SCHOLARLY PURSUITS
Skolorr is a new online marketplace that curates a prime selection of independent watchmakers and boutique brands. Its founder, SKY SIT, tells MING LIU about reaching a millennial audience for unique timepieces
IF YOU’RE THE type of watch aficionado who whiles away the hours on websites like Chrono24, TimeZone and Watchuseek, and who can argue why the new Omega Calibre 8900 trumps the trusty ETA Valjoux 7750 – then you may want to stop reading here.
However, if you're a little less au fait with watchmaking, but still want a rare and special piece that fits your lifestyle and personality – plus you're tech-savvy and, even better, are a millennial – then new website Skolorr is right up your street.
“At Skolorr, we want to bring down the watchmaking jargon, decode everything, and make it simple and easy to connect,” says the site's founder, Sky Sit. “There are guys out there, some as young as 18, who want a really cool and exclusive watch. They are well off, buy something and then disappear; they don't hang out with other collectors and on watch forums.”
Independent watchmakers – small houses that typically don't have deep-pocketed financial backers and which only make between 30 and 300 watches annually (compare that with around 800,000 each for Omega and Rolex) – have been making big strides in the horology world lately. Take Geneva's annual watch fair as an example: the invitation-only, Richemont-run Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) first welcomed independent brands to the fair in 2016 with nine names. Next year, there will be 16.
Brands such as MB&F, Urwerk and H. Moser & Cie may be more well-known indie names, thanks to them being increasingly coveted by watch connoisseurs – and with the hefty price tags to match. But what about makers such as AkriviA, Zeitwinkel and Olivier Jonquet, the last of which features a beautiful, cushion-shaped Capitaine dress watch priced at an accessible €1,825? Or Czapek, which can boast an illustrious past as the original 19th-century partner of Antoine Norbert de Patek (of Patek Philippe fame)? Or Swedish maker Gustafsson & Sjögren (GoS), with its eye-catching, patterned steel dials that hark back to a technique used in Viking swords?
These are just some of the 20 inaugural names available on Skolorr – and all are manufactures that Sit has personally visited and vetted. “We don't need to enable the bigger brands,” she says. “They have all the resources, advertising