The kickstarter adventures of Sólás - solaswatches.com

blue5000

micks_address wrote: »

Can I ask for the Kickstarter link?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/solaswatches/solas-starlight-an-irish-micro-rotor-watch

Eoin

Looks really well. I don't know if it's been mentioned specifically, but I like the crown. A signed one of some some sort is always good, but the design around the "S" is a nice touch.

Thirdfox

https://forums.watchuseek.com/f71/what-affordable-kickstarter-watches-you-watching-5208577.html - if something might be willing to put up a post on this thread it would be appreciated (maybe a link to the updated video of the Starlight too?)

Interesting that the first response to the query was a Citizen Eco-drive(!)

Separately I noticed that WUS have a new forum up just for crowdfunding campaigns: https://forums.watchuseek.com/f512/

I've applied to have a thread on there so hopefully that can be approved soon.

Irishphotodesk

Have you mentioned this project to coworkers and others in the industry, maybe an advert in law society gazette might also boost chances of a successful drive.

Thirdfox

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

Have you mentioned this project to coworkers and others in the industry, maybe an advert in law society gazette might also boost chances of a successful drive.

Hmm - while I have looked through my employment contract and I am forbidden to take on other employment while working for my current employer this project of mine isn't actually "employment" (I know what Banie is going to say ha - but when you're dealing with lawyer "technically correct is the best kind of correct").

However, I still do not think my employer will look too positively on doing these kinds of side-projects. The nature of large law firms is that we tend to not seek publicity/limelight (even at the cost of defending our reputations against something clearly false). So I've kept this project of mine entirely separate to my day job (other than my day job's wages are funding this project currently) and really - do not plan to mix the two - it can potentially get very messy with conflicts of interest etc.

Put it this way - if half the people in our firm got a Starlight I wouldn't even need to look elsewhere for backers - but Diyu the lawyer and Diyu the guy behind Sólás is being kept consciously quite separate (and will continue to be).

Oh and for the cheeky people who ask "but you're planning on setting up a company later - you'll need to be employed then right?" - actually - you can be a director of a company without being an employee (gotta love "technically correct" ) - this does require managing partner approval however so that is something I'll need to look at when the time comes - it's also why I don't want to cause any potential issues for my employer currently.

wanderer 22

I have never had any interest in watches but for some reason I've got completely sucked into this thread...so just wanted to say good luck and I will definitely be buying one :-)

MAJJ

colm18 wrote: »

I have never had any interest in watches but for some reason I've got completely sucked into this thread...so just wanted to say good luck and I will definitely be buying one :-)

Colm, I am the same. It was the innovation and determination that really spoke to me. Also, I fondly remember when the film was first released and how it impressed me and how much I enjoyed it. Since then it's the openness, transparency, with a little bit of natural modesty and doubt that I'm behind. I like what I see of the watch too !

Thirdfox

colm18 wrote: »

I have never had any interest in watches but for some reason I've got completely sucked into this thread...so just wanted to say good luck and I will definitely be buying one :-)

Wow - that's fantastic to hear. I think (but I'm biased) the Starlight will be a watch that a backer (even one who isn't hugely into watches beforehand) can look back on in a few years' time and think "wow, that's pretty good value I got there" - compared to others (which I won't name :P ).

MAJJ wrote: »

Colm, I am the same. It was the innovation and determination that really spoke to me. Also, I fondly remember when the film was first released and how it impressed me and how much I enjoyed it. Since then it's the openness, transparency, with a little bit of natural modesty and doubt that I'm behind. I like what I see of the watch too !

^ Thanks guys - these comments are really touching - because I like to think people can spot genuine enthusiasm (vs commercial predation or even wishful thinking) and these things make me much happier than if I had set the price at say €449 instead and sold out the whole bunch.

I'm not sure every person who starts off a micro-brand has the same thought - but for me - my biggest hope for the Starlight (and hopefully subsequent models) is that backers, after a few years will look back and think - "hmm I got a bargain" (not purely in actual price - but value for money, what thought has been put into the design, how the features all complement each other).

One thing I saw on an ablogtowatch article - on Ross' H2 actually (wearing that today ) - it's said that he designed the watch for himself primarily - it's the same with me - I want to have made something I'm proud to wear myself

So maybe there should have been a step 9.5 on Fitzgeme's chart there - after you realise it's all bullplop - you think "I'd like to have a crack at it myself and see if I can't do it a little better" :P

edit: and if nothing else - posters here might have gained some more experience of a maker's perspective of the industry too.

Irishphotodesk

Thirdfox wrote: »

Hmm - while I have looked through my employment contract and I am forbidden to take on other employment while working for my current employer this project of mine isn't actually "employment" (I know what Banie is going to say ha - but when you're dealing with lawyer "technically correct is the best kind of correct").

However, I still do not think my employer will look too positively on doing these kinds of side-projects. The nature of large law firms is that we tend to not seek publicity/limelight (even at the cost of defending our reputations against something clearly false). So I've kept this project of mine entirely separate to my day job (other than my day job's wages are funding this project currently) and really - do not plan to mix the two - it can potentially get very messy with conflicts of interest etc.

Put it this way - if half the people in our firm got a Starlight I wouldn't even need to look elsewhere for backers - but Diyu the lawyer and Diyu the guy behind Sólás is being kept consciously quite separate (and will continue to be).

Oh and for the cheeky people who ask "but you're planning on setting up a company later - you'll need to be employed then right?" - actually - you can be a director of a company without being an employee (gotta love "technically correct" ) - this does require managing partner approval however so that is something I'll need to look at when the time comes - it's also why I don't want to cause any potential issues for my employer currently.

Word of mouth, whispers in the law library, generate enough interest to back the project.

Will mention it to a few senior counsel and barristers if I see them in the coming weeks, so when the Kickstarter gets going they will be on board.

I would definitely consider an advert in law society gazette, it would hit A demographic that suits the campaign.

Thirdfox

Spoke to the admin of WUS and he's happy to have it up on the Kickstarter forum next week so would be good to promote it officially there (and control exactly what's said in the first post ).

Reached out to the 40 20 podcast people and they seem interested too.

It's kinda a snowballing effect too - now that some reviewers have seen others review it there seems to be growing interest in doing a review too (though had to turn down a Spanish language reviewer because they wanted the sample afterwards).

I am in two minds about it for the future - I have a traditional mindset that a reviewer shouldn't get paid for reviews...but rather through advertising and sponsorship in a distinct way. But does that mindset only work when it was the traditional media - so Which? for example doing a review - their journalists are paid by the company through subscriptions etc. Or the Irish Times journalist doing a review...

I was speaking to a Youtube channel owner about his channel and they don't get a lot from YT through clicks even once monetised - no one is becoming a millionaire through clicks it seems. So my initial idea that "hey they should want to review my cool new product because they'll be paid by Youtube through their fans racking up 10,000 views on their channel" might actually only translate to $60 for them.

For smaller channels they don't have a hope of reaching 10k views (and they can't monetise anyway). I don't know - reviewers who clearly put time and effort into the making the review - if it's unpaid is that fair? On the other hand - trying to get my head around "paying" for a review just seems totally antithetical to the meaning of a review.

How else can a person doing something this casually pay for all their equipment and time though? Is the argument that their work should be good enough that sponsors would want to advertise on their channel and thus it's a "sink or swim" system? Something to think about anyway. My sister (of Gen Y(?) category) says that in the world of makeup youtubers it's expected that of course they keep the samples - but it's makeup lol - it'd be pretty unhygienic to send it on to the next person to review - you wouldn't expect car reviewers to keep the cars after they reviewed it I think I see watches closer to cars than to foundation and mascara - I'll need to ask my wife but hopefully there's no such thing as €5000 mascara :pac:

Thirdfox

So today was...fruitful. Looked at one video on how to photograph watches and jerry rigged the equivalent from boxes, cardboard and MsThirdfox's white shirt (thankfully the lights didn't set it on fire)

A lot of the time was spent experimenting with shots and placement of cardboard boxes/shirts etc.



A nice soothing pattern in the end - around 350 shots and about 4 gigabytes of photos.

From those and with an idea of exactly the shot I wanted for the Starlight I chose two sets of 8 - 8 for the front and 8 for the back:
- pre-post processing front shot

- pre-post processing back shot

The reason I had taken so many shots is that you can then layer the photos on top of one another and expose the picture exactly as you wish (HDR by hand as it were). This reflects what your eyes see because our eyes are amazing cameras and perform HDR for our brains automatically.

It's why I finally got the dial in a state that I think looks similar to what I actually see on my wrist:





and then a relatively simple matter of collating the two together to get the front and back shot.

I've heard so many people say the back looks better than the front - and that's sad because aventurine looks bloody marvellous - hopefully this picture goes some way to showing the dial side off a bit more:



Btw - when you search for aventurine dial on google - search results watches generally range from the 10,000 to 40,000 euro watches - it'll be nice to see the Starlight join them up there

https://www.google.com/search?q=aventurine+dial&sxsrf=ALeKk036ThJflJBOUhGDvCaD_YYmnwYgMw:1593291519159&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicrZe48aLqAhXpaRUIHfXNBGUQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&biw=1920&bih=966

This is it

That last shot looks really nice, well done

Thirdfox

When I said I was using my wife's shirt I wasn't being figurative :pac: - here's the unlit scene:



and the lit scene:



And actually there was another bounce board I was holding up in the final shot but I didn't have enough hands to film the whole set up.

(in case anyone else wants to try their hand at a similar set up for watch photography) - it was fun learning a new photography technique actually (the wife's shirt became a "scrim" for lamp and diffused the harsher lighting).

Next time I'll put a milk carton over the remote flash and give that a try too (not kidding - that's the DIY method of flash diffuser)

Thirdfox

https://www.reddit.com/r/Watches/comments/hhdd66/s%C3%B3l%C3%A1s_starlight_wanted_to_check_if_this_the_first/

I've mentioned it up on reddit's r/watches too now - not as promotion but as a genuine question - is it the world's first affordable micro-rotor microbrand watch? I'd define affordable as sub-$1,000 (even though the Starlight would be in the sub$500 category).

I've done some searches and haven't found anything offered by any other microbrands yet - similarly - if anyone here has seen one being offered please let me know (before I claim it's a world first and end up with egg on my face).

edit: and just to say I'd almost be happy to learn of another affordable micro-brand who did this so I won't be tempted to say "I'm the first" - but I really haven't heard of anyone attempting this before.

Thirdfox

After a day of googling and asking for information from various watch forums I think I can be pretty certain that the Starlight is the world's first affordable microrotor microbrand - the "affordable" qualifier was needed since there were luxury microbrands making micro-rotors too (most recent one was Ming watches - their Swiss GMT micro-rotor watch costs 11,000 euro though so not exactly the same audience as the one I'm aiming at).

When I went to amend the Kickstarter page got a funny prompt:


In my case it actually isn't an exaggeration - it actually is the world's first - that's something I'm a little proud of actually.

edit: and the pick up is starting to take off now - with the new photos/videos published in around 24 hours increased followers by 32 people - MsThirdfox is getting excited but I did remind her that followers =/= backers.

dakar

At the risk of annoying you, and purely to avoid incurring the oppobrium of others, should 'Made in Ireland handmade leather strap and aventurine dial' not read, 'With an aventurine dial, and a leather strap handmade in Ireland'?

For the complete avoidance of any risk of misinterpretation...

Thirdfox

Eats shoots and leaves indeed - wanted to separate out the aventurine dial from micro-rotor bit (so people aren't thinking ah you're saying you're the world first aventurine dialled, microrotor, 9.8mm, Irish branded microbrand watch with a name called Sólás? Very unique...) :pac:

Hopefully I haven't seemed that easy to annoy! I'll think about how to better construct that sentence - maybe a semi-colon is the right grammatical tool

edit: - clear as day now I think:

(Genuinely!) World's first affordable watch with a micro-rotor movement. Leather strap handmade in Ireland. Real aventurine dial.

dakar

If you want a deep nerdy dive into punctuation, I highly recommend this little gem:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008291535/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_n4D-EbJTS7B8X

banie01

dakar wrote: »

If you want a deep nerdy dive into punctuation, I highly recommend this little gem:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008291535/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_n4D-EbJTS7B8X

My own personal punctuation nerd book...
Is "eats, shoots and leaves"
Great read and quite funny too.

PS, I missed TF's nod, obviously one of his fav's too

Thirdfox

dakar wrote: »

If you want a deep nerdy dive into punctuation, I highly recommend this little gem:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008291535/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_n4D-EbJTS7B8X

Importance of punctuation cannot be ignored...Amercian 2nd amendment - anguish probably caused by (potentially) misplaced commas - a) you have the right to bear arms, and form a militia or b) you have the right to bear arms only when you form a "well regulated Militia" and not as private citizens? ...or c) grizzly bear arms for some and miniature American flags for others?

I'll have to have a look at that book also - despite what some people may have you believe - clear communication is a key part of what a lawyer is supposed to do (MsThirdfox disagrees with me though )

Dev1234

Thirdfox wrote: »

edit: and the pick up is starting to take off now - with the new photos/videos published in around 24 hours increased followers by 32 people - MsThirdfox is getting excited but I did remind her that followers =/= backers.

Quick question TF - for a compete newbie how does Kickstarter work? Do I have to be a follower to be a backer? When you "Go Live" is priority given to followers or is it first come first served? Will the Starlight be a limited run?

Thanks and apologies if this has been asked before

Thirdfox

Not at all - happy to answer these - (eventually when the project launches there'll be a FAQ section too to cover off expected questions ("is this real aventurine?" etc.)

A follower will only get a notification that the Kickstarter has launched. Absolutely no need to be a follower (it does help me to gauge how many people might be interested as otherwise I have no tracking method (people are more likely to give their email details to a big website like KS than to a random individual off the internet i.e. me).

You'll only get a watch if you are a backer - i.e. if you actually give credit card details and put yourself down for a watch. Now a follower will get a notification as soon as the campaign goes live so they're more likely to obtain the early bird prices than the people who wander in later - though I've seen people cancel their pledge later on so it's possible to swap in to a better "price" if someone leaves say a super early bird spot and you're on a standard KS backing level.

There'll be three tiers of backing -
Sár-luathphraghas (super early bird - limited to 20 backers €349), luathphraghas (early bird - limited to 25 backers €369) and standard (limited to 349 and costs €399). Maths changed actually - it's actually limited to 394 because I'm no longer selling the SoK golden version and instead that's given away "for free" in the charity draw so doesn't change turnover amount.

While there won't be individual serial numbers these KS versions will all be engraved with céad eagrán (first/inaugural edition) - and so obviously no future Starlight will ever have this again (or likely to be offered at this price again to be honest) - Kickstarter backers should have the benefit of knowing that this is truly a discount for backing something that's not yet fully created yet (I have production samples but not 394 ready to deliver to people).

Even if you don't become a follower (and I would be grateful if you do to help me figure out potential interest/demand) I will be giving a heads up on this thread before I press the button to launch as this is our local forum after all.

John Hutton

Just to piggyback on those questions, are we looking at August sometime for the Kickstarter to open and delivery of watches would be around the start of the 2021 or something?

Cyclingtourist

Do you have to be able to speak Irish?

This is it

Cyclingtourist wrote: »

Do you have to be able to speak Irish?

Ar ndóigh a dhéanann tú.

FFVII

Cyclingtourist wrote: »

Do you have to be able to speak Irish?

No

Cyclingtourist

This is it wrote: »

Ar ndóigh a dhéanann tú.

My wife says you used Google translates.

Thirdfox

John Hutton wrote: »

Just to piggyback on those questions, are we looking at August sometime for the Kickstarter to open and delivery of watches would be around the start of the 2021 or something?

August/late July - probably when the 100k subscriber channel releases their review. 1 August at the latest.

Factory told me it's 3 months to get it produced - this means that it will be start of December earliest the watches can be done - giving myself some gap (they don't do Christmas in China, it's late Jan/Feb when they all shut down) - I want to get the watches sent to me by Jan/Feb (before the CNY shut down) and at that time our side of the world will be post Christmas already - hey if it gets delayed a little it might become a Paddy's day delivery

Now I can't promise WWIII/black death doesn't break out - but if it does a watch might be the last thing on your mind

This is it wrote: »

Ar ndóigh a dhéanann tú.

Don't you mean "Ar ndóigh a dhéanann(n't) tú."

o1s1n

Just wanted to say, seriously well done on this!

I've been dipping in and out of the thread since the start and although the design wasn't really my cup of tea, I found the whole project interesting nonetheless so have been keeping an eye.

Saw the video earlier today or the the actual watch and it's totally changed my opinion, looks gorgeous.

Somewhere along the way between the original mockups and actual physical realisation it's really after coming together.

Thirdfox

Wow... I just got some feedback that leads me to think that well - I'm likely to be launching this kickstarter next Monday then... (something to put in your diaries for those who want the worm).

I was actually blushing with pride at the end of it - the reviewer really got what the watch was "about" - and luckily it's the largest channel one too.

When the biggest negative of the watch is "the price is too good to be believed" - I think I'm going to have to align my campaign with the publication of that review.