Curious if anyone here is backing the Timor Heritage Field watch on Kickstarter. Just ran across this while scrolling and in looking into the history seems like some of of the OF collectors have some of their originals. https://www.timorwatch.com/

offering a hand wound and an automatic option.

of course some pictures as well to save on clicking.

 

The watch looks nice. But using Kickstarter?

 

The amount of Kickstarter (or similar) watches is staggering and I have long since lost interest.

Some person buys the rights to some old watch brand and launches a watch inpired by the original brands heritage. The watch receives a “shout out” at one of the watch blogs with an article containing the words: “heritage”, “great value”, “dedicated”, “... but this watch offers something different to many of the other brands on Kickstarter” and “for me personally”. It seems so random and why I should pick one of the other is never quite clear.

The vintage Timor’s, sure. This, why?

 

I was surprised by the Kickstarter platform as well. Then again Yema used it as well for their bronze release

 

For me personally, a watch done via Kickstarter says some possibly negative things about the company behind the watch.

One is that they possibly don't have the money to produce this themselves, and therefore there is no guarantee that the company will do anything beyond this one project. That means that spare parts will likely be impossible to get down the road. Even with a common movement, if new dials, hands, crowns, etc. are ever needed, you are out of luck.

The other is that if they have the money, they don't have enough confidence in the project to actually invest in it, and are using KS as a way of doing their market research. If you don't believe in it enough to put your money on the line, why should I?

For me, it being a KS project is a negative generally...

 

Agreed. KS turns me off. Tell me when it is in stock.

Legend reborn. Timor?

Where are the shots of the caseback? Rip this off as well? errrr relaunched.

I do like the looks. Not really a player at $1200.

 

I use Kickstarters for board/table top games, not watches. The QC, moving parts (both literal and figurative), and supply chain of a quality watch is much more complex than that of a table top game.

I don't mind Kickstarter when it's coming from a designer or company with a proven track record of success. So while I won't back a company's first KS, I'm more likely to back their third. More often than not, they've already done the leg work of getting the suppliers and production in place (possibly already started production pieces), and are using KS to raise money for the final bill and generate hype.

For watches, there's too little control between design and production to make the process viable for KS in the majority of cases.

 

I agree overall with your points, another reason why Watch Companies launch on Kickstarter is to gain publicity and to appear innovative and "fresh", like Alpina did it.

 

Baltic launched on Kickstarter. They are doing just fine and the product is great.

 

Whenever I see a brand describing its history as "Our Story" I switch off.

Especially in this case where "Their Story" has literally nothing in connection with the original, other than the name.

 

Think there's a way to find out how much they paid for the Timor name?

 

For every one successful example, I’m guessing there are many more that are not.

 

Just like startup businesses self-funded, with angel investor, institutional investment, or otherwise. For every success their are tons of failures. I don’t have any issue with a business, watch or not, having a go at it and raising funds through KS.
I also don’t know that potential lack of parts is a compelling argument for or against how a business starts. Even businesses that have been around for decades do not support their first product (Apple, etc). Does this mean you won’t buy an Apple product? Rolex does not provide replacement parts for 1570 movements. Does this mean you wouldn’t buy a Rolex because you risk lack of service parts in the future?
I think KS is a good, competitive model for finding. Sink or swim.

 

Rolex however did provide replacement parts for these calibers for decades. A “one and done” kickstarter watch will never have parts available. Even if the brand new watch you buy fresh off KS craps out usually the only option they can give you is a replacement watch...

These are very often created by people who have zero experience in the watch world, and are simply buying watches made in China that they have picked some options for out of a catalogue, added in their logo, created a story about their vision, and then they flog it on KS. In the end and the manufacturer will even drop ship for you if you want, so you don’t even have to handle the final product at all.

Not saying that is the case for this specific watch, but so many of these seem to be run by a couple of young guys looking for a “life experience “ rather than to build an ongoing business, it’s just not something that interests me.

 

I got in on the Super Early Bird for the Kickstarter. I have talked to owner Benjamin Briggs with various questions and he is really quick to respond. It was awesome to see the project funded in less than a day. I have read some of the skeptic comments and all I have to say is you know what they say about opinions. Enough said.

 

Enough said

 

Interesting that this is your first post on OF

 

I backed this project and am glad that it funded in less than a day. Thanks for the post.

 

Be sure and set your avitar.

 

I looked into this as well. The original has been on my radar for some time and the sad thing is I cannot get the cash that I need to get a proper vintage one fast enough before they will blow up in value. I hope the Grana and other more affordable D.D's will stay at the same price point and won't be reissued any time soon.
I wonder how the choice of Sellita will affect them in the future. I asked my watchmaker's opinion on this and he said that the number of Sellitas coming in with problems is greater than that of the ETAs. And yes, I know that the ETA EBs are very hard to get.
Also, and this might just be me, but their marketing ploy did not convince me. It sounds like the vintage Rolex guy calling his watch's common dial "stunning" while farming karma on Reddit.
"Beautifully lumed pips"? It's a field watch, it's meant to be functional, not beautiful. The beauty is in the character with this piece, for me.
Archer summed it up nicely. I'm a young guy too and I wish them all the luck in the world but at 1k for a reissue, I won't be their customer.
I'd rather get a vintage Grana and I bet that with some hunting I'll get one at the same price they're asking if not better.