100%

About twice a week we receive an email which reads like this: "Love your work. Can't wait for a 100% Australian made watch. Please let me know when you make one, I will buy it - would love to support your project!"
 
While a message like this is loaded with love, good wishes and a desire to support us, it is also loaded with one condition: for the watch to be 100% made in Australia. Something that will never happen - because it simply can't.
 
Those who sincerely believe that Swiss brand watches are 100% made by the brand name on the dial are simply naive. The 'in-house' concept is still a dream for even the most ambitious brands. The commercial reality is that 99% of Swiss brands have no desire to make 100% of the watch. This would be way too expensive, time consuming,  demanding on resources, and such a watch would struggle to sell. It would go against the very core of the Swiss watch philosophy: micro size workshops, highly specialised in a particular part made at high level of precision, in high volume, supplied to all brands. In other words: one special workshop making just watch screws or stems, or mainsprings or jewels - but never all of them. Indeed, I have personally visited such shops which are so good at making specific watch parts that even the top brands use their parts - even when they are capable of making their own.  Why? Because those specialist micro shops were making parts hundreds of years before brands even existed and have them perfected to - perfection.
 
It is also important to understand one very crucial concept: watch brands come and go, but skilful machinists capable of shaping metal to perfection will never go out of business. Our ultimate goal is not to be a jack of all trades, nor to waste our precious resources. Passing the 50% 'Made in Australia' mark was incredibly difficult - so difficult that until today, in the entire industrialised history of Australia, no other watchmaking and machining business has ever made such a claim. There is no doubt that in a few years we will most likely reach 75% but to expect us to make every single part in Australia is simply unrealistic.
 
You would not say to a young chef: I'll eat in your restaurant when you receive 3 Michelin Stars. Or to a young writer: I'll buy your book once you win the Nobel Prize for literature. Or to a watchmaker: I'll buy your watch once you are better than Patek or FJ Journe.
 
The time to support Australian made is now - when your support is needed; when such support is appreciated, and is required to take us to the next level. And the absolutely best way to do so is to invest in Mark 1 - an affordable, comfortable, honest every day timepiece designed and assembled in Australia.

Send an email to nick@clockmaker.com.au to place your order.