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The kickstarter adventures of Sólás - solaswatches.com
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Fishskin doesn't get used enough for straps anymore IMO.
Salmon, Shark and Ray can all give lovely effect and finish.
That strap is bloody lovely TF!
Glad you like the prototype - we will be using slimmer thread for the actual production strap in order to let the scale pattern shine (rather than focus being diverted to the stitching). Will have the strap in the post next week so can pair it onto one sample to confirm that it will wear comfortably.
On the ray and shark leather - I did research into ray leather actually - there are plenty of high end watch brands that use ray. ...the only thing is I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of using ray, shark, ostrich etc. leather. Not politicking and everyone has their own decision to make but for sustainability purposes I would much rather use a material that is a by-product of our food industry rather than skins that are procured almost solely for their leather.
For example - during my research I found that for cows it's a roughly 80/20 split in terms of value of meat/skin. For ostriches it's 20/80 split. For rays/sharks/alligator etc. I'm guessing it's something akin to 1/99 split.
Personally I'd prefer to use products that are close to cows than ostrichs in the value split. Salmon seems to be one that definitely falls into the "valued for meat" camp.
Of course I'm happy to learn more about the industry too - I know I actually like eating rays (sadly for the rays
) - and their leather being fireproof and effectively naturally ceramic are very interesting properties. I would need to make sure that sourcing these would be done in an environmentally conscious way however.Irishphotodesk wrote: »Looking forward to the launch.... Just hope I have enough space on the credit card (planning to get 2... One for me and one for father in law.
This will be my first watch purchase, father in law has a fairly large collection.
Wow - honoured to hear that you'd be considering a Sólás as your first watch purchase. I promise to do my very utmost to ensure that trust is well placed
If the FIL has a large collection I think he will definitely appreciate a micro-rotor watch in that collection as something unique in that collection (though you might check first) 0 -
Glad you like the prototype - we will be using slimmer thread for the actual production strap in order to let the scale pattern shine (rather than focus being diverted to the stitching). Will have the strap in the post next week so can pair it onto one sample to confirm that it will wear comfortably.
On the ray and shark leather - I did research into ray leather actually - there are plenty of high end watch brands that use ray. ...the only thing is I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of using ray, shark, ostrich etc. leather. Not politicking and everyone has their own decision to make but for sustainability purposes I would much rather use a material that is a by-product of our food industry rather than skins that are procured almost solely for their leather.
For example - during my research I found that for cows it's a roughly 80/20 split in terms of value of meat/skin. For ostriches it's 20/80 split. For rays/sharks/alligator etc. I'm guessing it's something akin to 1/99 split.
Personally I'd prefer to use products that are close to cows than ostrichs in the value split. Salmon seems to be one that definitely falls into the "valued for meat" camp.
Of course I'm happy to learn more about the industry too - I know I actually like eating rays (sadly for the rays ) - and their leather being fireproof and effectively naturally ceramic are very interesting properties. I would need to make sure that sourcing these would be done in an environmentally conscious way however.
Wow - honoured to hear that you'd be considering a Sólás as your first watch purchase. I promise to do my very utmost to ensure that trust is well placed
If the FIL has a large collection I think he will definitely appreciate a micro-rotor watch in that collection as something unique in that collection (though you might check first)
Sorry to butt in to the watch thread men but the fish skin is lovely. I often wondered why more isn't done with all the farmed Salmon skins.
Third Fox if you would indulge me in a tangential query. Are you really saying that the skin of a cow is worth a fifth of the kill? Or am I misunderstanding?
Also I love your thread and follow it despite not owning a watch at all.0 -
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Get ready for a deluge of photos... finished the photoshoot of the watch today. The macro shots are tough on a watch - any movement can look bad when magnified 20x under the macro lens. But I think the watch held up nicely both dial side and movement side. Just to give a rough idea of the magnification with this set up I've taken photos of the eyelashes on a dragonfly :eek:
Just a reminder before we go into the macro shots of how small the elements actually are on the watch:
The front
The back
Without further ado - "I'm ready for my close up Mr DeMille"
So the reason it's called the Starlight... and why I personally love aventurine (this is under direct flash):
What it looks like when there's no direct flash on the dial and shows off the indices too:
And another:
Don't forget the hands:
Designed in Ireland:
This is the crown:
Moving to the back:
So up close I think it looks well - let's zoom out to show the watch as seen through human eyes:
With the prototype salmon strap:
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Nice photos, the watch looks great
I have my money already put aside for the KS
I hope it goes well as some of TF's other concepts sound great and really deserve a chance to get to market.
The watch, is stunning.
The geneve finishing on the movement and the rotor engraving are beautiful.
I am flabbergasted at the finishing and attention to detail, the aventurine dial is breathtaking.0 -
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They are polished both sides - I think it's just the angle that the other side looks brushed (I'm not going to pretend it's black polish ). You are right though that looking at the hands closely from multiple angles it will appear that one side is brushed while the other side is polished.
And I'm sure if you take the macro lens to a Patek you'll see lovely anglage, black polish etc. that you won't find on the Starlight but I do hope it shows that Chinese movements/watches don't have to all be "cheap/fake" and the workers in Hangzhou watch factory take pride in their work too. As long as you're not asking them to make a full watch for €20 you can get a lot for the money in my opinion.0 -
They are polished both sides - I think it's just the angle that the other side looks brushed (I'm not going to pretend it's black polish ). You are right though that looking at the hands closely from multiple angles it will appear that one side is brushed while the other side is polished.
And I'm sure if you take the macro lens to a Patek you'll see lovely anglage, black polish etc. that you won't find on the Starlight but I do hope it shows that Chinese movements/watches don't have to all be "cheap/fake" and the workers in Hangzhou watch factory take pride in their work too. As long as you're not asking them to make a full watch for €20 you can get a lot for the money in my opinion.
The detailing is fantastic, the new photos really show off the quality.
In the 1st photo, the ridge put me in mind of B&R's hand style on some of their pieces.
I would have been very pleased and not at all surprised if you'd managed to pull it off as an extra little surprise :pac:
Your efforts at bringing the starlight to life are really an education to a watch heathen like me.
Thank you 0 -
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John Hutton wrote: »I have my money set aside too. Know very little about watches before this thread but I sense this watch will be the introduction to fancy watches for many people.
Well done OP
Thanks John - to be honest though I wouldn't call it a "fancy" watch for many people unless they are comparing it to say simple quartz pieces. I just want to set expectations honestly (won't be using hyperbole and say "this blows Patek out of the water" ) - I reckon it'll be a step up from a Sea-Gull ST17 automatic or the Seiko NH35 used in lots of microbrands but I think to be honest it won't be technically any different from a Swiss ETA 2824 or Sea-Gull ST2130 that you find in a plethora of watches - other than the visual difference afforded by the micro-rotor. That difference is important to me though - a lot of people (like myself) like to see the gears twirl around in a mechanical piece.
Design-wise I tried to have a coherent vision though.
I've tried to do the best I can within the budget/price-point I set myselfThinking that this would be a good 18th birthday present for my daughter. She's 18 Nov 21 and is a fluent Irish speaker so think it's a good match!
Ha - while I'm all for backing the watch I'd definitely check with a teenage daughter before surprising her with an automatic watch - many kids these days would prefer a Michael Kors watch, some others would prefer an Apple watch. I got a Longines for my sister for her 18th but made sure she understood why such a watch was "superior" to the MK fashion watches - her friends probably would have found the MK watch to be more appealing 
On a serious point though - the watch wouldn't be ready until January 2021 though so she'd need to wait. If she is interested though as a fluent speaker I can always check with the factory if I can get something like her name engraved on the piece for her if that's something she might like.
I've a Gaelic name too (semi-jokingly) - Dónal McBhú since I was called Daniel growing up - my father calls himself a "daily Irish speaker" and came up with the McBhú surname transliteration - I think if I reveal that on the Kickstarter page people would say I'm taking the mick
edit: - offering once off engravings isn't something I intend to do for people backers generally (sorry!) but if it's for a gaeilgeoir and a boardsie then I can definitely ask (it might not be possible still but I can see what can be done
@FB - the Bradán Feasa is a (twice) off - I'm keeping one myself just as something to be proud of myself (forgive me for that small indulgence!) But in the future if the brand goes well the Starlight model will probably be revisited (since I'm limited in how many I can sell this time round). It's more of a promotional/aspirational piece showing people the direction I want to take the brand in i.e. moving further "up-market" in time as that's the only way I can try and incorporate more and more Irish production elements into models. So without using fake advertising speak "buy it now because prices are going to go up!!!" - it is something that if you like I'd recommend bidding on in the charity auction (it's all for charity anyway!) - because if something similar is offered in the future it probably won't be at this price point again (though I would hope to offer something similar in the future - not this exact one though).
And that won't even be me raising prices for the same thing - one reason I've limited myself to the numbers to be offered is because any more and I need to charge VAT on the sale price, incorporate as a company, hire an accountant etc. - doing the project made me realise the trade offs between supporting a microbrand (arguably better features for the money but if things go wrong...) or buying from established brick and mortar brands (you can walk out with the product from a store instantly but they must have huge overheads so that's why they can't offer aventurine dials "cheaply" etc.)0 -
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It's a great idea. You could think about a future "Setanta" or "Cú Chulainn" model with a sliotar strap
Indeed - Irish/Celtic heritage provides a wealth of figures to use - and you've already read my mind in advance ha with Setanta.
Just proving my Irish "provenance" - I loved reading Irish folktales growing up (NEERRD!) - so I know all about the Donn Cúailnge (Brown Bull of Cooley), Children of Lir etc.
Led to a pretty funny instance at volunteer training for the Special Olympics when the trainer was explaining how people can't assume you understand cultural differences and picked me at random to say "and for example - would this gentleman know anything about Cú Chulainn?" - imagine the surprise on his face when I gave a brief synopsis of the hound of Ulster and his battles with Queen Maeve :pac: I guess we learnt that day we couldn't assume people didn't understand cultural differences either
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So... Today is the official launch of the push to get people registered on the kickstarter website in terms of getting notified on when the campaign launches.
Hopefully I've shown my bona fides in trying to get this project off the ground and people trust I'm not a fly by night "cute hoor" trying to sell a $20 watch for thousands or even hundreds...
In which case - because of the various forum rules on self promotion being (rightly in my opinion) banned generally - I would be grateful if people could perhaps post a thread on various watch forums they are involved in to share this story with others who may be interested.
For example - some of the ones that would come to my mind would be:
r/watches on reddit.com
affordable watches forum on watchuseek.com
TZ-UK's forums
I'm not asking that people advertise it as something that's the best thing since white pan. But rather mentioning that here's something from Ireland that looks interesting... if other posters show any interest in the watch I could always answer any questions they may have.
It isn't naked self-interest by my part either - currently we have 80 people expressing an interest on
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/solaswatches/solas-starlight-an-irish-micro-rotor-watch - of course this is before youtube/blog reviews go up and I haven't really been pushing this yet - realistically it would need a minimum of 200 people to be a viable campaign - so promoting it elsewhere for people who are interested in backing this campaign means it's more likely the watch will be made.
So... I would be really grateful if people could help me spread awareness of the campaign on those forums I mentioned above (and any others they think might be relevant) - the kickstarter site and www.solaswatches.com site could probably be mentioned too and feel free to use any of the images/video I've produced.
Thanks for all the support and words of encouragement over the last 7 months - I'm really excited to see where we can go from here
If you do put up a thread elsewhere could you please perhaps put a link here so I can know too and have a look to see if it has any interest from other posters on those forums and jump on the thread if needs be.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh!0 -
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I really love the attention to detail with these watches and would love to support your campaign.
Please don't take this in a bad way but the one thing I will echo is the font is turning me off. I love the name 'Solas', I love the 'deartha in Eirinn' just can't get past the execution. Is that something you would re-visit pre-production? I fully respect the intention and it may appeal to a certain market. To me it's a blend of Comic Sans and the font on Inis perfume you get on Aer Lingus flights.
I'd love to see a mock up options with smaller text, maybe in a celtic style fine line calligraphy and a then just a plain non-serif font for comparison.0 -
So... Today is the official launch of the push to get people registered on the kickstarter website in terms of getting notified on when the campaign launches.
Hopefully I've shown my bona fides in trying to get this project off the ground and people trust I'm not a fly by night "cute hoor" trying to sell a $20 watch for thousands or even hundreds...
In which case - because of the various forum rules on self promotion being (rightly in my opinion) banned generally - I would be grateful if people could perhaps post a thread on various watch forums they are involved in to share this story with others who may be interested.
For example - some of the ones that would come to my mind would be:
r/watches on reddit.com
affordable watches forum on watchuseek.com
TZ-UK's forums
I'm not asking that people advertise it as something that's the best thing since white pan. But rather mentioning that here's something from Ireland that looks interesting... if other posters show any interest in the watch I could always answer any questions they may have.
It isn't naked self-interest by my part either - currently we have 80 people expressing an interest on
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/solaswatches/solas-starlight-an-irish-micro-rotor-watch - of course this is before youtube/blog reviews go up and I haven't really been pushing this yet - realistically it would need a minimum of 200 people to be a viable campaign - so promoting it elsewhere for people who are interested in backing this campaign means it's more likely the watch will be made.
So... I would be really grateful if people could help me spread awareness of the campaign on those forums I mentioned above (and any others they think might be relevant) - the kickstarter site and www.solaswatches.com site could probably be mentioned too and feel free to use any of the images/video I've produced.
Thanks for all the support and words of encouragement over the last 7 months - I'm really excited to see where we can go from here
If you do put up a thread elsewhere could you please perhaps put a link here so I can know too and have a look to see if it has any interest from other posters on those forums and jump on the thread if needs be.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh!
Keep an eye on this one
https://forums.watchuseek.com/f71/new-irish-designed-micro-rotor-solas-5189321.html#post51782897
You'll be best mates with docvail yet;)If the seat's wet, sit on yer hat, a cool head is better than a wet ar5e.
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Might need some attention..... thanks for the prompt - was waiting to see if some more positive ones came in beforehand but yeah now would be a good idea to say hi thanks for feedback :pac:
I'm a big boy though - those comments aren't going to put me off. I would be concerned about it putting off people who may be interested but see a "consensus" forming and get swayed by that.
Despite what many of the comments say on that thread on the kickstarter page followers have gone up by 13 already so there is "silent interest" at least 0 -
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Keep an eye on this one
https://forums.watchuseek.com/f71/new-irish-designed-micro-rotor-solas-5189321.html#post51782897
You'll be best mates with docvail yet;)
I remember docvail when he was back in the Chinese mechanical forum asking for info about watch movements 0
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