WORLDTEMPUS - 24 June 2010
Victoria Gomelsky
While few watchmakers dare to market timepieces with anything other than Swiss-made movements, a handful of brands are increasingly keen to promote themselves in an alternative light. This was evident during the Las Vegas shows earlier this month, when two Swiss-made brands emphasized their all-American pedigrees.
Bathys Hawaii, founded in 2005 by John Patterson, a PhD in pediatric cancer research and self-described “watch fanatic,” is headquartered on the lush Hawaiian island of Kauai.
“We're very proud of being from Hawaii,” Patterson said during a break from showing the brand to buyers.
Named after the Greek word for the depths of the ocean, Bathys is known for its chunky dive watches, which come in a mix of quartz and automatic styles featuring big dates and assorted complications.
Patterson scored an early success selling the brand, which retails between $650 and $1,795, at Selfridges department store in London, but he has since changed his model to combine key brick and mortar accounts—the Ben Bridge Timeworks Flagship Store in Honolulu's Ala Moana Center, for example—with online sales through the Bathys Hawaii web site.
The latest addition to the collection is the Bomb Timer, a retro-looking timepiece based on the console-mounted clocks of World War II bombers such as the B17 and B29.
“We've decided to update this design using modern materials and the ETA 6948 manually wound movement,” Patterson said, adding that, for now, the $1,800 timepiece is limited to 200 pieces.
Taking to the skies
Evidently, aviation is a popular theme in America. The eponymous Ernst Benz brand was created in the early 1960s by a Swiss inventor and instrumentation specialist whose interest in watchmaking developed from his favorite hobby: aviation. The company has since developed a line of characteristically massive wristwatches known for their accuracy, durability and legibility.
When Leonid Khankin, a Russian émigré to America and the son of a watchmaker, came across the brand, he knew a good thing when he saw it.
Khankin re-launched the company from his home base in a Detroit suburb in 2005, assuming the role of managing and creative director of the boutique Swiss brand.
“Mr. Benz asked me to be the custodian of his legacy,” he said. “We are dedicated to the spirit of aviation, travel and the love of watchmaking.”
