The kickstarter adventures of Sólás - solaswatches.com

John Hutton

Not long to go now.

Handily the 15th is payday for me (and many thousands of others!), good planning

Thirdfox

Not intentional! (Plus the cards are only charged when the campaign finished at midnight October 31st and only if it has been successfully funded).

The timing was a mixture of giving enough time to get those 12 additional reviews out and leaving enough time for a campaign of 2 weeks at least...and trying to minimise delay in ordering the movements (they are being built to order in Hangzhou) as we come up to year end (and more frighteningly Chinese New Year where everything stops). The key thing is to get the movements to my assembly factory prior to CNY - assembly, QC and so on will be fast compared to the wait for the movements to be built.

Thirdfox

It's always slightly cringy to hear your own voice on recordings ("I do NOT sound like that!" :P ) - but here is the 1 hr 15 min chat with the guys from 40and20 discussing Sólás, Robert Pattinson, 18th century STDs and me being an extremely cheap date to take out:

https://watchclicker.com/4020-the-watch-clicker-podcast/ - latest episode 102 is the one with me.

I actually started going through their back catalogue too in my spare time - plenty of interesting interviews (the Long Island Watch interview especially) and general chat also.

somebody_else

Hi

Shane from Relative Time did follow up on his take on Solas.
https://youtu.be/HHFRYGw1i78

Tom

Thirdfox

With less than 4 days to the launch - fellow Irishman Ben from Wonder of Watches has release an in-depth review of the Sólás Starlight. After travelling all across the world for reviews from Australia, the US, Israel, the UK and France it's great that we get to see it back in its native home too:

His review covers a bit more of the Irish side of the watch brand and I especially loved his comparison of the dial under the different light conditions (pre-sunrise, post sunrise, indoors and a full on sunny day). I suggest checking out the review to see a local's take on the watch.

Thirdfox

1 day 23 hours...

And a potentially heavy hitter in a Scottish Watches review:
http://www.scottishwatches.co.uk/2020/10/13/solas-starlight-review/

And actually should have another 2-3 reviews popping out later today too across various other channels (one from Chronosapiens - the largest Polish Facebook watch group) and one from a channel who is just starting out but having looked at the guy's reviews thought he was interesting and wanted to support his channel with content just like some of the bigger channels decided to support me at the very beginning when no-one had heard of Sólás.

Lorddrakul

The general reception seems to be great.

Nothing negative but minor gripes, often subjective.

Fair play, @ThirdFox

Thirdfox

I do think the clasp can be improved by going custom moulded - but that isn't for this round of funding - it's definitely something I will get done in the future - though for all the advantages it gives over the cheaper deployant clasps I think still it's the better call to go with the current clasps over a tang buckle or a normal butterfly deployant.

One thing that I'm quite confident on is that because most people haven't experienced aventurine before they will in all likelihood be happier with the watch in hand than going by what they see on the pictures. So it should be the case that anyone who is slightly concerned that this dial will just look like glitter will find that in reality that is not the case. So that's something that should exceed backer expectations (which is always what I'd be aiming for - would hate for anyone to feel let down by the end product).

This is it

Thirdfox wrote: »

1 day 23 hours...

And a potentially heavy hitter in a Scottish Watches review:
http://www.scottishwatches.co.uk/2020/10/13/solas-starlight-review/

And actually should have another 2-3 reviews popping out later today too across various other channels (one from Chronosapiens - the largest Polish Facebook watch group) and one from a channel who is just starting out but having looked at the guy's reviews thought he was interesting and wanted to support his channel with content just like some of the bigger channels decided to support me at the very beginning when no-one had heard of Sólás.

Really enjoyed that read, brilliant write up for you. Well done can't wait for Thursday!

hammerdub

Another great review. Roll on the 15th. If say the nerves and excitement are building tf.

Thirdfox

I think tomorrow I'll be keeping relatively quiet so all the marketing/announcing/talking will be loaded onto today.

As I said on the social media sites:

Sometimes it's good to stop and take a walk outside - after all the work on Sólás over the last few weeks I raised my head up today and noticed that autumn has arrived in Ireland.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/solaswatches/solas-starlight-an-irish-affordable-micro-rotor-watch

The Starlight launches tomorrow at 3pm Irish time - and I thank all the people who have considered the Starlight interesting enough to look at. If you want to look at their reviews/interviews/features you can go to the Sólás website and click directly on the images.

Enjoy the autumn everyone

John Hutton

Big day tomorrow

Just some questions on the practicals tomorrow, I got in on the cheapest option the last time, from what I remember you want us to jump in again as soon as possible at launch and if we don't get the same price as last time (but try to do this to keep things simple) you will sort us out?

Eoin

Best of luck for the launch!

Thirdfox

John Hutton wrote: »

Big day tomorrow

Just some questions on the practicals tomorrow, I got in on the cheapest option the last time, from what I remember you want us to jump in again as soon as possible at launch and if we don't get the same price as last time (but try to do this to keep things simple) you will sort us out?

Exactly - I've increased numbers substantially for the lower priced tiers but we are probably dealing with much higher numbers too.

I made a guarantee to the backers on the original campaign that if you don't at least get the same level of pricing you got before then I'll refund the difference afterwards (KS doesn't really allow for discounting directly I think).

Considering there are 150 spots at the equivalent (or better) of the previous lowest level I would be hoping that most people won't be in a situation where they are paying more after waiting the extra time

This is it

It's like Christmas Eve. Best of luck

banie01

This is it wrote: »

It's like Christmas Eve. Best of luck

Well i'd say its more like standing outside the Labour ward for TF

Best of luck tomorrow Thirdfox.
Delighted to see that your brave and quite ballsy decision to pull the original, retool your strategy and reboot has gained such good traction.
I have a mate who was pestering about buying his 1st "serious" watch over the last couple of weeks.
He was all in on an SKX007J, sent him on the worn and review and a firm steer in your direction as "once in a lifetime" watch

wanderer 22

Good luck tomorrow TF. Any chance you could change the font though?

Joke.. ;-)

Lorddrakul

All the best for the big day!

Cazale

I don't have a huge interest in watches but I have been following this thread from the start due to your passion, honesty and determination. Really hope it goes as well as it should. Good luck!

FFVII

Had every intention of buying one but lost the job so all I can do is wish ye well TF.

blue5000

All the best TF, hope they sell out fast.

Thirdfox

colm18 wrote: »

Good luck tomorrow TF. Any chance you could change the font though?

Joke.. ;-)

Ha! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ (there's an Asian emoji for ya too)

Happy 15th all.

@FFVII sorry to hear that man - the good wishes are really appreciated.

C0N0R

Complete Kickstarter Newbie, but what’s the link where I’ll have to do the business to sign up?

Thirdfox

C0N0R wrote: »

Complete Kickstarter Newbie, but what’s the link where I’ll have to do the business to sign up?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/solaswatches/solas-starlight-an-irish-affordable-micro-rotor-watch

At 3pm this link here will change over to the launch page where people can put in a pledge for the campaign.

I'd recommend clicking the notify me on launch too and setting up a KS account - makes its all a lot quicker to do and put the pledge in at 3pm (or thereafter)

hammerdub

Best wishes today ,hope all goes according to plan and you reach the figures you need. Looking forward to getting one.

SnowyMay

Tick tock!

Wishing you the best of luck TF!!! I have a dedicated tab open and waiting.

John Hutton

Backed

RMDrive

And we're off

Only #28 - how fast are you all???

Dev1234

Backed TF,

Best of luck!!!

This is it

In