, boring train of copycats and they’ll ignore you.
So let’s do this thing, people. Let’s make watches great again. Let’s change the value we place on the mechanical in our lives and lets improve the world one timepiece at a time. We owe it the future.
