Oct 30, 20212 min read

My Horological Journey – Part 2 ‘Scotland Watch Company’

Updated: Oct 1, 2022

At the end of 2019 Colin Graham and I started to work on preparations to create a new Scottish watch microbrand. Alongside from the usual administrative hurdles of setting up a new company we began work on brand direction, name and logo. Covid 19 appeared at the beginning of 2020 and the pandemic started. All our lives and plans stopped for a moment while we took stock but slowly we restarted the project adopting new ways of communication without being in the same space.

As two old codgers knowing our limitations, we decided to invite a third member to the company - my young Scottish friend Robert Reid-Kay who lives in Hong Kong. Robert brought fresh ideas and IT knowledge. He took us on a journey discovering the rapidly evolving world of eCommerce and we started to learn about the microbrand watch industry business from a new angle.

After 6 months of research, we were ready to finalise our first watch collection which I had started to design nearly a year before. We also decided on the name Scotland Watch Company (SWC).

Unfortunately, we couldn’t register this name as a limited company and our legal name is Scot. Watch Co. Ltd t/a Scotland Watch Company (SWC). In the meantime, we had a dispute with a new Swiss Watch Company about the usage of letters SWC which they contested they had sole rights over. We won the arbitration.

From the beginning we knew that we wanted to create watches with Scottish themes or timepieces showing strong Scottish connections. We wanted to produce elegant, stylish and sophisticated Scottish watches, steering well clear of the tacky “tartan” tourist market.

I entitled our first collection “Saltire” and decided to embed a hint of the Scottish national flag in each of the designs but so subtly that you almost have to know to see it. I also designed in a number of other Scottish elements.

T he Saltire Collection consists of three watches: Saltire Day, Saltire Night and Saltire Northern Lights. All three have the same elements but differ in colour and the story they carry.