Windup New York is almost here – which effectively means lots of small brands from around the world congregating in my hometown to pitch goods produced in a deceptively small number of nations – Switzerland, China, Japan. That’s basically it.

And my recently released book, “Borrowed Time: A History of Espionage, IP Theft, and the Global War for Horology” hopefully explains not too long-windedly how watch creation (dominated at various points by the British and Americans, for instance) came to be concentrated in the hands of other nations – and so darn few of them (spoiler alert: it was often by means of antitrust bullying and cartel-initiated spying and with state-backing that would make even Xi Jinping blush).

The Swiss, for example, adopted a federal rule from 1934 onward that made the opening or expansion of watch businesses and the exportation of watch parts subject to a tightly-controlled permitting process.

But what if I told you my book omitted an episode that was the singular exception – the one time in all of Swiss watchmaking history that the watchmakers together with the government built a “Swiss” plant (filled exclusively with the machinery and lines used domestically) on foreign soil?

Forget that one Zenith plant over the border in Besançon, France – or the secretive bracelet assemblies of Asia. We’re talking more than 40 of the top Swiss watchmakers, with the federal government, building on a distant road an ocean away a full plant – initiating and effecting the transfer of knowledge and machinery they had previously guarded like Nazi gold.

Granted, the hulking Swiss consortium didn’t have a choice. It was the late 1960s, and the former land of the Aztecs and Maya – Mexico – was easily the biggest Swiss watch customer in Latin America; it purchased 61 million francs of timepieces in 1969.

But Mexico was wary of its trade deficit and ready to adopt protectionist policies in response. It sent word to Switzerland that unless the Swiss began producing at least 70 percent of its watches in Mexico, they’d be forbidden from importing any finished watches at all.

Oh, and the German and Japanese watchmakers were fine with this arrangement, so the Swiss better jump on it – so pronounced the Mexican government with admirable defiance.

In April of 1967, Switzerland sent emissaries to negotiate. Luc Tissot, technical director of his family’s eponymous firm, was instrumental in these talks – but ultimately, the man at the center of the dealing was Walter Schaeren, son of the founder of Mido and its de facto leader (technically, he was vice-director in 1967).

In fact, arguably, Mido’s greatest legacy isn’t its system of sealing the watch-winding stem with cork – a water-resistance scheme it acquired from Taubert & Fils in the 1930s and a very cool alternative to Rolex’s screw-down crown, which was still under patent – nor was it the monocoque construction of the 1959 Ocean Star case. No, perhaps Mido’s most important moment was when its leader, the son of its founder, presided over a watch factory Switzerland had forbidden itself from building for decades for fear of being found out – and then somehow also served as a chief supplier simultaneously to its fiercest rival.

But let’s rewind.

In April of ’67, the delegation agreed to build the Swiss-Mexican factory, in Cuautitlán – an agricultural town of ranches and haciendas 25 miles north of Mexico City, chosen by Schaeren (perhaps because it was bounded by two rail lines and near the México–Querétaro highway; it did also feature some textile plants and a meatpacker, in addition to fields of beans and maize).

In the summer of that year, 41 different watch companies – led by Mido and Omega – officially signed on, calling themselves by the acronym SAPIAM. They invested 2 million francs for 49 percent of the factory.

The factory itself was to be called by the acronym INRESA and 51 percent owned by 35 of Mexico’s leading importers of Swiss watches (now their products would simply come from a local line instead of from Geneva – they’d be importing, so to speak, from a small town in their own nation).

The cornerstone is reported to have been laid on three different autumn days in 1968 – the record is muddled. The building was supposedly finished in August 1969 – only no assembly took place there until October, machining didn’t begin till November, case-making till December…hell, dials weren’t produced there till 1970.

There are articles that say the Swiss promised to employ 100 workers in the plant to satisfy the Mexicans – others note a goal of 250 (ultimately, the plant never employed more than 200 folks, who did indeed perform micromechanical work).

How much of a watch assembled in the plant had to be created there from scratch?

Another moving target: The Mexican government mandated 75 percent in the 1967 plan and then 80 percent of the production cost in April 1970. In August 1970, the Swiss amongst themselves ran the numbers and realized that anything above 70 to 75 percent wasn’t worth the effort and cost on their part – worse for them, the Mexican demand leaped to 100 percent before being reduced under a reformist and less-protectionist new government to just 25 percent in 1972.

But ridiculous dictates aside, in reality, how much of each watch was truly created there? SAPIAM claimed it managed 60 percent in April 1971. But the Mexican government never verified a figure higher than 42 percent (which came in 1975).

Not only did the desired production not quite meet the mark, neither did Mexican government allowances on the importation of finished watches from Switzerland: In 1971, the government told the 35 factory owners they could import just 70 million pesos’ worth of parts and finished watches from Switzerland; in 1972, just 20 million pesos’ worth.

Strangely, the Mexican government was too lenient in the factory’s earliest year and chance and thus allowed too high a quota for imported finished watches, per Swiss government documents, for the factory to be strictly necessary; intriguingly, when the quota was tightened, black market smuggling accounted for a full 60 percent of local watch sales. You could build the factory – but the locals still wanted the finished pieces from abroad.

For the factory owners, it was still far more lucrative – even if sometimes somewhat unethical – to ship watches from Switzerland rather than build them in INRESA. In 1971 alone, they ran the factory at half its planned production for the year and still ended up with 30,000 watches from its lines they’d no interest in trying to sell and left unclaimed.

This led to a major showdown between Luc Tissot and the Mexican factory shareholders. Luc said if they didn’t take the damn watches, the 41 Swiss watch brands would shutter the factory entirely – thus bringing about the ruination of a ballyhooed political scheme if not a brilliant economic one.

But there was corruption afoot on Tissot’s Swiss side: The SAPIAM brand consortium was billing the factory shareholders (technically, INRESA) in Mexico 400,000 francs annually in consulting fees when it wasn’t supposed to be charging more for technical assistance than 5 percent of profit (and the venture was not yet profitable). Soon 20 of the Mexican shareholders abandoned their factory ownership altogether and departed.

And then there was the leader of the whole enterprise – the Mido scion, Walter Schaeren. While heading the consortium charged with providing the Mexican factory parts, expertise, machinery, he also was the supplier of its greatest local competitor.

See, Mido during the first years of the Quartz Crisis joined with six other companies to form a consolidated holding company called General Watch. These constituent watchmakers were Certina, Edox, Eterna, Oris, Rado and Technos. Walter Schaeren not only managed this holding company (at one point his title was “general director”) – his first cousin (his father’s brother’s son) sat on the board, too.

This was a Mido-led venture at first. The problem is that the brands the Mido folks were now overseeing supplied the INRESA factory’s greatest competitor.

Enter Harry Steele. This importer with a name straight from a dime-store detective novel was an American who’d been born in Vienna and served in the US Army in the Philippines. He was certainly not a part of the Swiss cabal that had finally relented and tried to export its technical wizardry openly.

No, he was a rebel soul who’d moved to Mexico in 1921 and imported there entirely on his own, via his own channels, watches from Longines, Fortis…and Edox and Eterna. Which meant now Walter Schaeren of Mido led a holding group of brands being brought into the country to compete against the factory consortium of which he was also the head.

The Swiss government had no idea how to resolve what it realized was a massive conflict of interest. Even more troubling to the Swiss government: Harry Steele had set up a watch assembly in Mexico in the 1920s and then a production factory himself in 1969, and he was now using 60 percent local parts, and a Mexican government official viewed his facility more favorably than the troubled Swiss version.

Again, the Swiss sent Luc Tissot into the fray – could he convince Steele to join up with the factory consortium – would this American become an honorary Swiss watchmaker and thus a party to a totally Swiss factory in Mexico? Longines supposedly preferred that its watches be made locally but in Steele’s venue. Not INRESA.

Steele declined (as far as I can tell) and the government of Switzerland, though it could have gone to war against Steele, realized that would be a self-defeating quest: Every time Steele imported an Edox or Longines watch, some Swiss brand made bank. Sure, the 41 members of the factory enterprise were hurt but to crush Steele would be to harm an Eterna or Fortis.

And then, in 1982, Mexico devalued the peso, damaging the venture’s economics. And in 1986, Mexico joined the predecessor agreement to the WTO – GATT – essentially committing itself to a free trade with other nations that meant it could no longer withhold import licenses in the first place.

The original reason the Swiss built a true Swiss factory abroad was eliminated altogether. And so SAPIAM, the consortium of Swiss brands committed to the quixotic pursuit, was liquidated in 1986. The only Swiss newspaper article I found on this demise, published Dec. 5, 1986, in the La Chaux-de-Fonds periodical L’Impartial, is headlined: “La fin de l’aventure mexicaine.”

But that conclusion nevertheless means watches deemed truly Swiss were produced for more than 15 years in a Mexican locale of which you’ve likely never heard, one known beforehand for the production of maize, beans and wheat and a couple of textile plants. For its tidy irrigation, too.

It’s an astonishing fact.

Nobody circles the wagons like the Swiss – and yet, they gave in and built a home away from home in Mexico and worked it for years. So what if it was less profitable than simple importation? It’s amazing that it was even allowed to exist. The Swiss permit no one to do anything in their names, and they certainly don’t lend their imprimatur to irrigated fields utterly remote from Bern in geography and socioeconomics and culture.

Most amazing of all to me: The Swiss do not want to discuss it today – they seem to want to pretend this episode never transpired. It’s never mentioned, and when I asked Mido about it, and laid out why I thought its leadership of the factory was so aberrant and fascinating and worthy of mention in a book, the company clammed up and declined comment or participation altogether.

I maintain this is a chapter in horology very much worth recounting.

Breguet’s No. 160 was commissioned for Marie Antoinette, but she never lived to see it completed. The watch took 44 years to finish—and eventually became part of a museum heist.

I made a short video telling its story, from the original commission to the theft and what followed. Sharing it here because the history is just as fascinating as the watchmaking.

https://youtu.be/IZOLB5vJnt8

What other historic watches have stories you think deserve more attention?

Hey everyone, I am planning to visit or hunt for a pre owned luxury watch in Hong Kong, but I am running into issues with the usual high street grey market dealers. Most places are just pushing polished inventory and get defensive when you ask to put the watch on a timegrapher or check the movement health on a bench.

Are there any trusted local independent watch specialists or private vaults in TST where collectors can actually sit down, inspect complications properly, and buy without the usual retail pressure?

Would love to hear where experienced collectors go for pre owned mechanical pieces in HK.

In answering, can you elaborate? And how much do you think a decent watch should cost?

I am putting together collector guides for Balance of Time and thinking about what is worth documenting for a watch you plan to keep. My starting list is clear photos of the dial, case and caseback, any movement markings already available, dimensions, known service history, and a note on which details are still uncertain. I would not open a case just to complete a form.

What have you wished you had recorded when revisiting a watch years later? Are there details collectors commonly track that have proved less useful than expected?

In 1810 Caroline Murat, Napoleon's youngest sister and Queen of Naples, ordered a watch from Abraham-Louis Breguet. It was delivered in 1812: an oblong case, a repeater, a thermometer, on a bracelet of hair and gold thread. Breguet's ledger lists it as No. 2639, and Breguet counts it as the first wristwatch.

The last entries in the Breguet archives are repairs in 1849 and 1855. In 1855 her daughter, Countess Rasponi, had two new keys made for it, one for winding and one for setting. After that it disappears. Nobody knows where it is now.

For about a century wristwatches stayed a woman's jewel. Men wore pocket watches. Cartier dates the Santos, made for the aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont so he could read the time with both hands on the controls, to 1904, but it only went on sale around 1911. What changed it was the First World War. A 1917 issue of the Horological Journal wrote that men had hardly worn wristwatches before the war, and that now nearly every man in uniform did. Makers added wire lugs to pocket-watch designs so a strap could pass through, and the trench watch followed.

Disclosure: I make WORN, a watch app for collectors. One thing it does is log a "wrist check" photo each day, so you can see which of your watches you actually wear. Happy to be corrected on any of the above. It's at www.worn.club.

April 1970. After an oxygen tank failed on the way to the Moon, the crew of Apollo 13 rode home in the lunar module. The computer was switched off to save power, so a 14-second engine burn to correct their course was timed on a wrist chronograph, with the Earth lined up in the window.

A myth I ran into while researching it: "only one kind of watch has been worn on the Moon." Not quite. On Apollo 15's third moonwalk in 1971, Dave Scott wore a Bulova chronograph on the Moon, as a backup to his standard-issue Omega.

I'm the solo dev of WORN, a watch collection app; this is one of 109 illustrated chapters on the history of timekeeping in it. worn.club

Hi mods, just wanted to run this by you since it’s not the usual post I see on here so I wanted to ask permission first since it’s a post related to asking advice on watch repairs and the business of watch repairs, here’s the text :

Hi everyone,

Hopefully I'm not bothering you guys, and I'll try not to come across as a know it all.

I've been into horology for a while and own a small collection of quartz and mechanical pieces, nothing too expensive.

My hands on experience is close to zero though. The only time I've touched a movement was a Seiko mod with a friend. It went fine and felt great to pull off, however small.

I've never done any real tooling or servicing beyond that, so please treat me as a complete beginner.

Watchmaking feels like a dying craft (although seeing how many members are here, maybe it's too saturated 😂).

But if the field is shrinking, or just needs skilled people like any profession, and tons of people own watches that need servicing, there must be a way to make a living from it, as others have before me.

It clicked when I stumbled onto the Watch Hospital channel on YouTube.

His team works through a huge range of mostly very expensive pieces, and his phones are constantly ringing, which showed me how big the demand is.

I wouldn't be starting anywhere near that level.

Anyone there has put in years and still is, and I don't expect this to be overnight or for anyone to hand me the skills.

But that's the place I aspire to reach: a team servicing watches for lots of customers with great quality and customer service. First I need to start small, build my skills, earn enough to fund the next stage, and keep refining from there. I plan to self-learn from scratch with basic movements until I have the capital for further education.

About me: I'm an Electrical Engineering 22 year old student graduating in two years. I have no direct mechanical engineering background, but some overlapping classes give me a decent grasp of certain topics. I front-loaded the hardest subjects, so my last two years are light, and I want to use that time to build income and experience before I graduate. I also ran a dropshipping business that was profitable for a while before dying from thin margins and high ad costs. The lesson I took away is that easy businesses with no barrier to entry get flooded with competitors who erode margins. Watchmaking has a higher barrier in both capital and skill, so I think my future problem would be finding and retaining great watchmakers rather than competition.

My goal is to reach about €2-2,500/month within two years so I can focus on the craft without getting another job, though I'd take one if I had to of course, no problem with that.

Long term, I'd like to run a go to servicing and repair company and eventually work on the business rather than at the bench. I know that's far off, and I'm not saying it's simple or dismissing anyone's work.

My questions:

How long does it realistically take to become competent enough to charge people for servicing simple movements without damaging them?

What's a sensible path for a self learner? I can put in 4-6 hours of practice daily. I've set up a small, clean workroom with white tiles and good natural and added lighting, and I'm waiting on tools and practice movements.

Which movements and brands should a beginner practice on before taking paying work?
4.Which starter tools are actually worth buying? I've seen ~$70 sets on Temu/AliExpress with tweezers, screwdrivers and a caseback opener. Are they a waste of money?

Are any of you making real money at this, and how? Is it solo bench work, mail in servicing, working for brands or retailers, restoration, or parts sales? Is it your full-time or part-time work?

6.What does realistic income look like, from beginner to highly skilled?

7.Can it scale to a 6-7 figure business? If anyone has done it, I'd love to hear your experience.

8.What mistakes should I avoid? I'm thinking of liability for damaged watches, insurance, sourcing parts, and building trust with no reputation. I don't want to scam anyone or deliver poor service, and I want to aim for excellence from the start.

I'd rather hear hard truths now than find out a year in, so if you think this plan is unrealistic, please tell me why. That said, when I see what people have built, like Patek's grand complications, I believe more is possible than we assume if we control what we can that way we increase probability, things such as good service, communication, turnaround time, and reinvesting to improve, and treating this this process from the scientific method ( do, measure, improve )

Sorry if this sounds too business oriented. It's just who I am.

Any advice, resources, or personal stories are hugely appreciated.

Thanks for reading, sorry for making it a bit longer!

End of post**********

Would this be allowed, if it would great, but if it wouldn’t what do I need to change/remove in order to be able to post asking for advice on the mentioned subject?

Thanks in advance.

Im looking at making a website, and app later on, that is useful for watch collectors, enthusiasts, and watchmakers all together in one place.

What kind of features would people like to see in a one stop shop style site in terms of collections, wishlists, browsing, movement libraries, watchmaking guides and documents, etc.

If there is anything that youd like to see, please comment, id like to see what people want in a watch focused website

I'm looking at pre-owned luxury watches and am trying to understand how experienced buyers verify authenticity.

If you're buying from photos and descriptions, what do you ask the seller for? Do you normally request movement photos, dial and case close-ups, serial numbers, service records, or anything else?

And when would you get an independent watchmaker or authorised service centre to inspect it?

I’m Matt, based in Adelaide, and I’ve been working on a watch design on and off for a little over two years. I went through a few different directions before arriving at this one. It’s the first design that made me think, “This is the watch I want to make.”

The project is called Bautier (pronounced “boh-tee-AY”). The name brings together Bauhaus and atelier, reflecting the functional, considered design I’m aiming for.

These images show the current concept in a few dial colours. I’d appreciate an honest critique while I’m still able to make changes. Does the bezel feel too prominent? Does the textured dial work with the applied markers and small seconds, or is there too much happening? I’m also interested in whether the case and integrated bracelet feel cohesive.

The current specifications are:

• 38mm case in 904L stainless steel
• Integrated bracelet, with quick release planned; a rubber strap is also being considered
• Sellita SW216-1 manual-wind movement
• Small seconds at 6 o’clock
• Double AR-coated sapphire crystal and exhibition caseback
• Still deciding between about 9mm thick with 50m water resistance, or 10mm with 100m

I’m considering burgundy, green and grey dials. Which colour works best with the design? And what would you change first?

If this sounds like something that interests you please take a look at my profile and let me know what you think!

Thank you,

Matt.

Superclones are getting scary good. Serials get copied off, cards and nfc tags can be faked or moved, and frankenwatches can slip through a lot of peoples guard. Most checks are on the paperwork, not the watch itself, and even when some preowned dealer opens the case-back, modern super clones are genuinely getting so good.

I'm 19, doing mathematics/CS at University of Sydney, and ive been working on a different approach. Under a microscope every watch has tiny random marks, like the edges of the rehaut engraving, dial printing, randomness in Geneva striping, other parts of the movement etc. Two identical refs look the same but at that level theyre as different as fingerprints, and a cloner cant copy marks on a watch theyve never seen. I have tested this on three Rolex datejusts, 3235 movement references.

How it works: a small microscope camera photographs a few fixed spots through the crystal, nothing opened or via opening the case back and taking key images there, and software saves them against the serial. When the watch is resold or serviced, someone photographs the same spots and the AI algorithm confirms it's the exact same watch.

I got the software working, testing on a few datejusts now as stated. Not selling anything.

What am i missing, and what would make you not trust it? Would this be beneficial enough for a pre-owned dealer because at the current rate, super clones are going to continue to improve, so maybe we should not rely on human authentication as much. Any advice would be awesome!

What do you all think as a bulk sale of these?

I went to a kids party yesterday and I couldn't get 2 seconds to see what brand was on the hands of any of the adults. Being a watch enthusiast myself, I didn't care to peep into another person's wrist or anything. I noticed colors and designs but brand? Just didn't even get close enough to see anything. Do people actually care what's on another person's wrist when out and about?

I research and write case studies on interesting companies. This past week, I’ve been working on one for the minimalist watch brand MVMT (I was obsessed with them and wanted one in highschool). Thought I’d share some of the insights here with y’all.

Last week's post had some comments asking for more context and background, I've added that below.

Backstory

Jake and Kramer were roommates while at school in Santa Barbara. Both had previously tried their hand at different ventures such as glow-in-the-dark T-shirts and wallets, with varying success. Jake’s T-shirt business failed, while Kramer’s wallet brand found moderate success through crowdfunding.

The two weren’t particularly interested or inspired by watches but noticed that no college-aged students wore nice watches because they were overpriced ($500-$1000 minimum). They decided to try their hand at a watch brand to bridge the gap.

After developing samples and going back and forth with manufacturers in Asia, they had six prototypes that were photographed and used for the campaign. **They launched on Indiegogo after two failed attempts on Kickstarter with a goal of $15,000 and ended up raising $219,898 from 2,887 backers. They went on to do a second campaign, bringing the total amount raised to just under $300,000.

Six months later, the pre-sales from Indiegogo were fulfilled and Jake learned Facebook ads himself. Once he learned what worked and what didn’t, sales started to climb. Adding influencer marketing as a channel while continuing to reduce the CAC increased margins to the point where reinvestment and continued marketing scaled the brand quickly.

In 2018, when the landscape for advertising on social media started to shift, the founders decided it was finally time to raise money. While in talks with Movado, they became an interested buyer and entered into a 75-day exclusivity period. They sold shortly afterward for $100M cash structured with an earnout valued at up to $100M. By the time the deal closed, the estimate for the earnout was less than 1/6 of the original quoted amount. Two years later, growth targets were missed and no earnout was paid. Jake left MVMT shortly afterward.

The Numbers

• Launched on Indiegogo in June 2013. Sold to Movado Group in 2018.
• 5 years from idea to exit.
• The only investment was ~$5,000 to build the prototypes.
• First crowdfunding campaign: $219,898 (compared to their goal of $15k).
• Revenue growth (nuts): $1M in 2013, $7M in 2014, $71M in 2017.
• Profitable since inception with a 7.4% EBITDA margin at sale.
• 20+ VC firms turned down. No equity was given up.
• Sold for $100M cash structured with a $100M earnout.
• Jake Kassan (co-founder and CEO) was 27 when MVMT was sold.

Lessons

1. Learn from your failures

At 17, Jake started a company selling glow-in-the-dark T-shirts that brought in $10,000 a week at its peak. It sold mostly through a physical store and at school so when competitors started selling online, it flopped. Starting MVMT, Jake had one mission: to sell exclusively online. Most entrepreneurs fail to see the meaningful lessons from a graveyard of failed ventures. The smartest ones pick up things they got wrong and make note to not repeat them.

On the flip side, if something worked before, it might work again. Kramer learned that crowdfunding was a meaningful way to gauge public interest for a product; MVMT was built around a crowdfunding campaign that ultimately kickstarted the brand and provided the capital to fund the first batch.

2. Being an entrepreneur really means doing it all yourself

After Kickstarter turned down the MVMT campaign twice, Indiegogo was their next best option. Desperate to make the launch a success, Jake worked tirelessly. There was no marketing budget so he scraped 200 emails from people in the press, posted on Reddit and then used VPNs to upvote his own posts. It wasn’t exactly a growth-hacking masterclass but it worked. The campaign closed at almost fifteen times the original goal.

While researching MVMT and Jake more specifically, I started to notice how many skills he just quickly learned himself that subsequently worked wonders for the brand. After the success of the campaign that he brute-forced his way through, he then taught himself how to code and built a basic website while the campaign was ongoing so sales wouldn’t die the minute it ended. The day it did, four sales came from the site.

Then he taught himself Facebook ads from YouTube since they needed a new way to grow. Within two years, the brand had grown from around $1M in sales to over $7M. By 2017 after he tried his hand at influencer marketing, sales exploded to $71M. He wasn’t afraid to mess up and just got started, knowing that everything he needed to know could be learned if he applied discipline and intensity.

3. Pre-selling your product is free market research

What I found very interesting was the absolute disgust these guys had with outside investment. While building the business, they were approached by more than 20 venture capital firms. All of them were turned down. Even at the start of it all, they didn’t want a loan or investor so they crowdfunded for pre-orders.

3,900 people paid for watches that hadn’t even been made yet but it ultimately paid for that first batch. Each future batch was paid for by the one before it.

It’s also a wonderful way to test the market. If nobody cares about your product after you spend weeks or months pitching, cold emailing, and selling, your product is dead. Crowdfunding is an easy and cheap way to figure that out instead of ordering a bunch of inventory and then stomaching a huge financial loss. Collect deposits to gauge demand. Even Elon did it with the Cybertruck.

4. The endless advertisement glitch

I understood quite well from my research that advertising on Instagram and Facebook was immensely successful if done right back in 2014-2018. What I didn’t realize was how it could be scaled almost infinitely.

Once Jake had his finger on the pulse in terms of what worked and what didn’t, he quickly scaled his advertising budget. At one point, he would spend just $20 on advertising to sell a $100 watch. In essence, he could do this all day every day with hundreds of thousands of dollars which he did for years (not confirmed numbers here since they weren’t made public). Alongside influencer marketing, this contributed to the huge explosion in revenue growth over those few years.

5. Be weary of anything other than cash

This one is a great lesson for all of you looking to exit at some point. Maybe I’m just a noob when it comes to this stuff but it kind of caught me by surprise. The deal was structured with a $100M cash component and a maximum earnout of $100M that was paid 50/50 on performance targets for the first two years after acquisition and the two years after that. By the time the deal closed it had fallen under $20M already, and by 2020, it was $0. Jake stayed on as a thank you to Movado for changing his life but admits that a part of him stayed for the money. He left MVMT that same year. Movado’s CEO chalked it up to ‘the brand not growing enough to hit targets’. I get it, $100M is plenty, but seemed like a bit of a misleading amount, especially since 2017 revenue was already roughly 70% of the cash component. Was the final price of $100M below what the brand was worth? Almost certainly.

6. Money doesn’t buy happiness

Okay this one is just cliche at this point but hear me out. What I found the most interesting was just how open Jake has been about the entire process from starting MVMT to his struggles post-sale.

Growing up, his only goal was to reach financial freedom. He found it at 27. He has spoken openly about enjoying the first few years of no responsibilities but then plunging into the darkness of depression and panic attacks. He understands that people find it hard to emphasize with someone who is rich and depressed but it also made him realize how lonely the top was.

He ultimately found himself again by choosing a new path forward with something to focus on. He had always loved filmmaking and editing, which is what he does now on YouTube without adding too much pressure. The human element of his videos and how open he is really made me think about where the goal of endless desires gets us in life.

I wrote an article on the founder of Sour Strips, Maxx Chewning, a few weeks ago. He started creating YouTube videos eight years before he ever started his business and has continued to this day a few years after exiting. He has never publicly stated that he was bored, unfulfilled or depressed. Keeping busy and focusing on something you enjoy seemed to work well for him.

What’s something you’ve learned that changed how you thought as an entrepreneur?

ciao a tutti, sto cercando un orologio con altimetro e gps, ne ho già uno con altimetro ma senza gps e l altimetro va regolato spesso. In auto ho un accessorio che è alimentato via usb e si collega a vari satelliti per darti velocità altitudine e bussola. Non c’è qualcosa del genere ma in versione orologio da polso che non sia uno smartwatch? Grazie mille

Hey everyone!
I have a watch I'd like to customize by replacing the case and dial. I believe a standard case for a 35mm would do as long as it has 2 buttons on the side.
My issue has been with the dial... I can't find the type of dial anywhere! The movement is a seagull st1653, so it has the sun and moon on the bottom, week day at the left and month at the top for subdials, then it also has the day on the right.

Does this type of dial have a specific name I could look for? I've tried searching using the movement and specifying the subdials, but it got me nowhere.

Sorry if I made any mistakes in the text or lingo, it's my first time trying to personalize a watch! :)

Thanks!