The kickstarter adventures of Sólás - solaswatches.com

That's cause you have too many Rolexs :P

And as of this evening we've hit 69k (there's a joke in there somewhere) - 80k seems very do-able in 14 days... 100k requires 2.2k (7 backers a day average - a not impossible task I think).

I'll keep hard at it

This is it wrote: »

Maybe it's me not paying enough attention but I think adding the blue screws and different strap complicated thing's somewhat. Now with the rotor, I don't even know the difference to be honest, I'm not sure what the watch is coming with, what screws, strap, etc.

I will definitely be letting people know what the final piece will be - it is very likely to be what you have seen in all the recent reviews - with the addition of blued screws. The salmon straps will be 41.25 euro add ons if people prefer to add on a salmon strap in black in addition to the Horween strap (and that's pretty much at cost too) - some people have been asking about purchasing individually without backing the campaign and the price then would be 58 euro (without VAT currently).

I've taken a few snaps of the movement so people can see absolutely clearly what is being made for them (apart from blued screws):







Not touching the photoshop in case people take issue with any "touching up" - they have been cropped however!

For a 339-389 euro full package (including shipping and depending on when backed) I genuinely think it is pretty good what you are getting (and even better if the blued screws get slotted in).

Of course things can always be better though - Pierre may not have seen the reviews as he is a French native so that is something I should have considered too - while most are English speakers there may be some people who just didn't bother checking out English reviews etc. and relied solely on the studio photos (which again was down to circumstances - we just didn't have a signed rotor to give to the photographer - it was either circular or no logo at all). That's on me though for not planning the timing correctly on the photos.

The really big push will come at 48 hours before the end of the campaign - every follower of the campaign (700+) will get an email from Kickstarter reminding them that the Sólás campaign is about to finish. While I obviously can't control the narrative of what people are saying on the comments I understand that prospective backers will often be checking out the comments and updates to see how the campaign is going...

As such - it would be good if things like "fraud" isn't at the top of the comments pile - so I would love it if people could post some generally positive comments to the KS page too (if you feel like the campaign warrants positive comments) - keeping in mind that prospective backers probably won't enjoy seeing fighting/angry posts on comments either - it's why I hope I've been seen to answer any backers' questions calmly, thoroughly and helpfully

After all the talk of fraud, sleight of hand and so on (which has affected me more than I thought it would and seeing 2k of backers withdraw over the last few days) I'll take this minor win...

It may be the bottom of page 1 but darn it Sólás Watches has made it onto page 1 of Google's search results for microrotor watches (funny that the worn & wound news article is placed ahead).

Made sure to use private mode so google shouldn't be able to identify it as me.

Oh and even further up the page in Bing search...but no-one uses Bing anyway :P

This is it wrote: »

Did they definitely drop out due to that? I'd imagine you'll have the odd one drop out close to the end when they check their funding again the closer we get to actually paying.

Yeah I had gotten in touch to see why they decided to leave. In a sense it was good because if someone told me after receiving the watch that they had never looked at any picture of the Starlight except for the studio shots (lesson definitely learnt there!) and don't like the rotor design (superior rotor design btw in my honest opinion as it allows for laser engraving over pad printing) - I would have given them a full refund. At least it's super, absolutely, extremely clear now what people are getting - I just wanted to stem the negative mood asap on the comments page before we got to that 48 hour email.

And definitely - there will be others who decide that ultimately the watch isn't for them or funds would be spent better elsewhere, or expected funds didn't materialise (had some good conversations with people who unfortunately had to back out due to circumstances largely out of their control). It was very touching that one backer had backed for a watch but decided they really couldn't afford such an outlay at the moment but then donated $50 for no reward just because they really supported the idea behind Sólás - left me a very supportive message too

(edit) As for changes - I've tried to minimise the potential for people to not get what they were expecting because no-one wants that, though it is exactly that risk people do take with Kickstarter when you're not buying a finished product and have it ready to ship a day later. I've seen first hand the horror stories of a movement(!) being changed and announced to backers a month before delivery - but quite a few campaigns changes small things as they go. With the Starlight I was trying to prevent changes occurring and making it as much as "click and (pre)order" as possible but womp womp - nothing will go perfectly smoothly - it's how to deal with it that is important.

I'll say it publicly here on boards.ie - Hangzhou has told me that the screws will be thermally blued... I am NOT saying that on the KS page as I can imagine all hell will break loose if it turns out that isn't the case - I am proceeding on the basis that they will be chemically blued - until I can get the screws in hand for testing. I really don't like the fact that this perk is being offered without me being able to inspect the product in hand but I think the potential benefit is great enough to take this risk (I suggest imagining asking a lawyer to "just take a chance" on something ha :pac: )

^ due to the above discussion with Hangzhou I am quite confident that the screws won't be "painted" blue at the very least. They couldn't possibly(?) confuse thermally blued with painted blue - chemically though is possible (perhaps?) - under promise and over deliver is the aim here.

Hopefully people can see the heart is definitely in the right place with what I'm trying to add on here (but then I do realise I probably have a more sympathetic audience on boards).

edit: changed

^ this would be a weird post to leave as a the last one before we finish up the campaign so for people who haven't seen it up on Instagram here are some new photos my factory partner sent me of everything that is lined up and ready to go:








I've never seen so much aventurine in one location.














The blue material on the crown is there to protect the engravings from my understanding. MsThirdfox thought I was going for blued crowns too :pac: - but hey who knows - a cabochon might not be crazy a la Cartier...