The kickstarter adventures of Sólás - solaswatches.com

Nylah Red Pope wrote: »

sorry if this has been up before, but boards is so slow to load faster to ask....whats the price going to be on these watches?

349/369/399 depending on speed of backing (currently there are going to be 20/25/151 of each in the first tranche). A lot of info will be on the solaswatches.com website too.

banie01 wrote: »

Glad the idea struck a chord and has made ya smile

I don't have any charity/fundraising experience but, Boards do run a very successful Santa Strike Force fundraising effort and given that boards also run adverts and a few other news sites?

Perhaps a tie up with boards, a PR push on their platforms and an audition type sale on adverts?

I'm sure Niamh or Mark could give a better outline?

Very interesting idea - might give them a bell (or DeVore) tomorrow.

Ok - finally finished with the shoot. Please keep in mind these are the prototypes/rejects so I haven't gone all out with getting the glamour shots since that will be reserved for the actual production model. I still wanted to give people an idea of what the dial looks like in sunlight/flashlight (keep in mind if you think the starlight is too "flashy" this starlight popping only occurs in the most direct of direct flashes) - I think it is definitely something that could work as a daily wearer and not just a special occasion dress watch.

Imgur links work well it seems with boards at least

So starting off - here is a wide shot of the "tools of the trade" along with all the prototypes commissioned so far over the last few years - this was taken with sunlight coming in from the side - so what you might normally see day to day. You'll find an enamel dial on the first dial from the left - but it was decided early on to go to aventurine for the starlight effect.



Now with flash on - if you click through and see the large version of photo you'll see the starlight effect from the aventurine - something the enamel lacks:



Close up of the dials in natural lighting:



Full on "POP"! :eek: :cool: :



Close up of the movement (sans logo) - this has the standard geneve stripes and nice to see even at this price point there is perlage on the visible base portion:



And aventurine is a stone/glass that needs to be carefully worked with - here you see on one dial there was a crack in the dial due to too much pressure being exerted. It means that when we're manufacturing these dials extra care has to be taken in order to get each dial perfect - beauty comes at a cost (compared to stamped metal dials etc):



To finish off here's a prototype front dial (before the fada indices), the movement sample from Hangzhou and one prototype assembled piece:



I can promise you the dial's starlight effect is even better than what the photos show - there's a depth from the stone/glass that you don't get with enamel - I'm a biased parent but find it mesmerising (without being overpowering).

Hope everyone is having a good bank holiday

Heard back from DeVore and he is supportive of the charity idea. Now just need to pick a charity and set up the procedure - I wonder would open bidding via comments on adverts.ie work? I'd like to match the contribution by the winning bid (just to ensure there is something substantial donated to charity) but am also worried if something crazy goes in as the bid, like 5k (yay for the charity!), then matching that would be a bit more onerous on finances - maybe a wait and see approach - if something like 250 is the winning bid (ouch to my heart) I'll definitely match it... Or maybe say something like I'll add 500 euro onto the winning bid no matter what happens...

Any suggestions for a charity/organisation?

I'll have to get in touch with my factory partners to see if they can send me on some better renders of the Starlight eagrán bradán feasa since we do not have those made yet.

I'd worry that people would be discouraged from bidding at all then - you could do all sorts of fun things like "lowest unique bid" wins the watch but I think collecting funds from one person on a winning bid is a lot easier than trying to arrange a collection of €1 from tens or hundreds of bidders.

Alone being supported be solace? I think that is one that really makes a lot of sense (of course lots of awesome organisations out there) - FLAC is actually pretty awesome too (cards on table - I'm a volunteer solicitor there) - you can still get free legal advice over the phone right now btw.

"Supporting Alone through Sólás (Solace) - an Irish watch charity auction" - has a nice ring to it I think

Ignore the Chinese standard straps but here's what the Salmon of Knowledge and the standard edition look like beside one another.



The SoK version will have the salmon leather goodness too as the upgraded strap. Not that Horween leather can be considered low quality goods

banie01 wrote: »

Fishskin doesn't get used enough for straps anymore IMO.

Salmon, Shark and Ray can all give lovely effect and finish.
That strap is bloody lovely TF!

Glad you like the prototype - we will be using slimmer thread for the actual production strap in order to let the scale pattern shine (rather than focus being diverted to the stitching). Will have the strap in the post next week so can pair it onto one sample to confirm that it will wear comfortably.

On the ray and shark leather - I did research into ray leather actually - there are plenty of high end watch brands that use ray. ...the only thing is I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of using ray, shark, ostrich etc. leather. Not politicking and everyone has their own decision to make but for sustainability purposes I would much rather use a material that is a by-product of our food industry rather than skins that are procured almost solely for their leather.

For example - during my research I found that for cows it's a roughly 80/20 split in terms of value of meat/skin. For ostriches it's 20/80 split. For rays/sharks/alligator etc. I'm guessing it's something akin to 1/99 split.

Personally I'd prefer to use products that are close to cows than ostrichs in the value split. Salmon seems to be one that definitely falls into the "valued for meat" camp.

Of course I'm happy to learn more about the industry too - I know I actually like eating rays (sadly for the rays ) - and their leather being fireproof and effectively naturally ceramic are very interesting properties. I would need to make sure that sourcing these would be done in an environmentally conscious way however.

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

Looking forward to the launch.... Just hope I have enough space on the credit card (planning to get 2... One for me and one for father in law.

This will be my first watch purchase, father in law has a fairly large collection.

Wow - honoured to hear that you'd be considering a Sólás as your first watch purchase. I promise to do my very utmost to ensure that trust is well placed

If the FIL has a large collection I think he will definitely appreciate a micro-rotor watch in that collection as something unique in that collection (though you might check first )

PCeeeee wrote: »

Sorry to butt in to the watch thread men but the fish skin is lovely. I often wondered why more isn't done with all the farmed Salmon skins.

Third Fox if you would indulge me in a tangential query. Are you really saying that the skin of a cow is worth a fifth of the kill? Or am I misunderstanding?

Also I love your thread and follow it despite not owning a watch at all.

I gleamed that from a Guardian article which discussed the ethical concerns of the exotic leather industry (where they compared ostrich's 20/80 to cow's 80/20).

Looking at some sources online it seems like it was 10/90 a few years ago and maybe lower now:
https://www.beefcentral.com/news/collapse-in-cattle-hides-value-leads-to-reports-of-dumping/

https://www.drovers.com/article/weak-hide-values-impacting-cattle-prices

Looking into this subject isn't easy since you get lots of results from vegan sites with a clear agenda on presenting cow leather as unethical in any case.

I also educated myself on chromium tanning of leather - it is a pretty polluting process but Horween have their own water processing plant to process the waste water. Apparently the chromium process results in a much better leather than vegetable dyes.

The new salmon leather I'm sourcing along with my supplier will be from the Atlantic/Nordic fish farms and processed in Iceland so that should be rather eco-friendly too (all things considered).

Get ready for a deluge of photos... finished the photoshoot of the watch today. The macro shots are tough on a watch - any movement can look bad when magnified 20x under the macro lens. But I think the watch held up nicely both dial side and movement side. Just to give a rough idea of the magnification with this set up I've taken photos of the eyelashes on a dragonfly :eek:

Just a reminder before we go into the macro shots of how small the elements actually are on the watch:
The front


The back



Without further ado - "I'm ready for my close up Mr DeMille"

So the reason it's called the Starlight... and why I personally love aventurine (this is under direct flash):


What it looks like when there's no direct flash on the dial and shows off the indices too:


And another:


Don't forget the hands:


Designed in Ireland:


This is the crown:


Moving to the back:







So up close I think it looks well - let's zoom out to show the watch as seen through human eyes:
With the prototype salmon strap:

One last photo - MsThirdfox snuck one in while I wasn't paying attention - great timing by her (she caught the flash going off):

They are polished both sides - I think it's just the angle that the other side looks brushed (I'm not going to pretend it's black polish ). You are right though that looking at the hands closely from multiple angles it will appear that one side is brushed while the other side is polished.

And I'm sure if you take the macro lens to a Patek you'll see lovely anglage, black polish etc. that you won't find on the Starlight but I do hope it shows that Chinese movements/watches don't have to all be "cheap/fake" and the workers in Hangzhou watch factory take pride in their work too. As long as you're not asking them to make a full watch for €20 you can get a lot for the money in my opinion.

John Hutton wrote: »

I have my money set aside too. Know very little about watches before this thread but I sense this watch will be the introduction to fancy watches for many people.

Well done OP

Thanks John - to be honest though I wouldn't call it a "fancy" watch for many people unless they are comparing it to say simple quartz pieces. I just want to set expectations honestly (won't be using hyperbole and say "this blows Patek out of the water" ) - I reckon it'll be a step up from a Sea-Gull ST17 automatic or the Seiko NH35 used in lots of microbrands but I think to be honest it won't be technically any different from a Swiss ETA 2824 or Sea-Gull ST2130 that you find in a plethora of watches - other than the visual difference afforded by the micro-rotor. That difference is important to me though - a lot of people (like myself) like to see the gears twirl around in a mechanical piece.

Design-wise I tried to have a coherent vision though.

I've tried to do the best I can within the budget/price-point I set myself

antodeco wrote: »

Thinking that this would be a good 18th birthday present for my daughter. She's 18 Nov 21 and is a fluent Irish speaker so think it's a good match!

Ha - while I'm all for backing the watch I'd definitely check with a teenage daughter before surprising her with an automatic watch - many kids these days would prefer a Michael Kors watch, some others would prefer an Apple watch. I got a Longines for my sister for her 18th but made sure she understood why such a watch was "superior" to the MK fashion watches - her friends probably would have found the MK watch to be more appealing

On a serious point though - the watch wouldn't be ready until January 2021 though so she'd need to wait. If she is interested though as a fluent speaker I can always check with the factory if I can get something like her name engraved on the piece for her if that's something she might like.

I've a Gaelic name too (semi-jokingly) - Dónal McBhú since I was called Daniel growing up - my father calls himself a "daily Irish speaker" and came up with the McBhú surname transliteration - I think if I reveal that on the Kickstarter page people would say I'm taking the mick

edit: - offering once off engravings isn't something I intend to do for people backers generally (sorry!) but if it's for a gaeilgeoir and a boardsie then I can definitely ask (it might not be possible still but I can see what can be done

@FB - the Bradán Feasa is a (twice) off - I'm keeping one myself just as something to be proud of myself (forgive me for that small indulgence!) But in the future if the brand goes well the Starlight model will probably be revisited (since I'm limited in how many I can sell this time round). It's more of a promotional/aspirational piece showing people the direction I want to take the brand in i.e. moving further "up-market" in time as that's the only way I can try and incorporate more and more Irish production elements into models. So without using fake advertising speak "buy it now because prices are going to go up!!!" - it is something that if you like I'd recommend bidding on in the charity auction (it's all for charity anyway!) - because if something similar is offered in the future it probably won't be at this price point again (though I would hope to offer something similar in the future - not this exact one though).

And that won't even be me raising prices for the same thing - one reason I've limited myself to the numbers to be offered is because any more and I need to charge VAT on the sale price, incorporate as a company, hire an accountant etc. - doing the project made me realise the trade offs between supporting a microbrand (arguably better features for the money but if things go wrong...) or buying from established brick and mortar brands (you can walk out with the product from a store instantly but they must have huge overheads so that's why they can't offer aventurine dials "cheaply" etc.)