The kickstarter adventures of Sólás - solaswatches.com

Cienciano wrote: »

It's a great looking watch and it's great to see the thought that's gone into it. Stuff like the clasp and springbars. Most people would go for a standard buckle and springbar. I hate standard buckles and quick release springbars are so much better, I wouldn't buy a strap without them.

Hopefully the WISers on the internet will see that it was a watch designed (from a technical point of view) from a useful/feature packed point of view (that's where the money is being spent). Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so the design is relatively "safe" - though still having "sparkly" aventurine glass is still somewhat "out there" for a dress watch.

Now that the movement has been revealed - see why I like quick release springbars - one handed watch strap removal

https://youtu.be/kHPKrN-5CGU



Of course - to prevent damage to lugs etc. you'd use two hands but just showing how much easier it is to change the straps quickly with quick release bars instead.

edit: seems like my unlisted videos don't allow for direct linking - I think to see the video you'll need to click through to youtube itself. Unlisted because the movement hasn't been revealed in general yet.

lordlame wrote: »

Get rid of the gmail email address and use one associated with the brand / domain.

ie info@solaswatches.com or sales@solaswatches.com

I was thinking about that - you are very correct that "gosh this gmail malarky is like posting a bebo/myspace link to a linkedin page" - but I'm even thinking that a website itself isn't the "in" thing anymore now that instagram/facebook/reddit etc. are in - it is about spending money on this mini-project wisely.

I know some people will probably think "if the dude isn't willing to spend $5 a month on dedicated email hosting - how professional can he be?" - but I guess that's the point in a way - got the domain and website because it cost me 99c. I am thinking currently that most queries/info will be provided within the kickstarter platform itself, rather than through "legacy" email. Equally I'm not spending on professional videography/photos of the product - I was a semi-professional (occasionally paid for work) photographer for fun so was going to supply my own videos/photos. All peripheral costs being kept to minimum where possible and trying to maximise value by putting funds into the watch itself.

It'll be interesting to see if this fact disturbs many/any potential kickstarter backers though. I did think about it and decided against adding another monthly fixed cost (prior to seeing what interest is out there via kickstarter anyway).

funkyouup wrote: »

Quick one handed work there, id say your some man to get a bra off in under a second.

Until you get confounded by a front opening one - click and slide btw

Nothing on this guy though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsKFReBUiZU (7 seconds from fully dressed to...not)

By the way - does anyone have questions they'd like to have answered while I'm meeting the various factory representatives?

That isn't a million miles off actually - though I would say that my design thoughts were more influenced by the possession of my Beijing Beihai 3.0 (which itself was heavily influenced by Patek's Gondolo 5111G):


I personally particularly like how the case lugs had an extra "playful" twist to them rather than ending straight into the case and that's why I carried this element from the Beihai (and I'm sure that was inspired by another design at another point in time) into the Starlight.

The actual design reasoning I chose the triangular indices over rectangular was that the triangular indices represent a fada better than rectangles - at least in the context of the script used for the Sólás logo.

I think with classic dress watches - there's only so many ways you can present the hands/indices etc. and remain "classical" - hand on heart I hadn't seen that JLC (at least consciously had it in mind when designing the starlight). There definitely was no intention to homage anyone's design - but just to consider what would fit best within my vision of what the watch should represent.

https://www.watchfinder.ie/Jaeger-LeCoultre/Master%20Ultra-Thin/1288420/31800/item/152201?searchId=9362f748-0bab-4886-8906-a76d186a94ba&rank=3

Looking at the JLC stats - the date version comes in at a super nice thin 7.45mm with auto-winding - add in 1-2mm for an aventurine dial upgrade and you get to about the same as the Starlight - slightly dearer with a retail price of E7730 :P (I kid - that JLC looks beautiful - though I couldn't justify spending 7k on a 3 hander date watch to my family!)

As for production - the factories in Guangzhou are currently still closed - my partners have said to me that it's unlikely anything will be sent out this side of February now sadly. Good news is that everyone over there appears to be in good health and *fingers crossed* the quarantine measures appear to be working with a drop in cases (despite the big rise today due to a recategorisation of how they calculate infections). If all things remain stable/improve they expect factories to open around next week and start going through the backlog then.

893bet wrote: »

Really looking forward to this.

Might leave the stickers on and be on the antique road show in 30 years and be told the watch is with 2 million!!

(In thirty years time the price of a pint will prob be 100 quid!)

Ha - well you could always buy two - one for the safe and one for the wrist :P

Make no guarantees that it'll be go up in value - but I will be trying my very best to keep the brand alive and well going into the future (as long as I continue to have ideas for watches that make might cater to people's wants/desires).

Who knows - maybe one day there'll be a Sólás Sonata - an affordable minute repeater :pac: