The proprietor of Gnomon Watches, a Singapore based on-line watch dealer, Anders Tan wasn’t happy just selling watches, so he took the next step and started making them. Dievas Watches got off to a slow start with the now discontinued Mesopelagic line, and the Endurance and Noble lines which are still in production. The designs were conventional, but they used tritium tube illumination and looked like fairly robust dive watches.
Then he released the Oceantimer series. This was a little more dramatic and distinctive, and was worth a second look. The Vintage series came out as an homage to a certain Italian military dive watch from the 1930s, but in a price range mere mortals can afford. Then the Divergraph series hit the street, and I just had to talk with this guy.
After getting bachelor’s degrees in Computer Engineering and Business in England, he went into the watch business. He’s very humble about his position in the market, giving credit to the watchmakers, distributors, and regular customers, and is grateful for their guidance and everything they’ve taught him. Anders was quick to acknowledge the contributions to his watch designs from his friends and customers.
When asked about the inspirations for his designs, Anders said, “I love watches. And appreciate all things watches. From Vintage to contemporary watches. I have my fair share of vintage and military watches that I managed to gather throughout the years. And a lot of my inspirations comes from there.” The military look, both contemporary in the Divergraph series, and classic in the Vintage series shines through in his newest lines. He went on to say, “And most of my designs so far has been focusing on simplicity and usability with a splash of colors.” And the use of orange and blue tritium tubes in the Divergraphs, and the hands on the Vintage Kampfschimmer is subtle and tasteful, achieving this goal.
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Sven van der Zande of Buscum Ducis is young entrepreneur in the best way. Taking risk, while putting forth a product and business built on idealism and the customer. Although he denies the idealism, his focus on the customer sends another message in a time when companies buy up old names for marketing purposes.
At 21, he’s been in business for a few years already, but chose to start his own watch company. He says, “I like designing and brainstorming in my spare time and I have always thought that there are only very few companies in the world that really concentrate on one concept, that is what I am going to do, I am going to design a watch with input from my customers to make this watch as perfect as it can be, with a lot of personal customer service. Which means that both buying the watch and the service afterwards is as personal as it gets. All for lower prices then your average watch with those specifications.”
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Go to Christopher Ward Watches, and see the work of a visionary. Chris Ward is an entrepreneur who returned to the watch industry, and has made a bit of a splash. His goal is to make “the cheapest most expensive watch in the world” at “the biggest ‘smallest’ watch company”.
He uses first rate Swiss movements, currently ETA 2824 automatic, ISA quartz, and Ronda quartz movements (but Valjoux may be on the horizon). Style and substance go together when these bits of quality mechanism are put inside tasteful cases with restrained dials and hands. The basic watches, in his Russell and Malvern lines are relativel small by modern standards at 38 mm, but some of the other chronographs and his dive watches are a little more typical at 42mm. The styling of the chronographs was also a pleasant surprise as it was not the customary Rolex, or Breitling homage, but a distinct designs that took a few risks without getting as gaudy as the fashion watches. The Russell line stands out as distinctive and classic, and one of the other lines was inspired by early IWC aviators’ watches, but still look good. The attention to detail comes through in the photos, and they certainly look like $500 to $1000 (U.S.) watches, but the collection averages about half that.
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Just talked to Yizhi at WatchLuxus.com, our latest advertiser and a man with a mission. We did a quick Q&A over email and here’s what I got.
Me: Tell me about WatchLuxus.com
Yizhi: Watchluxus.com is designed to become the ultimate destination for people interested in anything connected with the quality watch market.
The website offers a complete on-line catalogue of every high-value wristwatch collection, world-wide, to support everyone – from people buying a gift, to an expert looking for a collector’s item. The site also features a watch-finder, market-place for secondhand watches, watch forum and news blog.
Me: Hey, we’re a news blog too! But that’s OK. Now you mentioned something about helping in the purchase process?
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Riedenschild is a small German watch company just starting out here in the U.S. Most famous for their Darksea Diver, the company is now increasing its presence and is offering quartz and automatics with Swiss and Japanese movements. We talked to U.S. rep James Newell about the company.
Want to talk back? Check out our official Reidenschild forum.
WWR: Tell me about the company? Who runs it? Where is it based?
Newell: The company is german based company from Munich. We design and produce the watches there. The company in Germany in Owned by Oliver Wolf. I am the Owner of the US based operations. My full name is Dr. James Newell.
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My buddy Amit lives in Nigeria now and just bought a Vulcain Cricket GMT to celebrate a new job. He wrote a bit about his experience and it was quite moving.
I tell you what, buying the Vulcain was a real
extravagance but I didn’t do it on a whim. I’ve always known that I would
buy a nice watch at some point and when I saw the thing in a shop window I
knew that would be the one. I then made an agreement with Claire that I
would only buy it if/when I got my next job. So that watch waited for me
in that shop window for five months. In fact, although we then bought the
watch when my new job had been agreed in principle, I didn’t wear it until
the paperwork had been completed and that took another three months!! I
had my wife hide it in the house and then had to try and forget about it.
It was agony!!
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David McCready got into the watch business by accident. His father, a renowned engineer who built some of the first microwave systems, was an inveterate collector of arcane electronics. One day, when McCready was a boy, the son of a jeweler accidentally rang the wrong doorbell. McCready answered and the man peeked in and was amazed at the equipment that filled the McCready’s house. The jeweler’s son followed in McCready’s father’s footsteps and became and expert in electronics. McCready followed in the jeweler’s footsteps — at the age of 13 McCready took up the loupe and watch knife. The rest, as they say, is history.
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Very cool interview with Felix Baumgartner, the designer of the Opus V.
When 31 year old Felix Baumgartner met Jeweler Harry Winstons Maximilian Brusser at the launch of his designer URWERK 103 in 2003, he was already on top of the world. His orbital cross movement was already getting a lot of attention. But little did he know that his watch was just a prelude. Fate was plotting and unbeknowst to him, he would soon embark on his most inspiring and challenging assignment yet – The limited edition OPUS V, a watch with the worlds first satellite hour display.
Read the rest here.
I wrote a profile of Blancier for InSync magazine, one of the best titles out there for U.S. watch coverage—I’m not just saying that, either. Go and get yourself a copy and read some of their great Basel coverage and to read my interviews with Willem Kamerman and Till Lottermann, two of the coolest watch ninjas out there.
