So we wanted to show people that this is a real thing for us - we’re not just a mushroom brand. And one of those things, like you said, for all microbrands, is moving pretty slowly. In everything that we do, we want to do it at least an order of magnitude better than the average. So while we work on production and shipping and QC and that stuff, on the back end we were still working with our engineers to develop new stuff. I’m curious how you’ve gotten such a quick start out of the gate.Ī: WK: As soon as we put the first one out - it’s since been discontinued, but it was called the Trieste - we’d already started work on the Avalon, and then as soon as that was done, we started on the Retrospect. Usually, with microbrands, that growth is much slower. And the number of watches you’ve put out already is phenomenal. Q: You’ve been going for around two years now. So we went to Asia to visit these factories, and then put all these things together. We were like, it looks pretty good - think anyone would buy it? Then we wondered how much it would cost. Over I’m sure way too many beers, instead we decided to design a watch. I thought it was going to be a coffee shop, or something for fun. As a kid, I always knew I wanted to start something with him. I moved out here to LA after I graduated college. Q: And when did you decide to start your own watch brand?Ī: WK: Originally we didn’t have plans to start a business. Then we ended up gifting each other our first automatics. We went out for dinner and I noticed he was wearing a watch. So we got into it at the same time, but totally independently. There was always something new you could see in the watch. I started peeling the onion back, and I never got to the bottom of it. You look deeper and deeper and find all these layers. The size was good, comfortable bracelet, the counterbalance on the seconds hand was the Tissot logo. Not really that special, no watch enthusiast would know what it is. Wesley Kwok: And then for my high school graduation, my dad got me a Tissot quartz sport watch, the PRC200. I started modding Seikos, and that’s how I got into assembly. I got a Seiko quartz chronograph after that, and that’s what started my passion. It was a department store brand, a $200 watch. This was back in college.Ī: CC: It was my high school graduation gift. It started out with computers and then guitars, and then I got my first watch, and it was downhill from there. You have one watch, and then you have that personality where you wanna dig deeper, and you start obsessing over it. We recently sat down with the two near their home base in Los Angeles to talk about their inspirations, the challenges of starting and running a microbrand, tool watch design and more.Ī: Cullen Chen: I guess how everyone else gets into watches. “Or uphill, depending on how you look at it.” “I would say that’s when it really went downhill for us,” says Kwok.
“Yeah, the perfect first dive watches,” Cullen says. “And then he turns around and pulls out an Orient Ray for me.” Or you could say the success was destined from the moment the two middle- and high-school buddies simultaneously gifted each other their first automatics. You could credit their excellent design, and their eye for what watch enthusiasts want (quality finishing, tool watch-utility, American-based assembly and highly regulated and accurate movements). You could credit this success with the tenacity of their business model, which rejected Kickstarter, relied on their own life savings, and required the two to build a strong supply chain among Asian parts producers. Since then, they’ve doubled their production and released a slew of successful - and fast-selling - tool watch models. There’s plenty of room for cash, and even a key slot.Wesley Kwok and Cullen Chen started their indie watch brand, Nodus, just two years ago. There’s also a dedicated slot in the billfold section where a frequently used card can be kept for contactless payment without having to open the wallet up. There is room for 13 cards -three of them in their own easy to access slots and eight that can be quickly retrieved using a pull tab. The $100 Nodus Compact HiFold is a perfect fit for someone in my situation, practical yet still slim. I need to lug around a sizeable collection of plastic including my driver’s license, health card, insurance cards, debit cards, credit card, loyalty cards and with three teenagers in the house, having cash on hand is a requirement. Services likeĪpple Pay are just launching here in Canada, so a physical wallet is still a necessity for many people. Much as I wish I could get away with the Compact Wallet on a regular basis, the reality is I typically need something a little more expansive.
Nodus Compact Wallet seems barely larger than a credit card (Credit: Brad Moon)
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