Introducing: The William L. 1985 Kickstarter Project

September 30, 2015

There are certain watches that are C well, lets call them gateway watches. For me, because life is nothing if not a validation of clich, it was my dads Benrus, which I first remember seeing glowing in the dark, in the middle of a nasty case of flu, during the Lyndon Johnson administration. It had a simple, clean, rather sober dial that also managed to be somehow slightly ornate, and the fact that it glowed in the dark was just icing on the cake. It wasnt, fundamentally, the fact that it was mechanically sophisticated C I was a few decades away from grasping even the basic mechanical principles behind watches C nor was it appealing because it was luxurious, or expensive, or rare (Benrus was in those days a good but distinctly middle-of-the-road, journeyman watchmaking brand that was honest and unpretentious back in the days when you could actually call something honest and unpretentious without sounding like either a hipster or a press release). Basically, I thought it was cool. That sort of brainstem-level excitement is what is behind a Kickstarter project launched by a guy named Guillaume Laidet, whos got a little project he calls William L. 1985 going on. 1985 is the year he was born (in Cognac, France) and since getting out of school in 2009, hes worked for Zenith, Girard-Perregaux, and, most recently, Jaeger-LeCoultre. We met him last month when he spun by our office to show us his watches. The basic idea behind the Kickstarter is simple, to wit: vintage watches are super appealing and super cool, and also increasingly expensive and troublesome to repair and service. To make the fun of having a cool looking vintage style watch available at a painless price to all and sundry, hes developed a line of sharp-looking two-register chronographs that look like they came straight out of a jewelers case, ca. 1955. In order to keep things affordable (and I mean, really affordable) hes opted to use quartz movements (Miyota, for the chronos, and a Swiss Ronda quartz caliber for his divers watch). The inspiration for the chrono design is a watch Laidet received as a gift from his grandfather; its an un-branded two-register chrono that he had restored at some considerable expense, and which got him thinking how great it would be to have something with that much charm at a trouble-free price and with trouble-free modern tech. As HODINKEE readers can probably imagine, Ive seen enough of this sort of thing that Im pretty skeptical, even cynical, at this point, but seeing the watches in person kind of reminded me why I got into vintage watches in the first place. Obviously these arent bargain-priced mechanical watches, but the reality is, there are always tradeoffs. If you want something mechanical at this price, sure, you can get it. If you want something with this sort of design, in a chronograph, its going to run you more though, and Laidets decision was to make these watches mechanically un-problematic and affordable, and put a lot of energy into making the cases, dials, and straps the best quality possible for the price. The prices are kind of crazy C in a (very) good way. If you go in via the Kickstarter, one of the chronos will run you 99. At the time of writing, thats about $110. The dials are really high quality C almost absurdly so for the asking price C and beautifully balanced; you get both leather and NATO straps, with extra spring bars for the latter; the leather straps come with quick-change spring bars that let you remove the straps without using a spring bar tool. This is about the most uncomplicated horological fun I can remember seeing outside a Seiko 5 in a long time. God knows, we forget C and for sure, most brands have forgotten C that there are a ton of people out there who would love a great looking, classically styled watch that doesnt cost what for most normal folks is an arm and a leg. If the first stage of the Kickstarter works out, Laidet is also going to launch an equally attractive, equally cheap and cheerful but still shockingly high quality vintage style dive watch, in a titanium case, and if he really kicks ass (in a modest, Kickstarter-esque fashion) hell ship a titanium two-register chrono as well. And yes, hes got, if this thing flies, an automatic watch in the pipeline, set to be available for 300 or less. Check out his Kickstarter right here, and remember, everyone starts somewhere.