Digital Social Hour - How Independent Watch Brands Are Making a Comeback I Jason Lu DSH #1282

Episode Date: March 30, 2025

Independent watch brands are making a comeback in a big way! 🎉 Join Sean Kelly and Jason Lu of 1776 Atelier as they explore the artistry, challenges, and innovation driving this resurgence in the watchmaking world. ⌚✨ From hand-crafted skeleton watches to the rich history of American watchmaking, this episode of *Digital Social Hour* is packed with valuable insights you don’t want to miss!    Discover why collectors are turning to independent brands for unique, artisanal timepieces that combine tradition with modern craftsmanship. Jason shares the fascinating process behind creating bespoke watches, the hurdles U.S. watchmakers face, and why demand for independent brands is skyrocketing. 🚀 Plus, hear the inside scoop on Rolex, Patek, and the growing market for personalized designs.    Don’t miss out on this captivating conversation! Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the *Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly*! 🔥     CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Jason Lu Intro 02:11 - Made in the USA Label Challenges 04:52 - Rolex Market Share Trends 09:01 - Independent Watch Brands Comeback 11:24 - Craftsmanship of Handmade Watches 15:14 - Skeleton Watch Making Process 18:45 - Restoring Vintage Watches 22:29 - Understanding Water Resistance 22:32 - Watch Manufacturing Costs 22:37 - Impressive Mainstream Watch Brands 24:52 - Watch Production Expenses 26:30 - Future of Vortic Watches 28:07 - Jason’s Favorite Watch Selection 30:45 - Where to Buy Watches   APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail]   GUEST: Jason Lu https://www.instagram.com/1776atelier https://1776atelier.com/   SPONSORS: KINSTA:  https://kinsta.com/dsh   LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/   #timmosso #independentwatchmakers #lainewatches #independentwatchbrands #modernvintagewatches

There's this term that is probably one of the most contentious terms in watchmaking where people say, did you design everything from the ground up? And did you manufacture everything from the ground up? I'd like to use the word that we have a manufacturer on. So I am using a traditional Swiss architecture. So we're using somebody else's architecture where we manufacture those plates and bridges that are over. All right, guys, we got Jason Liu here today. 1776 Atelier.

Thanks for coming on, man. Thank you for having me. Yeah, would you label yourself as a watchmaker? I would. What a title to have. Not many people have that title. It's sadly a title that's disappearing in the United States.

It's still prevalent in some other parts of the world. But as the world becomes more digital digital it's an area that's truly it's dying. Right you're the first one I've met in the US. Why do you think that is? Why do you guys think you're a dying breed right now? Well so in the 1950s one of the last of the Hamilton watchmaker watch company left the United States. There are a couple of us left. There's four or five, probably let's call it less than half a dozen truly independent US watchmakers left.

But Swiss have done a fantastic job of making fine timepieces that people crave, that Japanese have. And as we all know, the Chinese have also done a good job of bringing mass production to the watch world. And so with the, and the US just shed its capability, which is something I think we can do a good job

to try to overcome. Yeah, what are the big watch brands in China? I haven't heard of those. Well, I think if you look, so the Swiss have a watch award called the GPHG. And although I wouldn't say that many, my opinion, and there's, I'm sure there's some Chinese watch companies out there that might be shaking their fists as they say,

we're bigger than we are, but they're probably gonna be more niche, almost independent watchmaking brands, but have started to gain notoriety because they've won some prestigious awards. So I think that it's up and coming, and, you know, it's a eventuality with the industrialization of China that I think is unfortunate that I think

the US needs to play some catch up. Right, so a lot of US customers like the label made in the USA, but we were just talking earlier how it's almost impossible to have that label as a watchmaker here at an affordable price point, right? Right. Why is that? So the United States Federal Trade Commission

has a label, if we go into that says the actual language says all or virtually all content has to be of US content. Now if we actually say, so for me to say that, that means every component has to have US origins. Now let's just compare and contrast with other countries. So when somebody, when we flip open a Rolex or any of the other watches, I'm not going to make an allegation that one company has more or less, but the Swiss arbiter for made it in Switzerland is 60% by value. So, and then Germany, England, other countries have much lower standards in the United States. and we can make the argument

for the Swiss, for the Federal Trade Commission, that they're just protecting companies that really do 100%. But at the same time, when we cannot buy jewels, hair springs, balances, gears, pivots, in the United States, they either have to be manufactured completely here, but for example, let's take hairspring material. This is a part that turns the balance that we call the heartbeat of a watch. Every mechanical watch has to have a hairspring. Hairspring material, the minimum

order quantity is roughly a little bit over a mile of hairspring material at a cost of well over a million dollars. So when I only need less than six inches of hairspring material, you can imagine what that does. So as to my knowledge, there's only one watchmaker in the United States that can have a made in the United States stamp. The Federal Trade Commission prohibits us from using the words made in, built in, crafted, to use Texas, USA, or any other moniker

that gives the illusion that it's made in the United States unless we can pass that almost impossible to meet threshold. So then we have to use assembled, which is a travesty when more than 70, I'd say 80% of our content is US. Wow, so they need to look into that, how to change that, right? And again, it's a double-edged sword.

When somebody that's making floor mats, for example, can use polymers and resins and say, hey, because of the industrialization of that type of chemical or that type of commodity is easier to do, but when the industry has entirely left this country, how do you bring it back? How do you bring an industry back to the United States when you're forced to use the word assembled?

And the threshold for us measuring us against our peers is much higher. Yeah, that makes sense. So Rolex obviously has the biggest market share, right? Percentage wise, I don't know the exact number, but is that number going up or down over the next few years? You think? So searching for the perfect job can be overwhelming.

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Just call a local office to learn more. Take the next step in your career today at srgpros.com. Rolex is, now I watched the media, so for all the viewers out there or listeners who may criticize it Rolex in 2024 I believe sold roughly 1.25 million watches while numbers gone up. They've actually increased their capacity cheese so they were the largest producer in the Swiss marketplace, I think globally by far and They've done a group. They've done a great job marketing themselves.

Rolex is a fantastic marketing machine. They build great timepieces that are craved. Yeah, 1.25 million a year is insane. It's insane. How are they making that many? That's nuts. So they've actually skeered up to increase production because if you go into a Rolex dealer, there's the infamous, if you want your Rolex Daytona or your Rolex watch, you will wait months.

If not, you could say argue for Daytona. It might be one of the most desirable timepieces in the world and it's arguably impossible to get. Some people have waited years. That's right. Yeah, it's nuts. I've been able to get someone Vegas, I think partially because of connections, but yeah.

You might know a person or two. Yeah, but sometimes like before the podcast, I would walk in there, they wouldn't even look at me. You know what I mean? I'd pull in, they wouldn't even talk to me and the store would be empty. Yeah, and so I think the talk in the watch world is that that's alienated some people

with the difficulty of going to an 80, you don't have any inventory to sell me and you're gonna go on some sort of mysterious list. And that's, that's, there's the algorithm behind when you're who and when somebody's gonna get a timepiece is I think one of the greatest mysteries in the watch world. Yeah, it's such a mystery. Like you don't know what number you are, you don't even know if there is a list. I don't know if there is a list or I have to buy 10 other pieces of jewelry

or something else to get to, to elevate my status within that list. AP is even harder. Yes. AP is hard. I walked into Rashard and Millie. Yeah, they didn't even put me on a list. That one's probably impossible.

And those are the big, so AP is one of the Holy Trinity, right?, with Patek Philippe, AP, and Vacheron Constantin. And they occupy a big piece of the Swiss watch industry and they hold a huge portion of revenue, but that's largely because of demand. Now, I think in 2024, we start to see a little bit of downturn in demand and hopefully things started coming back to earth a little bit. Yeah, did that scare you that downturn?

It was pretty big one, right? Not from a watch, from a watch industry perspective for independence, it really hasn't bothered us. Oh wow. We, as an independent watchmaker, we kind of catered towards the few that a lot of our buyers are collectors who said, I want something a little bit different, right?

We might have a couple of the other brands, Swiss brands, Japanese brands in our collections. And we want something that's maybe a little bit more personal that has a higher, arguably a higher attention to hand craftsmanship. Yeah. Do you think independent brands are gonna make a comeback? I think they are making a comeback, right?

Now here's the question is, are there going to be too many of us? But right now there's a resurgence of, my personal take is there's been a lot of frustration as you go to, we named a bunch of brands where there are difficulty by. And I think the consumer in the world where you can Amazon something and have it show up at your door the same day, it's a frustration saying I might wait months, if not years to get something.

And these are same consumers that are fairly well-heeled and they're educated and they can say, hey, what else is out there? And as you educate yourself about timepieces, it's similar to the car world where you start to crave something a little bit more that's not pedestrian. And so I think the independents who have said, hey, I can offer a higher level of hand craftsmanship. I can offer you exclusivity. There are not 10 million of these

things that are going to be made. And we're going to- Ever thought about how much EMF and radiation your body is exposed to every single day? From smartphones to Wi-Fi, modern technology never stops emitting invisible stressors that could disrupt brain function, hormone balance, and cellular health. That's where ARIES comes in, the only scientifically validated solution designed to help your body adapt to today's technology. It's trusted by elite athletes used by the UFC, WWE, Canada basketball, and the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's backed by science, 100 plus scientists, and 40 plus institutions confirm its effectiveness. Its patented, peer-reviewed, clinically proven, and publicly traded Wi-Fi is the most tested,

researched, and validated EMF solution on the market. Upgrade your biology to keep up with modern technology. Protect yourself with Aries today. Click the link below to learn more. that at a price that's sometimes a fraction of what the big brands charge. Yeah, and handmade, right? I'm not sure if Rolexes are fully handmade, to be honest. And I'm not gonna speak on behalf of the big dangerous Swiss brand, but I do know that the level of hand craftsmanship and handworkmanship that we have is gonna be higher.

Yeah, I know you brought some here. If you could show us, but we'll take B-roll and put it on the camera. Okay. Could you explain what's going on here sure so we actually we have a timepiece for you do you want to start oh yeah please so this is a timepiece that's a gift for the show we hope that I look forward to having you wear these yeah I can't wait I'll put it on right now if it fits and that's a skinny so I might have to adjust it. Damn, this box is legit too.

Full wood. Wow, look at this thing. Beautiful design on the box itself. Wow. Damn. So this is a skeleton, right? It's fully, it's a hand skeletonized hand piece. So we didn't use CNC for that.

We cut it out with jeweler saws and files. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's even moving in the back and everything. Yes, you can take it off and it's as beautiful in the front as it is from the back. It's a push button. Wow, this is phenomenal. Oh my gosh.

Yeah, that's insane. I'll take a video and show it on the camera later, but thanks so much, man. Thank you. Yeah, this is beautiful. I'll take a video and show it on the camera later, but thanks so much. Thank you. Yeah, this is I'm glad you like it. So you take a look at how that's built. We have a sample here. You look at the front.

That's a main plate. Here's one that's hand finished. That's hand cut out. You can see the jagged edge from a from a jeweler saw cutting that out. Oh, so someone actually cut this out manually. We cut that out manually and you can see a more finished version as we filed it and beveled each edge of what that looks like.

Damn, this looks intense. This is not easy to do. And so as that catches the light, the little bevels that you see on that, the corners, each piece is actually cut out by hand. And why we chose to do that is, that's what we view true watchmaking is, right? It's not just a CNC machine

that's using modern technology and cutting. What's missing is that level of craftsmanship, right? What you're buying at a certain point is what we believe is mechanical art. Yeah. Right, it's, if we really were to distill this, and half the watch world might get mad at me for saying this, but if you really want the best,

most accurate timepiece, pull out your phone and look at your iPhone or your Samsung, and it's gonna tell you exactly synced up to the atomic time. It will be a perpetual calendar that knows leap years. It will be accurate far more than a hundred years and It was it's always gonna be accurate. Mm-hmm. But what you're buying is mechanical artistry, right? You're buying that piece that of of what we view that's almost has a soul to it. There's a watchmaker There's an artist there that spent time to put those bevels in that because it's not because you can we believe it's because you should

Mmm. I love that. Yeah, you're basically buying art in a sense, right? That's right. It's not just a can, we believe it's because you should. I love that. You're basically buying art in a sense, right? It's not just a watch. That's right. You're not using it for time. In fact, all my watches, I don't even use it for time. Right, it's something, when you put it on,

as some people joke around and say, hey, I don't put feelings first. Sometimes I take a very logical view towards things, but from timepieces, it speaks some, when you buy a timepieces, should somewhat speak to your soul. Yeah, that's the Asian in you. You don't put feelings first.

Maybe, yeah, the autistic Asian in me. That's the tough love, man. My mother raised me with that logic. Yes, that might be part of the culture. Yeah, no, it is. Asians are strict. Your parents were strict, weren't they? They were strict, yes.

Yeah, it's good in a sense, I think. Yeah, it keeps us from being complete fuck-ups. Yeah, it is. Asians are strict. Your parents were strict, weren't they? They were strict, yes. Yeah, it's good in a sense, I think. Yeah, it keeps us from being complete fuck-ups. Yeah, complete generosity. Then they moved to America and you see the Asian Americans out here, wilding out. Yeah. Yeah, I've been to China a few times. And they, but they haven't gotten here yet, so.

Oh, China hasn't? Yeah, because they're making them in. Well, I think they make a lot of the, I think they make a lot of components for people. We try to minimize the, I think the only Chinese component on that right now is the clasp. Nice. I love that.

So how exactly is a skeleton made? Because that's probably one of the hardest models to make, right, I'd imagine. So people ask, let me answer that in a about way. So people ask, is me answer that in about way. So people ask, is our movement in house? So in house is this term that is probably one of the most contentious terms in watchmaking where people say, did you design everything

from the ground up? And did you manufacture everything from the ground up? I'd like to use the word that we have a manufacturer movement. So I am using a traditional Swiss architecture. So we're using somebody else's architecture. We've remanufactured those plates and bridges that are our own. And so at that point is that I didn't reinvent the wheel by saying we're coming up with our new own gear train design. I'm using somebody else's gear train design but our components are our own. And so how did we do that is we literally took one of our main plates,

drilled holes in them, and then took a jeweler's file and a jeweler saw and cut out the pieces to expose the gear train. That's insane. So, and then if you look on that time piece, you can actually see all those cuts that you see out there are hand cut out, the dial will be making it out. Like all the ones on the outside? Everything.

That's so impressive. There doesn't seem like much room for error on something like this. No, you screw it up, you throw it away. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I can't notice. And even when we bevel the edges, right?

So there's a term called englage where we're trying to bring in, use, cut the bevels so that it catches the light. It's part of fine watchmaking. But a lot of that just uses a graver. It's an engraver where we're just cutting away bits. But if you slip on that once, usually the graver's so sharp,

it'll scratch the entire movement and you throw the whole thing away. Holy crap. What keeps this thing spinning in the back? So that's the hairspring that we're talking about. Oh, that's the hairspring. That's the most expensive thing you mentioned earlier. So that's a,spring that we're talking about. Oh, that's the hairspring. That's the most expensive thing you mentioned earlier. So that's a, well, we use a Swiss hairspring

for that reason, right? Is that I didn't want to add that time piece right there is $4,900 at that price point. I can't put a portion of a million dollar hairspring. 1.25 million for hairspring. That's nuts. Hopefully a USA manufacturer starts making that for cheaper. They do, right?

But it's just not at the right price. Now I think maybe there's some opportunity for maybe a bunch of, if US watchmaking becomes more than a handful of us, there's maybe opportunities for multiple watchmakers to collaborate. I think there's a lot of opportunities. When there's only less than half a dozen of us,

I don't view us as competition against one another. We're just... The US is the largest watch market in the world. Wow, I didn't know that. Don't quote me on this, but I think we will represent roughly one-third of the world's watch consumerism. Damn. But we only occupy, I think, less than 4% of the watch industry. And that's another term I heard from somebody else. So somebody can probably chat GPT or Google me

and correct me. Good old AI. I mean, it sounds accurate to me. I don't hear of any US watchmakers. A lot of my friends own watches. There's a couple and I really respect them. So before anybody else, there's timepieces from competitors of mine

that I own as part of my own collection. I respect them all wildly. And most of us are just watch nerds. We love mechanical timepieces. And so if somebody makes something beautiful, I'll be the first to give them credit and give them props for it. But what we're trying to do is make it

a little bit more accessible. What was your favorite era of watches? Cause there's a new trend now of people restoring old watches. I don't know if you've seen it on TikTok. So that's interesting you bring that up. So this is how I got into watchmaking. So although I'm an avid watch collector,

this is a Hamilton 902. And so if you look at it, it's beautiful inside and I'll let you look at that. So this is a hundred years old? That's that was built in 1925. Holy crap So me it's either 99 or 100 years old. Yeah, this is historic It's historic and it's in a modern case with our strap on it But if you look at the the work on that that was built that beautifully a hundred years ago That's impressive. But if you drop it, it's not shock-resistant. They're a lot less

Mac a lot more prone to being magnet magnetized, but they're beautiful. Super beautiful. This is a clean design. Yes. I love it. So that you know, this is from the golden era of American watchmaking right? If you look at back when that was made in the mid-20s, the US was at its peak. We were the best in the world. At watchmaking? At watchmaking, there was nobody better. Wow. So you think about the history there, is actually the US has a pretty storied

and positive history in watchmaking. You figure from the 1880s, during the Industrial Revolution, when railroads were big part of the expansion of the US industrial complex. We needed watches that were accurate to keep trains from crashing into each other, to keep things on time.

And so the idea of a railroad standard and pocket watches that were the most accurate became a big pervasive need as part of the industrialization of this country. And the US was able to, where the Swiss were always good at building bespoke, highly crafted timepieces. The US was really good, became really good at building highly crafted, beautiful timepieces,

but also mass production. So you have the Waltham Watch Company, you had Hamilton, you had Elgin, and all these companies that took their turns at becoming some of the biggest watch manufacturers on the earth, but also building some of those beautiful, accurate timepieces ever. Some of the Hamilton timepieces that went all the way through World War II were known to be the most accurate timepieces in the world. Wow. But that all disappeared when

we gave up that capability. The Swiss were really good at marketing their capabilities and we gave it up as a country. How much would that Hamilton watch cost if you found one on the market these days? Oh, actually they're not that expensive. You look at an old Hamilton pocket watch that's fully restored, it's going to be less than $1,000. Really?

Because that's historic. I would buy something like that just to have, you know? But those watches are good, fully restored pieces, often less than $2,000. And it's a neat piece of history to have. That's not bad at all. It could probably be a decent investment, honestly too. Yeah, and if you look at some of these great pocket watches,

there's some military grade ones that they had in World War II that were used to navigate B-17 bombers during the war. Damn. And so it's pretty neat. Some of them have really neat histories. that were used to navigate B-17 bombers during the war. And so it's pretty neat. Some of them have really neat histories. Yeah, there's some that were used. What was the one in space?

Forget, an astronaut word in space. So Omega makes the Moonwatch. And that really was a big part of Omega's history. So most watch courts, I have one, Omega Moonwatch. Yeah, that's like a staple, right? It's a staple, you just have to have one, right? And it's, Omega did a really good job in selecting materials and in making accurate watches

and really things that could stand up to the test of NASA when the others couldn't. So a lot of the watchmakers, other brands that we talked about, put in their offerings, but Omega One. That's cool. Which mainstream watch brand are you the most impressed with quality wise? So let's call them what is mainstream. I love Patek.

Okay. I know a lot of people argue, how is that mainstream? I think they're a staple of the Holy Trinity and it's well-deserved. You know, like any watch collector, I do have Rolex and they are what I call tool watches, but not in a negative sense, is that out there, I will take anywhere, jump off a mountain with it,

and I know it's just gonna keep on going. They call it a daily, right? It's a daily, yeah. And I don't, there's no reason you can't daily one of our watches, but you know, what I want to take it to the shooting range and do machine gun fire with it. Not with this.

I prefer you didn't, but it's, you know, I don't know that it will break, but I haven't tested that. We haven't done machine gun test for it. Would this survive underwater? 50 meters, so it will probably a light swim. 50 meters, but I wouldn't, but the idea is 50 meters. People say, well, I'm not going to dive to 50 meters, so it will probably a light swim. 50 meters are gone. But I wouldn't, but the idea is 50 meters, people say, well, I'm not going to dive to 50 meters. The idea is behind water resistance ratings is,

the case is actually, we rate at, we advertise 30 meters, the case is rated at 50. Got it. And the reason is it's 50 meters of pressure and motion. So all the seals under there, when you're actually moving your arms underwater, you actually can generate more force than 50 meters of pressure and motion. So all the seals under there, when you're actually moving your arms underwater, you actually can generate more force than 50 meters.

Oh, interesting. And so that's how it's rated. So you really to see truly water-resistant swimmable is 60 meters. Have I taken mine swimming with a rubber strap? Yes. That's positive. But we do it because I know a guy who can replace it.

But for warranty purposes, we say 30. That makes sense. You got guys that can fix these everywhere yet or no? So because it's a proven, known architecture, some of our components are proprietary. So for example, if you were to throw generic Swiss parts in it, it's not going to look the same. So even our gears, if you look at the gears, all our gears are beveled, all our gears are grained,

all our gears are galvanic treated by hand in Texas. And so even if we will procure the parts, by and large, most of them are then transformed in the United States. That's really why we have that claim is that about 80, 70 to 80% of our content, and people say, is it 70 or 80? How do you do the math?

Yeah. So it's we think it's some arbitrary subjectively somewhere there. Hopefully you'll be able to keep up with demand. These look pretty intense to make man. It's been fantastic. It's been a fantastic ride since launch. Nice. When did you launch?

We launched in December. We did a. Was it three months ago? About three months. Wow. Brand new. We've been doing this for about, we've been building them for about two years. It takes time to come up with design.

We launched and we're close to sold out on some of our collections. Dang, well done, man. Cause this is not an easy industry to get into. It's a tough industry. But you know, what we're feel blessed is that I think we got in the right time where made or the high amount of American content

is something that the market generally craves. We sought a lot of feedback, both positive and negative on our designs. And so we put it out, not everything was a hit, but what we've put out so far has been really, really, really well received. That's smart that you were getting feedback on the designs before you made them into real products.

Well, this was not a road without failure. I have a, we call it the R&D box. Yeah. It is a graveyard of parts that we tried that probably some people would laugh and say, what were you thinking? And maybe my answer is I wasn't. It looked good to us, but not to many.

Well, coming up with design can't be easy. I mean, because you got to think of something that hasn't been done before, but not to many. So. Well, coming up with design can't be easy. I mean, cause you got to think of something that hasn't been done before, but also that people would want. And the fact that every single time we try something it has a high cost. You figure every single one of those is manufactured for us.

Right. And I can't just buy one. Usually I'm begging a machine shop to make 10, 15. And then if I throw, if we decide after the first one we don't't want to, we throw away 15 pieces. Damn, yeah, that ain't cheap. And then when we put it in production, we're ordering hundreds.

Well, what's the next step here? You're about to sell out of everything. What's next? So we have that time piece that you got is kind of a halfway prototype. Actually, if you look on the back of that, I think it's serial zero, zero, zero on the very top. On the top.

On the balance bridge, when the parts that's spinning. Oh, on this part. Yeah, yeah, I see that. So obviously we don't sell serial 000 to anyone. So that one is halfway in between. There's a model we're coming out, I think we're gonna call it Pure. And the idea is that it's going to take us a little bit more of a nod towards

traditional watchmaking. So there's another timepiece I'm giving one of your colleagues, Charlie. And that one was one of my first timepieces. That one is serial 0000 of that was my personal timepiece. Quadruple zero. Yeah, quadruple zero. That was, all the prototypes are some versions of zero. But of an earlier timepiece than that. So that one's a little rougher finished. That one was my personal watch. That one's the one that went swimming. But those in both of those have,

you'll see when you open that one, that one has, I don't want to say it's cruder, but it had more skeletonization. But this one is going to be a little bit more nod towards artisanal workmanship, where you'll see on the gears on yours that you can see the way the light reflects off. With Snailing, we have a higher focus on playing with light.

Look at doing watchmaking in its more pure form. So that's why we're calling it pure. Yeah I love that. Do you have a personal favorite watch? So I personally wear, I'm wearing one piece right here, there's two versions here of the art, our personal piece. I love the skeletons but that was more like a labor of love. We were having a lot of problems with the dials with these because they're so complex. You can take a look at this. This one's fully hand engraved.

Wow. God damn. And this is another one. And this one's got even more serious engraving in it. Dude, holy crap. And those are hand engraved by a colleague of ours in Indiana, all done by Americans. Wow. If you look at the level of engraving on that is insane.

Dude, this is nuts. Days and days of engravings. So detailed. Yeah. And so we believe that is the lowest fully handed, of high-end watches, that's the lowest price fully engraved movement watch how much is this one three thousand dollars? It's twenty nine hundred. I haven't heard of anything close to that price And so that's personally because of the amount of work that goes into these yeah I see what goes there's a lot of work that goes to the skeletonization of that, but I'll be honest I don't personally have the skills to engrave like that not very well You can see that in your audience,

we'll probably be able to see it on the B-roll, but it's impressive. No, that thing was spinning fast. Yeah, and I just, so to me, that's, even though the back of the watch is not on the front of the watch, I like sitting there sometimes and just looking at the way the light reflects on it.

Yeah, the way that was moving. Yeah, I wouldn't even wear it. I would just be looking at it. That's a beautiful piece right there. That's why we love it. Yeah, for me, the Skeleton AP is like my dream watch. It was on my collection. Now it's strange when you become a watchmaker,

you feel guilty wearing other people's watch. Plus you can make it yourself and for a fifth of the prize. You can try. I can try. But it's not that I don't crave to wear some of my other timepieces. As a watch guy, you always... You admire other watches. You feel guilty. Yeah, there's some cool ones.

Have you seen Jacob & Co.'s watches? Some of those are nuts. The space one. Or the Bugatti one. Yeah. Like, that must be insane to make. I can't imagine Yeah, the price is pretty insane Well, you can have your your condo and and and then some vacation spot or your Jacob. Yeah, you want a house or a watch?

That's right. That's where protects are going to now to some of those are like two three hundred K just 300k or even a good even some of the base attacks you can pick between your ass glass Mercedes or Yeah, for real Jason's been awesome, man Where could people look more into this and potentially buy one 1776 atelier.com? Atelier check out the site guys. I can't wait to wear this around. We'll take some photos in it. Stay tuned I'll see you guys next time