independent watch projects

Watchprojects.com has now reached the 100th blog entry.

The Independent Watchprojects.com was launched to target a market niche, but judging by the growing number of small independent brands and their popularity on forums, the genre is increasing in popularity.

I would like to express special thanks to TLex of OceanicTime, for consenting to let us link back to some of the scoops he gets in the diving watch niche thanks to his close ties with independent diving watch developers. His blog is a must in your bookmarks list.

Coverage

We have been mentioned on Businessmontres.com, at paragraph #2 on the page 24 février 2010 – LE ZAPPING DU MERCREDI. Businessmontres is the world’s only ads-free newsletter about watches, which gives freelance journalist Gregory Pons an editorial freedom of speech rarely seen in the horological press.

There have been talks about the pertinence of our content on a couple of forums, like on XtremeMeanTime and WatchFreeks.com, and we are honoured to have several sites linking to us, amongst which Watch-Band-Center.com, a strap retail business based in Germany. Watch Band Center.com features an extensive choice of fine straps from reputable brands at very competitive price, which makes it the perfect supplier of straps for pimping your watch.

Changes in media files policy

Regular visitors might have noticed that images have gone missing in some of the earlier posts. When I started this blog, I tried as often as possible to hyperlink to the original Web sites and hotlink to the original pictures. Sadly, most Website administrators care little about the need for persistent URLs, so most of these pictures have either been moved or removed.

Considering that most of the images I publish on this blog have originally been released  by the brands for the promotion of their products, I will assume that reproduction is authorized and save copies on my server, which will be the ones included in all future entries.
I will gradually try to do the same work with past entries.

Fine-tuning of opinion regarding intellectual property

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Watchproject.com is not intended to be apologetic of copyright infrigement. On the contrary, out intent is to draw the line between what can be or cannot be done in the gray area of homages and look-alikes. When I set out to launch this blog, my personal research on intellectual property had shown that designs did fall into the public domain after 25 years. As of today, it would mean that any watch design that was granted IP protection before Summer 1985 would now be in the public domain.

However, a forum discussion with a lawyer helped me understand that in some countries like France, registered models can fall under the protection of regular copyrights after the mandatory 25 years. In consequence, independent watch developers must pay close attention to differentiating their designs from one that might still be under copyright protection.

Anyway, I will keep posting on novelties and new brands.
Best regards,
Francis J.

Besides acquiring and refurbishing a stock of brand new Yantar watches, OCEAN7 will carry on the flame of the Yantar design. For trade mark reasons OCEAN7 can no longer use the trade mark Yantar, so they have instead registered the brand AirNautic, which was the name of the Yantar collection.

The particularity of the AirNautic design is the division of the dial in 24 hours. But unlike most 24h watches which start the day at 0° (“12 at the bottom“), the AirNautic starts the day at 180° (“12 at the top”) like on the Greenwich clock.

Irrelevant of the angle (0° or 180°), a 24 dial draws direct inspiration from the gnomon, one of the earliest method of keeping track of time. The “clockwise” direction of analog hands was initially meant to mimick the rotation of the Sun across the sky (or shadow around the gnomon).

It seems that OCEAN7 plans to use the name AirNautic for each one of its 24h dial watches.

Due to a trade mark conflict, Zinex has had to change its name. They reordered the letter to come up with ZIXEN and a new eponomous Web site. In the meantime, the brand has released more watches than one can shake a stick at. And they keep it coming…

In the Special Edition collections, they have an exclusive 24h model based on the vintage Hamilton caliber 4992 B.

Edit: this blog was created to monitor small watch projects that do respect intellectual property. After consideration, we feel that the founder of Stølås watches did not take enough measures to distance its design from the one he seemingly took inspiration from. We therefore remind the readers of the risk of confiscation and possible fines they might find themselves subject to, should they chose to purchase  a product that classifies as counterfeit. We don’t question the entrepreneurship of Mr Stølås or his willingness to comply with tax laws, but we disagree with his aesthetic choices.

Curtis Stølås celebrated his Scandinavian heritage by giving his family name to the watch brand he launched. OceanicTime features images of the first collection, which is sourced overseas but designed and assembled in the USA.

Available in three different finishing, the design of the Harbormaster raises an eyebrow for its heavy reminiscence of the Ulysse Nardin Marine Diver, a design that might still be covered by intellectual property protection.

New projects are always welcomed, but I hope there is some undisclosed agreement between Stølås and Ulysse Nardin regarding the design similitudes. Otherwise Mr. Stølås would be in a gray area, where one risks getting slapped on the hands. Otherwise Mr. Stølås’ aesthetic decisions might have led him into an area where he risks a huge slap on the hands.

Ocean7 features an ample collection of original designs, targeted mostly at diving watch enthusiasts.

At Baselworld 2009, they unveiled an Omega “Ploprof” hommage, which could lead to legal issues since Omega has decided to revisit their discontinued design.