LPW Watch Co – Have you ever heard of them? No, neither have I, but their watch looks very promising! Just one reason for me to look behind the scenes, and do an interview with Dave. I am already very excited…
First, Dave, tell me a little bit about yourself. How old are you, what do you do, your hobbies, work, whatever…
I am a 29-year-old digital marketer by day. I work for a small digital marketing agency in Manchester in the UK, where I also live with my wife and dog. In my spare time I enjoy playing and watching ice hockey, taking the dog out for walks in the Peak District, and digesting as much watch-related material as I can!
When did you get your first watch and what is the story behind it?
My first watch was a little digital Casio watch that used to belong with my grandfather and we found in a drawer after he passed away. It still had the price tag on and we think it might have been tucked away since the late 80s or early 90s. I wore the thing to death, to a point where the metal coating had peeled away from the plastic and it was basically no longer wearable.
What ignited your passion for watches and when did it happen? What was the watch that started it all?
After the original Casio finally died a death, I bought another one from Amazon a few years later but I never found myself wearing it as much and I stopped wearing a watch pretty much altogether for a few years. Then, one birthday I received a skeleton watch made by Stuhrling from my wife.
It was the first mechanical watch I had ever owned and I loved it. I spent ages watching the movement from the dial side and in particular I loved seeing the balance wheel pulsating. Unfortunately this watch stopped working after about 2 months and it was returned.
From here I knew I wanted a new watch so after digesting tonnes of material about watches and how they worked and learning all about the different brands. In the end I used some of my savings to purchase my first luxury watch. This was a Breitling SuperOcean 42 Abyss with the yellow chapter ring. I loved the design and the simplicity of it, but loved how it still had a lot of detail and depth to the dial. The big Arabic numbers jumped out and I knew it was to be. I still own this watch today and frequently wear it – it’s on my wrist as I write this!
What watches are currently in your collection?
So in addition to the Breitling SuperOcean and the Casio…
Casio AE-1400
I found myself wearing the original Casio watch less and less as it’s so slim and petite and I preferred something a little more substantial on my wrist. Sometimes I also like to have a cheap watch on that I can knock about and really not worry about in any way if it got damaged or even lost. As such I wanted another Casio watch. After a bit of research online, I found this one for £20 on eBay! I wear it walking the dog, hiking, ice-skating and whenever I just want to wear a cheap watch where I don’t have to particularly care about it getting damaged.
Vostok 090 SE
I’d been interested in watch modding for a while. I loved the idea of a pretty unique watch modded to my own personal tastes. It’s a very different concept to designing your own watch, as watch design has to have some commercial appeal and sensibilities. With modding you can go crazy and not have to think about any potential commercial aspects.
I had been looking at Seiko SKXs are they seem to be the go to for watch modding, but I couldn’t find a base watch I liked enough. I then read about Vostoks being easy to mod too so I took a look at them. On the Meranom.com website I saw this little piece with the yellow dial and fell in love. Yellow is one of my favourite colours, so when I saw there was a matching alternative bezel insert I was sold – the banana was born! In total, this watch cost about £120 if I remember correctly, so it was a bargain! It’s my summer watch and it keeps fairly good time despite its low price.
Ironically I never actually modded this piece any further than just swapping out the bezel insert. A simple and fun-to-wear watch!
Seals Model C
I wasn’t particularly looking to add any more watches at the time of purchasing this, but upon seeing it, it was one of those pieces I just had to have. The gorgeous angular case shape (inspired by battle tanks for the second world war!) and the awesome vintage-inspired field watch dial. It’s such a wonderful watch to wear and own. It dresses down really nicely but it can be dressed up equally as well! I chose this piece to wear on my wedding day!
The brand owner, Michael is also a really great guy and was really good in answering all of my questions about the watch. It was my first microbrand watch purchase so I was a little wary at first but I’m so glad I bought it! I cannot recommend Seals Watch Co enough!
LPW Watch Co – Luna One (Old design prototype)
This is a limited edition, 1 of 2. I have one and my father has the other. It’s the first watch I had anything to do with design-wise. It’s quite a simple watch, most of the parts were simply found online, with the dial being the only fully-custom part.
The inspiration for the look came from seeing a picture of a vintage Breitling SuperOcean ref. 2005. I loved that watch, but the price and scarcity put it firmly out of my reach and so I wanted to recreate the look for my own benefit. I guess it definitely falls under the ‘homage’ category.
When was it clear to you that you wanted to start your own watch brand? When and where did this idea come up?
It was this project of building the first watch that really ignited my love for the design process in particular. This began in late summer 2017. I got a real buzz from being able to design the watch and see the process of it all coming to fruition. The only negative of the first project was that I was super limited in what I could do by the availability of compatible parts.
After some really encouraging and positive feedback, I decided that I wanted to take things further and invest in my passion so I began to build the brand and evolve the design. I didn’t want to just push out a homage design without really being able to add my own stamp and style to it. I also wanted to be able to improve some elements of the design and adapt them to my own personal tastes.
That was always a key feature – I designed the watch I wanted to wear rather than what I thought it might be possible sell in the future. By adopting this strategy, I have been able to invest a huge amount of passion into the design and I’m really proud to reveal the new updated design on the newly launched website: lpwwatchco.com
On the website you can sign up to our mailing list to make sure you hear all about the latest updates and news as soon as they’re released! Also, give us a follow on Instagram!
I decided to keep the Luna One name because this watch is a direct result of the original Luna One and could not have existed without it. Readers will be able to see a lot of changes from the original piece I made compared to the new design. I’m really proud of it and cannot wait to see it all come together!
What does the logo and the name mean? How did this come about?
As this brand was originally started as a one-off and very personal project, the name came about from a very personal reference. It’s only relevant to my family really. As such, I want to keep this one personal element (and to maintain an air of mystery!) as a secret for myself!
In terms of the logo, I designed that myself and it came together very quickly. I have worked in brand management and marketing and I wanted something that was very quickly and easily identifiable as LPW Watch Co.
I also took note of other watch branding and decided I was not a fan of wordy brand names. They just don’t resonate with me. So, my branding is a logo, but with the company name incorporated. Rather than being purely visual or purely word based, I wanted something that covered both bases.
I come from a very creative background so I can usually visualise my ideas pretty well and then translate them to a computer fairly well.
What can we expect in 2019? What is special about your watch? The story behind it?
2019 will be spent finalising the production quality through prototyping. The design has had some great feedback from the folk that have seen it so far. This has essentially been a 2-year project so to see it come to fruition will be very rewarding! I’m hoping to then launch via KickStarter in March 2020 once the Xmas and New Year periods are out of the way.
I do say ‘hopefully’ however as I will not be rushing to get a product to market as quickly as possible. I’m keen to take the time to ensure the product is right before launching – I’ve seen too many brands rush what looks like a great product but ultimately fail because they do not invest the time into getting everything right ahead of time.
Please tell us the exact specifications of the watch.
The Luna One will be as below:
- 40mm 316L stainless steel case
- 50mm lug-to-lug
- 20mm lug width
- Swiss-made STP 1-11 movement
- 200m Water Resistance
- Custom 316L Stainless Steel Bracelet and clasp
- Fully-Lumed Sapphire Bezel
- Double-Domed Sapphire Crystal w/ underside AR Coating
- BWG9 Swiss Superluminova
- Layered Dial w/ Applied Indices
I’m really excited!
What else would you like to say to my readers?
First of all, thanks for taking the time to read what I have to say. Please do take a look at the website and sign up to the mailing list. And to you, David, thanks for giving me the opportunity to tell my story!
Found LPW Watch Co here:
Keep on clocking, Watchfam!
I really like the watch from LPW Watch Co. An automatic watch in black and white that not everyone wears. So we can be very excited about what will come in 2019/2020! And maybe I will soon be the proud wearer of this watch and can take many beautiful photos of it… 🙂
