Category Archives: IP blunter

Perrelet, looking forward although the rug has been pulled from under your feet

Posted on April 7th, 2011

Before dwelving into a description of their new diving collection, I would like to walk the reader through a brief presentation of the Perrelet SA company, which inception I discussed at great length in my essay in French: “The house of cards Perrelet SA, Example of how unverified information relayed by historians can backfire at a brand’s communication strategy [...]

Posted in assembler, brand of origin, editorial, ETA 2892-A2, IP blunter, legacy, original designs, Valjoux 7750 | 5 Comments

Claro Watch SA officially bankrupt

Posted on November 16th, 2010

On October 27th we mentionned about possible financial difficulties that Claro Watch SA might be experiencing. This speculation came after the sudden decision of headquarters in Bienne, Switzerland, to shut down the Bellinzona factory. The town of Bellinzona is located South of the Alps, in the Italian-speaking part of the country. Claro Watch SA operates in the field of private label watches and [...]

Posted in assembler, IP blunter, Miyota 82XX, original designs, private label | Leave a comment

introducing: Terra Cielo Mare

Posted on October 18th, 2010

Milan business partners Giorgio Lattuada and Emilio Fontana met success with their General Partnership company La.Fo.Ce., which is currently a distributor for prestige brand Graham. In 2001 they set on to create the brand T.C.M. Terra Cielo Mare (Earth Sky Sea), later dropping the accronym T.C.M. from the trade mark. Although they rely upon Swiss movements, [...]

Posted in brand of origin, design blunter, ETA 2824-2, historic designs, IP blunter, Limited edition | 1 Comment

FHS: the table turner turned

Posted on September 30th, 2010

Readers might be familiar with this blog’s position on intellectual property. Although we indirectly encourage the re-use of registered designs that have fallen into public domain, we strongly dissaprove of infringements of existing and alive intellectual property. A lengthy article in French explains how the brands, who claim to be victims of counterfeiting, have somehow contributed to the phenomenon: when [...]

Posted in IP blunter | Leave a comment

100th entry

Posted on August 6th, 2010

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 [...]

Posted in IP blunter, pimp your watch, straps | Leave a comment

OCEAN7 taking over Yantar watches

Posted on August 4th, 2010

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 [...]

Posted in brand of origin, ETA 28XX, historic designs, IP blunter, militarophilia, original designs, Unitas 649X | 1 Comment

Zinex is dead, long lives Zixen!

Posted on August 4th, 2010

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 [...]

Posted in ETA 28XX, historic designs, IP blunter, original designs, saturation diving, vintage movements | 1 Comment

introducing Stølås watches

Posted on June 7th, 2010

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 [...]

Posted in ETA 28XX, IP blunter | Leave a comment

introducing: Ocean7 Watch Company

Posted on July 23rd, 2009

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.

Posted in ETA 28XX, historic designs, IP blunter, original designs, Valjoux 775X | Leave a comment

introducing: Rock Excel Watch

Posted on July 23rd, 2009

Watch collector Ken Sato once produced what was considered the best hommage to Italian WWII military watches. At some point, he got slapped on the fingers by Officine Panerai for copyright infringment. After several collections inspired by vintage Rolexes, Ken sato did build the Plasmir Milgraph, a watch enhanced with tritium vials and available at the PlasmirMilgraph.com [...]

Posted in antimagnetic, historic designs, IP blunter, original designs, Seagull ST19XX, Unitas 649X, Valjoux 775X | Leave a comment