Earlier this year, I was contacted by Nick Warner of Uhuru Watches
Watches. At the time, his venture was still in the concept phase, but
it appeared to have solid specs, a sound design, and some unique
elements that piqued my interest. We kept in touch through prototyping,
and he is now preparing for a December Kickstarter launch.
The watch is a 200 meter diver with an internal timing bezel, twin
crowns, sapphire crystal, SuperLuminova, and a Miyota 8215 movement. The
most appealing aspect for me was the way Nick incorporated design cues
from his native South Africa. Pricing is not yet final, but expect an
MSRP of about $450 USD, and Kickstarter prices starting around $250.
My correspondence with Nick yielded the following interview. (Pictures courtesy of a Uhuru Watches.)
Welcome to The Time Bum! Please tell me a bit about yourself.
Hi Time Bum! First off, thanks so much for taking an interest in Uhuru
and the Impi Automatic. My name is Nick and I’m the creator of Uhuru
Watches. I was born and raised in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the
provincial capital of Kwazulu Natal. It’s a place close to my heart
that’s been a big influence in the creation of Uhuru. I briefly studied
media and communications at the University of Kwazulu Natal before
moving to New Zealand in my early 20’s where I made a switch to a B.Sc
in Biology at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. I’ve been a
lab technician ever since. Working in the lab is probably what really
fired up my interest in watches. Like a lot of people my age, the
cellphone took over as a pocket watch and the wristwatch became
redundant. In the lab though, you always need to keep an eye on the time
for incubation periods and reaction times and you can’t always dig in
your pocket for your phone especially if you’re wearing latex gloves
covered in various nasty compounds. A wristwatch is much more practical.
I’ve always had a really wide range of interests, hiking, cycling,
gaming, growing things, tinkering with things, bit of a jack of all
trades. I’ve wanted to create my own business for some time now and my
interest in watches and a confluence of other factors came together to
make starting Uhuru now a reality.
Tell me about your watch hobby. How did you get into it, and what pieces do you own or admire?
It was mostly the practicality of a wristwatch in the lab that got me
started with watches. I’m a big fan of the unusual and the first watch
that I really coveted was a TokyoFlash quartz LED piece called the jlr7.
I was a really poor student back then so it was out of reach at the
time and it’s never been rereleased sadly. If you’ve never seen it it’s
worth looking up, it’s absolutely crazy! It lights up an abstract
pattern that you need to learn to tell the time. I loved it. For the
early years of my hobby I mainly stuck to unusual quartz pieces, a Storm
Darth, an Unemployed Philosophers Guild Dali watch (the hands are
Dali’s moustache) and a TokyoFlash Star Performer. I’ve mellowed in my
tastes of late though so my current daily wear is a Citizen Eco-Drive
BM8475 in all black.
My interest in mechanical watches is fairly recent. I have a colleague
who is really into them and she introduced me to aBlogtoWatch and
Watchuseek and I just dove into the world of mechanicals. We spend quite
a bit of time looking up different watches and comparing finds. I came
across Magrette watches that way and I felt really inspired by their
brand to try create my own. I LOVE Magrette watches and they have been a
huge influence on the design of the Impi Automatic. Their Regattare is
really high on my wishlist and I’m really hoping they reissue it, I’d
hate to miss out on it like I did with the jlr7.
What attracts you to certain watches? Do you have any "must haves" or " deal breakers?"
An interesting story or unusual features is a big draw for me. An
unusual watch can be a great conversation starter. I’ve moved on a bit
from the unusual quartz watches that use patterns to tell time to more
traditional mechanicals. A mechanical watch has a sense of history about
it that I find appealing. A deal breaker for me is being dull, if it
has no story behind it or no interesting features then really, what’s
the point? There are so many watches out there competing for attention. I
hope the Uhuru story is compelling to enough people to make it
successful.
There is a great leap between watch collection and watch production. What made you decide to take that leap?
I’ve been toying with several business ideas and one day looking at the
Magrette website I decided it was something I could do. Magrette made
great use of their history and where they were from to create a
successful brand which inspired me. I saw a market gap in South Africa
where luxury brands are very popular and I couldn’t find any local
luxury watch brands. People choose brands to say something about
themselves and the concept for Uhuru is to say "I celebrate where I’m
from, I’m global and I’m proud."
One of the most appealing things about the watch is the way you have
incorporated traditional Zulu elements into the design. Tell me more
about the design and your inspiration.
The goal in creating Uhuru was to take South African design to the world
in a way that South Africans could be proud of and the international
market would find appealing. I wanted to counter the monolithic ‘Africa’
idea that so many in the world seem to have of wildlife roaming the
plains and poor people in huts and shanty villages. South Africa is full
of amazing cites and beautiful, successful people. I want the Impi
Automatic to appeal to the CEO in Johannesburg or the advertising
executive in Cape Town as much as the watch enthusiast in Melbourne or
Los Angeles.
When it came to the design of the Impi Automatic, I had a slightly
military/diver concept in mind and wanted it to be clearly South
African. The figure of the impi warrior seemed the perfect inspiration
and provided a great name. The spearhead hands and shield curves for the
case worked really well along with the shield pattern on the strap. The
shield curves in particular gave a case a great retro cushion look that
I really liked. I loved the internal bezel from the Magrette Regattare
and was keen to include that in my design, but the 2 and 4 crown
placement didn’t really work. I was stuck for a while till I saw a Jean
Richard Diverscope with its 9 and 3 crowns, that’s when I knew the
design would work.
What experience do you bring to this watch making venture?
This is my first venture so it’s mainly life experience rather than
anything specific to watch making. I’m learning so much in this project
from design tools to marketing strategies to logistics. Creating
something from nothing is an immensely rewarding challenge. My
enthusiasm as a collector and passion as an entrepreneur will go a long
way in making Uhuru a success.
What are some of the challenges you have faced bringing this project to fruition?
I suspect I have the biggest ones ahead of me. Working with suppliers
and manufacturers has been relatively straight forward and building my
presence on social media has been a lot of fun. Most of my engagement
has come from South Africa and I expect it to be the largest market for
Uhuru. A big challenge I foresee is the Kickstarter campaign and
ensuring the engagement translates into Kickstarter support. I’m putting
a lot of effort into building my fan base well in advance of the launch
to help ensure it’s successful.
As a consumer, I am fascinated with the number and diversity of
boutique watch makers. Now that you are your own micro brand, what do
you see for the future of this market?
I think it’s going to keep growing from strength to strength. That’s the
beauty of the internet for marketing and globalised production; the
barriers to entry are so low that anyone with a concept can give it a
shot. It’s wonderfully democratic. I suspect that much like music and
book publishing there will be a lot of niche markets that are waiting
for the right concept.
What's next for Uhuru?
First up is our Kickstarter campaign later this year, that’s really our
main focus at the moment. All the future plans will rest on whether or
not we’re successful in this campaign. I ultimately want to see Uhuru
grow into a global brand stocked in boutiques around the world but I
suspect that’s what most watch brands want! I’m prepared to take it step
by step though, and this launch is the first step of many.
If you want to see more, and keep abreast of Uhuru news as the launch date approaches, check out their web site www.uhuruwatches.com, and follow Uhuru Watches on Facebook and Twitter.
