For the third year in a row, Worn & Wound’s Wind-Up watch show will open its doors in New York City. Based at the city’s iconic Chelsea Market (75 9th Ave., between 15th + 16th), the watch show focusing on value brands will be free and open to the public from October 27-29, 2017.
“There is no big consumer-facing watch show, open to the public, so we decided to do our own show, with a down-to-earth, approachable atmosphere,” explains Blake Malin, co-founder of Worn & Wound and Wind-Up. “The brands we talk about on Worn and Wound are value driven, with the majority below $2,000. That was really the impetus behind starting the Wind-Up show.
“Chelsea Market is a great space, it offers enough room for our 34 brands, and there is a tremendous amount of foot traffic going through, and these people will be introduced to these brands for the first hand.”
Some of the watch brands exhibiting this year include Tockr, Oris, Mondaine, Oak and Oscar, MK II, Brew, Vortic, Geoffrey Roth Watch Engineering and more.
The US is so big that one show in one city is not going to be enough, and Malin acknowledges this. “We had folks fly in from other places to come to the show, of course, and we definitely pull mostly from the Tri-State area. I think it’s time to have a show that travels across the country, from city to city, to reach everyone.
“The goal with Wind-Up is to help the brand’s build awareness and gain customers, plus also get the word out there about this segment of the market,” he continues. “The show also builds a community. It’s important for us to keep it in places like Chelsea Market — we can present the brand where there are lots of folks are coming through and are seeing these watches for the first time.”
Wind-Up is showcasing four American brands that are joining for the first time: Tockr from Texas, Vortic from Colorado, Vero from Portland and Schon DSGN (pens, Boston, MA).
“We have something for everyone — we have quartz watches for $200 up to Swiss automatics for a couple of thousand dollars,” Malin says. “We want everyone to come and see what these watch brands have to offer.”
Malin on Vero, Vortic and Schon DSGN
Vero (https://vero-watch.com/): Established in 2015 by Chris Boudreaux and Danny Recordon in Portland, ORsu. VERO Watch Company set out with the mission to produce great looking and feeling watches while remaining transparent in production. VERO polishes, builds, and assembles every case by hand and print dials in house. Their watches are designed, prototyped, tested, and serviced all in Portland, Oregon. Each piece is a work of craftsmanship. VERO’s first line of publicly available watches, titled VERUS, was released at the start of 2017 and has been featured in publications such as Gear Patrol, Worn & Wound, and many others.
Vortic (https://vorticwatches.com/): Vortic Watch Company is a small batch, custom, watch manufacturing and vintage restoration company located in Northern Colorado. They build a completely American-made wristwatch using salvaged and restored antique pocket watch movements. Each piece is unique, completely one of a kind, and built for each customer one at a time. The watches can be fully customized on the Vortic Watch Builder application online, and watches can be commissioned, giving the customer a more custom and unique experience.
Schon DSGN (https://www.schondsgn.com/): Ian Schon has been designing and manufacturing products since 2011. He worked as a product designer at IDEO, a top design firm, but nights and weekends would continue to design his own line of high-end goods. The Schon DSGN watch collection was made “in-house” in Ian’s small home shop equipped with manual and CNC equipment. All parts besides the movement, crown, crystal, and strap are manufactured by Ian. The cases, dials, and hands are made from titanium and stainless steel, all hand finished by Ian personally. The watches feature unique movements sourced by Ian, all new old stock Peseux or ETA that allow Ian to produce watches that are robust, thin and smaller than modern watches. The aesthetic of the watches is very contemporary and the manufacturing of the watches create the unique opportunity to own something made by hand by the designer.
