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- [00:00]
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Foreign.
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Watch fans and welcome to another edition of the Real Time show with me, your friendly neighborhood watchmaker, Rob Nutts. Today I'm joined by Matt o' Neill of Monroe Adventure Watches, and we are going to go on a little adventure to find out more about this exciting new British brand. So welcome to the studio, Matt.
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Thank you, Rob. Glad to be here.
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B
It's your first time on a podcast, is that correct?
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A
It is my first time, yeah. So take it easy.
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B
Oh, I'll go easy on you, don't worry. As easy as I ever do, which isn't very. But don't worry, you'll be fine. It's a very welcoming environment and the TRTS network are some of the most forgiving watch fans in the industry. But I'm sure they're going to be ravenously interested to know about you, about your backstory and how you got into watches. So let's start with you, the man, Matt o', Neill behind the brand Monroe. Who are you, where do you come from and why do you like watches?
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A
Wow, thanks, Rob. Well, basically I got a lucky break. I think that's the easiest way to summarize it. I'm from the uk, I'm from the north of England, and when I was about 25, I had the opportunity to move to London, having got some experience with 3D design and various different guises at university and all sorts of weird and wonderful jobs. And I met a guy there who was the product director of rotary watches. And they, they said to me, hey, do you want to go away and design a watch and see, see what you've got. And I came back a week later and they said, go on then, it's you. And they hired me as their first in house watch designer. And for me, you know, that was the greatest thing that's ever happened. You know, it's like it was like a dream job. And I still think of it like that as well. And the person who hired me for that role, a guy called Ryan, we ended up working together for about 10 years and had some great experiences with watches. We designed collection after collection on a seasonal basis and as the longer I was there, the more confident I became in, in the world of watches, even though I always think that, you know, there's so much more to learn about them. And we got to a position where we became sort of a bit of an efficient combo. We had a great team around us, but the two of us were really enjoyed chatting watches and hanging out outside of work. And we realized that not only do we like Watches. But we also, independent of each other, really enjoyed traveling. And as our sort of careers went on, we actually got quite a few opportunities to travel with work. And during all of this time of experiencing these, these wonderful and crazy times there, we, we kind of thought, you know what, I think it would be great to do it ourselves. And when it, when the sort of pandemic hit, it was also sort of coincided with the time we were thinking of, of sort of jumping ship as it were. And an opportunity came around and in 2020 we founded Monroe Design Studio. And what we were able to do was bring our skillset to the wider world of watch brands who needed some help and not necessarily watch brands either. So people would come to us and we would say, right, this is what you need to do. And we ended up realizing that our experiences enabled us to do a sort of top down from design development, our contacts within the manufacturing industry, and then our sort of experience in sales. And after, you know, the whole shebang really. And we said, right, well, just the two of us, we can, we've, we think we can, we can do everything. And we, we could to a degree, but it wasn't, you know, that we, we've learned so much since kind of becoming an entity by ourselves. And it was a good learning curve, but also one where we were able to apply ourselves. And ultimately we, we started developing brands for other people. And that was great because that enabled us to sort of become our own business, but always in the background. We wanted to launch our own brand. That's what the end game was. We always were so passionate about everything that we saw in the wider world, but why couldn't we do it ourselves? So we set about in the background putting into play all of the thoughts we'd had in the past of where's the white space in the market? Where's, where's our inspiration going to come from? And we realized that actually our passion for watches married quite nicely with our passion for travel. And that's where the idea of the Monroe adventure came from. So we actually, we developed this, this watch that we thought was amazing. And then at the time we also heard in the background that there was an automatic GMT movement coming out. Now our thoughts were always to be the sort of the brief was to make the ultimate affordable travel watch. That's what we'd like to do. So when we heard that the, the Seiko NH34 movement was coming out, we developed this, this watch in a quartz movement because it just, the price point wouldn't allow us to go any higher. And we thought, oh no, this, the, the obvious thing to do is to upgrade it. So it pushed us back a little bit more time. But whilst we were doing our sort of brand work for other people, our consultancy, we worked relentlessly in the background trying to make our own brand into a point where we thought, this is it, we can now launch. And so probably more than anything, the help from our friends and family, we kick started it. So the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, which some people completely detest, other people love it and give brands like us a shot, and thankfully more people gave it a shot than not. And it allowed us to actually get our dream to a point where we could manufacture it and get it out to people across the world. So we actually went live. Like we started trading Monroe Adventure at the beginning of 2024, which actually doesn't seem that long ago because we were extremely lucky because the inaugural British Watchmakers day was in March 2024 and stock arrived about a week prior to the actual show. So we'd, you know, paid a bit of money to get a stand, get a display and all of this sort of stuff. And we were just, you know, fingers crossed that we'd actually have watches to show people. And luckily we did. And one of the best experiences I've ever had is watching people who were in such a great mood because it was an amazing day. They just came over and they were really genuinely interested about our story, about our product, about the quality of the watches they could hold in their hands. And that was just a real sort of game changer for us to think after all of the effort of going through what we went through to get it over the line to be selling it online, finally, people could then see it and feel it and it was fantastic experience. And since then we've then gone on to use crowdfunding to help us expand our collection because we've got a bit of a strategy on how we want our brand to be. And so after the great impact of our first watch being the Monroe Adventure, we then launched the Monroe Ocean Adventure, which was more of a sort of a near vintage dive watch. And again, really great, strong impact. And it was another way that we could interact with watch geeks. And really the people who are passionate about watches at these watch shows that we started going to, we were able to interact with everyone who was so interested in the design elements that we'd put into these watches because there's a story behind each one and actually getting the feedback on the spot is it's just so pleasing really, because you spend so long behind the scenes, excuse me, developing every little tiny design detail that you wonder sometimes if it's conveyed properly online because that's how we present ourselves to the world. And then when you go to these watch shows, you're actually able to then get the sort of real time interaction.
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B
Absolutely perfect rundown to start the show. I just sat back and listened and enjoyed the I think quite structured way that you broke that down. So I've broken that into three distinct eras of your career in my mind and I want to go back to the first one and work through them chronologically. Yeah, let's talk about Rotary.
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Okay.
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Because funnily enough, Rotary came up in conversation the other day I was having with a. I did it new watch collector. So I was a huge fan of Rotary when I was first into watches. So my first job in watchmaking I was 17 and I worked in H. Samuels on Market street in Manchester as a Chester boy. You probably know the store, it's not too far from your neck of the woods. So I grew up selling dkny, Calvin Klein police watches, some Casios, Seiko's, fantastic, you know, this sort of thing. And Rotary. And I always thought as a young watch lover that Rotary offered an incredible bang for buck. It was a great proposition. A lot of the female ones look like Longines or Cartiers. And I remember buying my girlfriend at the time what looked like a long jeans Dolce Vita, but it was actually a rotary for like 100 quid or something. And she was made up with it, obviously. And I was trolling ebay for, you know, rotaries that must have fallen off the back of a lorry because they were like quite nice ones, you know, with moon phases and like gold plated cases and they were going for about 40 or 50 quid. And I bought myself one and I bought one for my best mate. And we're all wearing these rotaries. I got a couple of skeletonized ones at one point. I'm curious as to whether you were behind the design of any of the watches I was falling in love with. So let's, let's talk times here. What years were you involved with Rotary?
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A
Rotary, as you know, was established in 1895. So this is a brand that was going for a very, very long time before I was lucky enough to join it. I joined it in 2010 and it was actually I. This is bizarre because it. My start date was April 1st, obviously Fool's Day. And I. I moved to London exactly 24 hours earlier than my start date. I was like, this is it, this is my big dream. I packed a suitcase, I managed to wrap a duvet around my wheelie bag. You know, I was moving and that was it, this was it. This is my one shot. And I remember my first day, I walked in and I was wearing my best, you know, 70 quid suit from, you know, Burton, you know what I mean? I was 25 and, you know, there was a very good vibe when I arrived. Thankfully I didn't have to wear the suit. You know, things relaxed a little bit. But essentially when I got there, Ryan, like I mentioned, my partner, my, the co founder of Monroe Adventure, where he basically took me under his wing and he knew that I wasn't from a watch background. And his, his idea was to bring everything in house because prior to me arriving they would outsource the design work to Swiss designers. And my role was really to get up to speed as quickly as I could with this 3D software that I'd sort of been sort of trained in. And luckily I'd, I had this. I knew that I liked watches. I mean, watches were always going to be the, the ultimate, coolest accessory a guy could get. And that's the way I looked at it when I joined and having the, the sort of responsibility to then have, have to create and develop existing lines, bring my own spin to it. I think that that didn't really happen for at least, maybe at least a year. I think I was mainly sort of developing existing collections and understanding the sort of nuances of, of handsets and different bracelets and connections and all that sort of sort of thing. But when, when I'd been there for, for more than a year, Ryan and I basically looked at the collection and we realized that there was, there was lots of like so many different styles of watches and they'd done extremely well in various guises. Rotary was always looked at, I was told, and I believe this as well. When you were about 18, it was, it was the gift that you'd get from like your mum and dad. This is your 18th birthday present. Here's a Rotary watch. And to a degree, times were changing and we took the collection and we decided to make it more family oriented, so like subsections, so each, each watch would develop its own character within a collection by itself. Like, is it a slim dress watch? Or over here this is the ladies centric collection, or here this is the more sporty collection and then we could grow it from there and it gave the range more of an Identity. And it was something that we did on a sort of a two year cycle, seasonal launches of spring, summer and autumn, winter. And we like to think we got quite good at it because we would then present our ideas and our sort of concepts to the, to the board. And then before you knew it, we were in front of the likes of H Samuels and, you know, Signet Group and things like that, presenting, you know, this is what's coming next. And we design it into a presentable format so that they would understand what production would be like ahead of the game. And we work really quickly and efficiently and it would just help the brand get product out there more quickly. And it was. It was a really great experience. So much to take in to your question about is this the sort of era that where you may have picked up a rotary watch? It may well have been. I mean, we took a lot of the heritage vibes from the archive collections and saw where we could move them and so have some sort of brand DNA flowing through. So, from you, did you have a specific model? Was it an ebay purchase that was from. From the 70s or was this like a brand new one that you got?
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B
Oh, they were all new, the ones I bought. I never bought the vintage pieces. I was working in H Samuels in 2002, so I might have missed you by. But by 2010 I think I was already in my apprenticeship, but I probably was still buying rotaries. In fact, I think I might have still bought an octagonal skeleton rotary at that time.
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A
An octagonal skeleton?
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B
Yeah.
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I know, I'm not going to claim that one.
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B
No, don't, don't. I mean, it's well known on the Real Time show that I hate tourbillons and skeletons, but I have a couple of phases in my life that I've been through. The skeleton one is mostly long past, but the tourbillon one is rearing its ugly head once again, where I do find myself fawning over these pieces. But it was quite cool and I think I got it for a song, I got it for less than 100 quid and I think it was one of the pricier rotaries at the time. So I don't know whether I would have ever had any of your designs on my wrist. But it's brilliant to hear what a start to the industry you had and then you started your own consultancy to help other brands create their pieces. Are you able to tell us any of the brands you work with or is there a lot of NDA signed in blood floating around?
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There are NDAs unfortunately. But I think the one thing that I always, I'll tell anybody is I just feel incredibly lucky to have got my foot in the door when I did. It was a, it was a golden opportunity from someone who'd not come from a watch background. You know, you like watches and I'm incredibly passionate about watches now and you know, they are, they're my life now really. But at the very beginning having that opportunity to, to just give me a chance, I'm always grateful for that because it's, it's now, I mean that's 15 years ago at least. So I think it's also been part of very much lower end commercial volume, end of the market. And, and yeah, so going into establishing our own design consultancy, I think one of the, the main thing that we, we took I think from our time at Rotary was that it, that thing you just mentioned before was the, the value proposition. Because it's very important, particularly in these, these days where there are so many watch groups and enthusiasts online sharing their opinions and what they have on they want to get. And if you can offer someone something that is, is complete value, they, they will treasure it even more because they, we go to great lengths to try and imbue that into our product. Whereas the, the finishing, the, the movement which, whichever it is, it all comes together so that when you open that watch and you think I can't believe that this has cost this much, it just, you think you've, you've won an extra prize. Do you know what I mean? It just, there's something so satisfying to feel a well made watch. And you know, we're not making watches that are, you know, thousands of pounds here. There's a, there's a limit to what we can do with the finishing. But for our price point we're very proud of the quality that we can get. And I think with our, with our ability to add our own sort of design influences into the, into the product, I think at this price point it really helps. And when it comes down to our consultants, we, yeah, we had this sort of, we had a client who wanted to go quite big quite quickly with a distribution network that they had and we were, that gave us a sort of a foundation to learn the logistics of what it takes. When you move away from a structured company that has a finance team, it has operations, it has marketing and sales and suddenly, you know, you have to put your money where your mouth is and say, right, we've said we can do this so we're going to have to, we're going to have to figure out the best way to do such and such. I mean, we knew that we had certain elements where we. We were very good at doing certain things and we just had to learn very quickly at how to do the other bits that we relied on other people for in a previous life. So it came together. We went in at the deep end for the consultancy and we came out of it and we were. We. We did very well in terms of managing the whole process. And after that first experience, we were then able to refine how we did things and now we are. We're up and running and helping other brands. And it's a shame.
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B
I.
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That's the one thing I don't like about this sort of position, is that I'm not allowed to go and say, yeah, and this is who it is. And this is. And it's great because we did this and maybe one day I'll be able to, but right now I can't, and that sucks. But I'm really excited to be working with these people and I'm really happy. Ryan and I have spent so much time, you know, we. We work. We don't really take a holiday. We just work and work and work and ultimately we sort of. We manage the various different brands and our own. And everything with watches takes a long time, as you know. So one of these days we'll be able to kind of hopefully just take a moment to say, okay, we went strong, we went hard, and now things are, you know, levelling out for us.
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B
You're still very much involved with these other brands. So the consultancy is still active alongside Monroe?
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A
Yes, it is, yeah.
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B
Although you can't tell us the names. Can you tell us how many brands you're working with?
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Well, yes, I could, actually. We're working with Matt at the moment. Four other brands.
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B
Four other brands in addition to your own?
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A
Yes.
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B
Okay, so let me get my head around this. You say you didn't come from a watch background, but how old were you when you started working for Rotary, if.
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You don't mind me asking? No, I was. I was 25.
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B
Okay. Okay. So you. Yeah. You'd been schooled and then you had had a job in another industry prior?
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A
I did. I was. I mean, it sounds. Well, I don't know. I mean, it sounds boring for me when I say it out loud. It's not at all. That's really disrespectful. I went. Basically, I got a degree in product design and I used this amazing 3D software that I really Enjoyed, because it felt like I could step into the. Into the computer. And it felt like ultimately, I always thought it was like if you have a block of ice and then you just start sculpting away until you get to your end game, in this case, a watch case. And then, yeah, I was able just to bring that element of understanding of 3D software into the world of aircraft support equipment. Oh, that's cool.
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B
That's not boring.
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A
No, I know it's not, but that's why I say boring was the wrong word completely. It was a very different job. I mean, I didn't know anyone else who was doing it. And it was cool. It was cool because it allowed me to kind of use my skills that I didn't really know I had and explore them in a working environment. And it was great to. To meet the people on the factory floor who were producing what I was designing on a computer that had actually previously been done by two incredibly talented draftsmen who were in their 80s, who I sort of subsequently took over. You know, that's the world of digital reality.
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B
I guess, if I had to guess, when you said boring, you maybe were driving for something like a bit drier, as in, it's not creative in the same artistic way, but that kind of job. Although you don't want to get too extravagant with safety systems, especially not aircraft ones, it's creative in a different way, isn't it? It forces you to solve, like, problems.
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A
It's problem solving. You're absolutely right. And that is one of the key reasons why I was keen to move on from there, because I was always more of a creative. The. The degree I did was product design and technology, and it was a complete. In the middle between engineering and creative design. That's how I looked at it. And every seminar that was creative, that's what I enjoyed. And I could do the engineering element, but it was something that, you know, I could. I was happy to do, but it didn't really excite me. And I think that's what I meant by boring before because I genuinely didn't want to be disrespectful at all, because it was. It's a. It was a very important, you know, these. Everything that you do kind of goes towards something, and the fact that I'm now doing that can be creative is. It means a lot to me.
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B
I mean, it must also be a great way to prepare yourself for an industry like watchmaking, which has a huge amount of creative pressure, because you have to be aesthetically interesting in what you're doing. But also there's a lot of problems that need solving constantly. And when you bring in a new aesthetic element as well, you'll have discovered with your own designs, you find yourself chasing your tail around the design to make everything fit and work together and all the levels and all the heights and everything to like, match up exactly as you need them to. So although it maybe wasn't a straight line from one training point to your calling that you've now found, it certainly seems to me like a very worthwhile way to cut one's teeth. No pun intended. Now let's move on to Monroe itself.
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Yes.
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B
Okay, so you've taken your learnings from Rotary. You have, yes. So you've gone through the technical, you've gone through the training, you've gone through a more technically minded job, you've gone into Rotary, you've been able to flex your creative muscles. You've also obviously observed how a company on that scale operates. So you know a thing or two about suppliers and shipping and distribution, customer service, et cetera, et cetera. A lot of those things. Obviously, I guess you have to refine as you go into the consultancy, but through that you are also able to immerse yourself in that world and have a full 360 experience of the industry. Then you're like, okay, now I'm ready. Now I've got all these ideas. I've been maturing for years about what I would do to create the perfect brand. Now the question we always ask and the number one question that needs answering is why? Why Monroe Adventure. What's the point?
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A
Well, that's, that's what was the sticking point for a long time, actually, because you're absolutely right, there needed to be a reason. And when we were towards the end of our careers at Rotary, we did travel a lot. You know, we also enjoyed going to the pub in Soho quite a lot and that.
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B
A pub? A pub.
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A
An actual pub.
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B
I never heard of such a thing.
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A
There's nothing better than Soho after work on an evening when the sun is shining and people are spilling out onto the streets. And that's when the creative juices get going. And we've been talking and we'd been doing the classic thing of like sketching out ideas on a napkin, you know, that sort of thing. And we were very good at designing dress watches at Rotary and expanding a little bit into sports. And we were thinking, why? Why? What can we do that's different? And when we were on a flight back from Hong Kong, we suddenly had that sort of epiphany of it's travel. Travel. And at the time, I think it was 2020, around then, there was a space in the. There was a space in the market for the what we believed would be the ultimate affordable travel watch. And it suddenly gave us a drive to then formulate a creative design around that concept. And we wanted it to have a little bit of everything. And in many ways it. It kind of came about from a reaction to designing what we'd previously been designing. So we, it was almost like a teenager rebelling in many respects because we started doing stuff that we. We weren't allowed to do with with rotary because rotary had that long heritage and style and traditional sense of what people wanted. And we wanted to go in the other direction and sort of flex a bit of what we could bring to the party, as it were. And we didn't want to come to the table with a me too product or something that was. Oh, that looks like. And there's a bit of that. We just wanted to be a bit unique. And trying to be unique in an industry that has been around for so long is nigh on impossible. So we said there were a few things that we laid out. We're like, listen, it's got to have functionality at its heart because we want people to go around the world with this. Knock it around, use it, enjoy it. There are loads of. There's lots of color involved with it as well, just to give it a lift because essentially there's so much going on. We came up with the idea of using dual luminosity just to help clarify the functionality a bit more. Because the bezel, this ceramic bezel, like many world timers, most of them are bidirectional, but we use dual luminous on the bezel to actually make it unidirectional. So you could still see. Have the function of a diver's dot. We just came up with loads of these ideas and finally, through many, many, many different iterations, we got this design that had fixed lugs. We wanted it to be held on a sort of, you know, this military style strap because you're not allowed to say NATO strap anymore. That's. That's something else we had to learn. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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B
Got to be careful about that one. Can you still call it a G10 or do you have to just call it a British military?
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A
I think we literally just. Just military. What kind of covers a lot of bases?
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B
Well, you just called it NATO, so you're in trouble now.
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A
No, delete that quick.
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B
I think we can get away with it.
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A
Yeah. Right. So, yeah, so when we went through these rounds of prototypes and then realized that Seiko Automatic and age 34 was coming up, we'd. We'd heard on the grapevine through our contacts that it was on its way and we kind of thought, shit, this is something that we should be using. We can't go. We can't launch the ultimate travel watch and it be caught. So we took a break and came back to it and used the automatic movement. And obviously that was a key moment in the decision making because it made a world of difference. It's just we couldn't go out with courts and I'm so glad that we had that movement available to us. And so, yeah, to get that off the ground, we then went down the crowdfunding route, which, like I said before, sort of appeals to some and doesn't to others. And that's absolutely fine. It's fine for us because we experienced a lot of love for it and we're internally grateful for those people who backed us and gave us the opportunities to sort of realize our dream. Honestly, the feeling of having that product backed to a degree that was above and beyond was just tremendous, basically. And yeah, yeah. So then from there we kind of, we didn't stand still. We were thinking, right, this is it, we've got our first product, we need our second, like QuickSmart. So we design everything here in the UK. I've got the software on my laptop and I move around. I can do it wherever I like, basically. But my studio setup is that I have 3D prototyping machines. So as soon as an idea is ready for sort of concept assessment, we'll print it out and Ryan and I'll meet up and we'll go through it together and discuss proportions and the general sizes, etc. And, and it's a really great way of working. It's like we're quick and we bring a lot of different ideas to the party for the different things that we're doing. And yeah, it's, it's just, it's pretty enjoyable. It's very stressful, but it's, it's very enjoyable. I find it hugely rewarding.
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B
So you're able to actually create CNC ready files yourself on site and then 3D print them to test like.
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A
Yeah.
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B
How they feel on the wrist. If everything fits together as you expect.
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A
It to correct to. To a certain level. They're not, I mean, these are not sort of state of the art machines. They're machines that are. Enable us to, to get to where we need to get to. And they're great, they're really good for what we need. And I always find it cool that you can just put, once it's printed out, you can stick a spring bar on it and get a strap on it. So, so you can wear this little block of plastic on your wrist. Then occasionally, you know, you'll, you'll go down to the pub and think, oh yeah, that's not a tool watch.
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B
Right, so talk to me about these fixed lugs because as I look at them, they have the appearance of like old school welded lugs that you'd see on a trench watch. But they also look like they aren't welded. They look like they slot into the side of the case and then screw in underneath the threaded case back. But is that how it's constructed or are they welded on the inside?
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A
No, they are welded on the inside, yeah. So they basically we took a long time to get. It's quite a big case because there's a lot going on with the functions and the automatic movement. So we develop those lugs so that they become almost non existent when you look at the watch because they slope away from you quite a lot. We made this bespoke so NBR rubber strap like this, military style to go through these fixed lugs. And the nature of the rubber enables this, what should be on paper, quite a large watch fit so comfortably. That's one of the big things that people say to us is how comfortable the watch is for such a large object. Because, you know, 44 is quite big these days. But yeah, the strap works really well. And the fixed lugs, we went through various different iterations to get it right. But the amount it slopes down enables the strap to pass through the underside of the case and, and just basically fit with supreme comfort.
- [32:51]
B
I mean, as big as it is, and 44 millimeters is a, you know, not an insignificant diameter. It is sympathetically styled if you look at it from the side. I mean, the case is kind of bowl shaped. It's not like a Tudor black bay that has those big flat sides and stands up on the wrist rather intimidatingly. I mean, the biggest issue I can imagine with the, the wearing, not comfort, but experience of this would be that having that double layer rubber strap going through the lugs and then under it so that the rubber touches the wrist might raise it up a little bit higher than you might want on the wrist. But I mean it is designed to be an adventure watch, it is designed to be rugged and I Mean, it's got a ceramic bezel and it is only 13.55 millimeters thick in total. Have you had any pushback from buyers? And I don't really expect this with a sub €600 watch. We're talking about the. That you can't use regular straps on it or do people just accept it for what it is?
- [33:42]
A
No, I think people accept it for what it is. I think people admire the fact that we went for a more unusual design. And I think people do enjoy, like modifying their watches. I mean, we know that that's a thing. And actually with our second design, we made it so that we had removable spring bars. So you could still use the NBR strap, but you could customize it yourself. And I think that what we do is we've got a sort of strategy of how we want our brand to develop. But what the good thing we found coming away from a big company and just being the two of us is that we can do what we want, really. We can be very nimble and react how we please. And we take so much enjoyment from hearing the feedback that we get from our customers. And you questioned about whether the double strap had an issue with anybody. And the answer really is no, because the people who buy the watch, like you said, it's an adventure watch and it's great and it's robust. And actually, I know a lot of women who wear this watch as well because of how comfortably it fits on the wrist. And my wife wears the orange.
- [34:56]
B
So you talked about the second watch. That's the more traditional diver, right?
- [35:00]
A
That's right, yeah.
- [35:01]
B
But then you've got this third one, which is really, for me, actually, the star of the show, the Urban Adventure. Now this, it looks like a lot of things that we've seen recently. You can point to the PRX, to the C12, anything you like, but it doesn't quite look like any of them. It looks like itself. And you've got some incredible colors on the go here. You've got like lovely little elements, like the screw in shoulders, as it were, either side of the crown. You've even got a skeletonized version, which I have to say, I kind of like.
- [35:30]
A
Oh, that's high praise. He's mentioned you didn't like skeletons before, so that's great.
- [35:34]
B
Put me in a situation there. Damn it. You also do a line of chronographs in this Urban Adventure series, which I believe are quartz powered, right?
- [35:41]
A
That's correct, yeah. So these are Mecca quartz. So this collection is. Yeah, thank you. For saying what you just said about it. There's an, there's a sort of nod towards these other watches that you, you just mentioned because that, you know, it's a trend. And having done the. Our first collection, which was so different, we then did our Ocean Adventure, which is the more commercial, I guess so dive watch. But we put loads of different elements into it to be different, we believe. And we've had some amazing feedback from it as well. Like, it has this slightly inverted bezel with a double dome sapphire, so it wears really differently on your wrist that catches the light in a completely different way. And on the underside of that bezel of the ocean, there's a little glint of color that we've added that matches something on the dial, but it's the dial or the. Or the secondhand tip. And for the Urban collection, color's so important to us, and we've got this beautiful sort of fume effect dial. And then under the bezel of this watch, we've brought that across from the previous collection of the ocean. We've got the really cool color pop. And then these shoulders, these components, these side components that screw in, allow the watch to have a more robust feel. But because they're screwed in as separate components, we can get the finishing to be, you know, like, really knockout. So, yeah, we're really, we're really pleased with it. It's in production at the moment. Pre orders are sort of are on our website. Again, we did a Kickstarter. I had great feedback from it and great number of pledges, and it was awesome. I know, yeah. So we're just really excited because we, you know, we're constantly developing and we've. We've got the concept for our fourth, and I'm looking forward to be able to share that. But we want to make sure that we make, you know, fulfill everything for the Urban collection first before we start teasing that in front of people. But yeah, we just, we're glad we've built a foundation on our design that we can then move it forward. So the, the first design of the Monroe Adventure, because it is that everything is so travel oriented. We added design details like the forward motion bezel grip, the feeling of constant travel, and that's repeated on the crowns as well. And then our handset, we've designed that so that there's an aperture in the minute hand and that concentrically aligns when it passes the hour hand. So even, you know, in the middle of the night, you can see the luminous glow from underneath the, like through the minute into the hour, so you can always tell the time.
- [38:17]
B
Okay, that's an incredible addition. And that's actually something that I always advocate when I'm working with brands in design consultancy because it is a highly functional addition that a lot of people overlook. I've been overruled on occasion when brands like, nah, it just looks better when you fill everything with loom. And I'm like, yeah, okay, maybe you're right. It does look better in some ways. But there is logic behind.
- [38:35]
A
There's logic behind it. Yes, for your subjective take, we've put some logic behind it.
- [38:40]
B
I love it. I absolutely love it. I just want to touch on a couple of terms that you've used just because. Of course, this is a podcast and although some of our listeners do follow along by checking out the website, which, if you want to have a look at, is Monroe adventure.com that's M O N R O A D V E N t u r e.com so you can go and have a look at the watches we're discussing there. One of the things you said was bioluminosity. Now, this might be confusing to people, but basically what Matt's talking about is using different colors of loom, blue and green, nighttime emission to separate the functions of a watch. So what we have is basically the bezel and the minute hand are tied together in most cases, as far as I can see, using normally blue lume. So that when you're using a dive bezel, for example, you can use your timing quite intuitively there. And then your hour hand and your hour markers are illuminated in green. And this bioluminosity is repeated across the ranges in slightly different ways depending on the functionality of the watches. And you mentioned the forward motion on the bezel and the crown. And this is knurling that slants in the direction of winding, I guess, or movement for the bezel itself.
- [39:44]
A
That's right. We just wanted to kind of give that feeling, give it an aesthetic that could relate to travel and the constant traveling nature of, you know, of the Globetrotter. And we pushed it into the Ocean Adventure. We gave it a more refined bezel grip. It's a much finer forward motion grip. And then with the Urban Collection, we've used it because it's a fixed bezel for that. We've then moved the angled serrations into the side components.
- [40:11]
B
Very nice. Let me just drill into this Ocean Adventure design for a second. Because of the three, and please don't take this as a negative comment. It's the most generic and What I mean by that is it's a silhouette that we're well familiar with. It's clearly identifiable as a dive watch. And it has the bracelet that looks a bit like oyster bracelet, except it has more interesting finishing than a oyster bracelet. It has nice chamfers on the side of the links. Is any of this off the shelf or did you take like basically a standard case design and then really labor over working on the details to get exactly the form and fit that you wanted?
- [40:45]
A
No, we never take anything off the shelf other than the deployment clasp. I said that that's a pre made component. However, everything else I've designed in 3D software, like I mentioned earlier, a bit like, like sculpting a block of ice. Each component gets made individually. So the bracelet, every link that you write, this got nice chamfer on the sides and yeah, everything gets done and it gets refined and developed and 3D printed and until we're happy with it. And you're absolutely right, it is, it does fall into that more generic look because it's a dive watch. But when I think people experience it for themselves, they understand the differences and it's, it's, you know, you know too well about watches is all about the little tiny details that come together to make it an enjoyable experience. And we had, we did a watch show just recently in the uk, the Watch it show. And we arrived and the doors opened and the first two people arrived to say hello. They were both wearing the Ocean Adventure and it was so satisfying to see. It was brilliant, brilliant to speak to them. And they, they took us through the details that they liked and they, they loved, they loved the hand. The hands really stuck out for a lot of people actually from. Based on recent feedback. It's really nice to hear. But they, they love the various different elements that you just don't get from a. More. Well, it's different. Basically the elements that we add make the watch stand out in a different way from an otherwise generic genre.
- [42:25]
B
I mean, I've been lucky enough to have these watches in my hand and I can attest to the build quality, which is sometimes a bit of a woolly thing for an analyst to say, you know, what do you mean? It's like. Well, I guess the way that I always define it, the clearest way to tell good quality over poorer quality is transition between finishes. And even though some of your designs, like maybe, maybe the Monroe Adventure and the Ocean Adventure, less so than the urban, but you can tell from your explanation of the shoulders on the urban case how you thought about the fact. Oh, by making them removable, we can add like, you know, crisper, sharper finishes. We can do better with the transitions that is always in mind and therefore will have been applied similarly to the first and the second model lines. So we know from your own testimony that you're thinking about the things that matter. You're applying the experience that you've had, from your various positions in and outside of the industry to these watches. And so I think I see it like in, in the quality of the presentation of the brand. But it really helps that I've seen these pieces in real life. So I would say to anybody listening to this that hasn't seen a Monroe Adventure piece in real life, try and get along to an event to try them on. Or do you have retailers yet or will you or won't you?
- [43:41]
A
We don't have any retailers at the moment, no, we're currently online only. We are trying to get to as many watch shows as we possibly can as we sort of continue to grow. And I think, you know, we look forward to doing that in the future. You know, we're only a small brand at the moment, but unfortunately it does require quite a bit of an outlay to do certain things like that. And we'll get there, definitely. But like I said, experiencing the interaction with people at these shows makes it all worthwhile and to do more of that would definitely be very appealing to us.
- [44:16]
B
So tell me which shows you are signed up to attend in the near future so our listeners can get them in the calendar.
- [44:23]
A
So the next one that we're up for is in September at Heathrow and I believe that's called Watch Time.
- [44:30]
B
They don't try too hard with the names of these events, do they? Let's check that. Heathrow Watch Time.
- [44:35]
A
I am very much looking forward to that. Apologies. I got my name. And then in November, we are in the north of England in your old neck of the woods in Manchester.
- [44:45]
B
Oh, that's very good to hear. I think we're talking about World Time UK and then what's the one in Manchester again?
- [44:50]
A
So that's the Watch Collectors Club in Manchester. They did it last year and it was fantastic. I believe they did one very recently in Glasgow that we missed out on, unfortunately. But again, really good feedback that we've heard from our sort of fellow friends in the industry. And so, yes, we're looking forward to the one in Manchester as well. So that's. That would sort of conclude 2025 for us. And the definite. I mean, hopefully, if we get invited back. We will certainly be at the British Watchmakers Day next year as well.
- [45:23]
B
That's Hamish that's organizing the Watchmakers Club.
- [45:26]
A
Yeah, it is, yes. Yeah, that's right.
- [45:30]
B
He's on the show very shortly himself as well. We're getting him on.
- [45:32]
A
Oh, fantastic. So he was a year older than me at the same school.
- [45:39]
B
Oh, no way. What a coincidence. And you both ended up being movers and shakers in the watch world?
- [45:43]
A
Well, yeah, I bumped into him at the British Watchmakers. I was like, no, hello. And then he obviously explained about what he was doing with this fantastic watch collectors Club takeover. I mean, he's doing so many of these shows. Fantastic. He's doing really well and letting more people see fantastic watches. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to his show in Manchester.
- [46:01]
B
Do you have any plans to come over to the European continent anytime soon and show your wares in this neck of the woods?
- [46:07]
A
We'd love to.
- [46:07]
B
Yeah.
- [46:08]
A
We haven't got any plans, but we would love to.
- [46:09]
B
You should check out Microprag. You know, they're running at the end of November and they're a great environment for a brand in this price point. I think you'd find a lot of favor there.
- [46:17]
A
Yeah, brilliant. Thank you.
- [46:19]
B
I'll connect you to the chaps after we stopped recording.
- [46:21]
A
Fantastic. Yeah, thanks.
- [46:23]
B
So line four. It's coming. You're not going to give us any particularly revealing tidbits, I'm sure, but what about telling us what sort of field it's in? Is it a pilot's watch?
- [46:33]
A
No, this one. So I don't want to give too much away because I feel that we need to honor our supporters who have helped us generate our third collection, and I want to get that out there. The fourth collection will be very exciting. All I'll say is that we are continuing to. To. To better ourselves. I hope. It's. It's a very interesting collection that I'm sure will garner a lot of interest and I really can't wait to share it. I feel awful now because I shouldn't really have mentioned this because I feel like I'm. I'm just stringing you along, but I don't mean to do that. I think it's just. It's a really exciting collection and it will be using different materials. Solid gold.
- [47:12]
B
Okay. Anything? No, I don't mind. A bit of a tease.
- [47:15]
A
It's great.
- [47:16]
B
It gives us something to keep an eye on for the future. And another reason to get you back on the show. When do you anticipate it launching, although we will take anything you say with a pinch of salt because it's. Watch me.
- [47:26]
A
Well, urban drops in September.
- [47:28]
B
Right.
- [47:29]
A
So I believe that as soon as that drops, I'll be more than happy to share more details about it. So we should be prototyping it in time to display definitely for the Manchester show in November.
- [47:44]
B
Okay.
- [47:44]
A
If we're lucky, we might be able to give a glimpse of it at the world time.
- [47:49]
B
Okay. So you heard it here first. If you want to see this before anybody else, get down to Heathrow, I believe there's an airport nearby, so not too difficult to get there. That's great, Matt. Thank you for your time. Thank you for a great run through of your history and of Monroe Adventure and of the watches that you've released thus far and of course, the watches that are soon to be joining the collection. I look forward to having you back on the show and I look forward to catching up with you at another event. And I'm sure you'll be at the British Watchmakers Day next year because you seem to have become part of the furniture in two years already. So best of luck to you. Keep it up. And if any of our listeners have questions for Matt, you know how to get in touch. You can either contact us via the official instagram handle@therealtime show via our email addresses, either Alan, Rob or David TheRealtime show, or you can get in touch via the contact form on the official website www.therealtime.show. we will be back soon with more top quality watch content and interviews with the industry's finest. Until then, stay safe and keep on ticking.