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March 28, 2008

Buscum Ducis Watches Redux: An interview with 21-year old founder Sven van der Zande

Filed under: Interviews, WWR Exclusive — E.M. Van Court @ 9:29 am

scaledbuscum-1.jpgSven 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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March 18, 2008

Interview: Christopher Ward Watches

Filed under: General, Interviews, News, WWR Exclusive — E.M. Van Court @ 11:23 am

c4srs.jpgGo 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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September 6, 2007

WatchLuxus: Your Watch Database

Filed under: Announcements, Interviews, WWR Exclusive — John Biggs @ 4:10 pm

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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February 7, 2007

IMterview With Reidenschild’s James Newell

Filed under: Forums, Interviews, Reviews, Riedenschild, WWR Exclusive — John Biggs @ 1:58 pm

411b9f4_3.jpgrtl.bmpRiedenschild 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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January 4, 2007

Scorpion Watch Company IMterview

Filed under: Divers, General, Interviews, Photos, Reviews, Serket Watch Company, WWR Exclusive — John Biggs @ 1:16 pm

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I was lucky enough to have a minute to talk with Brent Fedrizzi of Scorpion Watch Company. He and his partner, Robert “Conrad” Blank created SWC in 2005 and just launched their latest watch, the Reef Diver. I pinged him on AIM yesterday and we had a little chat.

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May 10, 2006

A Tale of a Vulcain Cricket

Filed under: Classic, Essays, General, Interviews, Reviews, WWR Exclusive — John Biggs @ 9:53 am

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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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March 28, 2006

An Interview with David McCready

Filed under: D. Freemont, General, Interviews, WWR Exclusive — Administrator @ 1:58 am

images.jpegDavid 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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August 2, 2005

WristFashion Interviews Opus V Genius

Filed under: General, Interviews, Reviews — John Biggs @ 1:41 pm

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.

July 16, 2005

My Blancier Article in InSync

Filed under: General, Interviews, Manual, News, Reviews — John Biggs @ 12:48 pm

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.


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