Horological Meandering

Let's face the following: Ellicott's watches have many of the ingredients of successful watches, distinctive designs, some interesting movements paired with very good quality. But is this enough to flourish in a saturating market?

To start with, I question the concept of adopting a relatively unknown (compared to Arnold or Graham) name of a British master as namesake for a Swiss company. Others have done it before, not without success. But just taking a British name for sake of having something different from your usual Swiss brand lacks intellectual appeal to me. Particularly as I fail to see a logical connection between the ancient pieces of John Ellicott and those of Ellicot 1738. Where is the connecting element (design, mechanism, else?)? The name - at least for me - would not suffice.

I find such a concept somewhat inconsistent in its execution: I am well aware that the industry landscape in Switzerland is much more amenable to creating a new horological start-up, but nevertheless I ask myself time and time again why one would not go the full way towards establishing a truly British brand? Or, a Swiss brand?

THAT would create an interesting brand that has all the credibility you need to conquer today's watch markets.

Second, another aspect is your unique selling point. I touched this aspect already above. The modern-day Ellicott watches - at least in my view - lack the decisive idiosyncratic attribute that would tip the scale, even if my comments above remain unanswered. The designs are somewhere between Harry Winston and Clerc, while the movements have some unique elements. In their conceptual design they are - I fear - not distinctive enough. Communicating the flattest minute repeater/perpetual calendar/moonphase watch won't certainly not be an easy task given all I wrote above (although the watch deserves all possible efforts!). Particularly since modern design and production tools/technologies allow for a largely unconstrained realisation of ideas (whether this is good is another question).

This leads me finally to my view on the watches. I noted before that cushion shaped watches are generally not amongst my favourites. But this does not stop me from really liking most of the dials, both in design as well as execution. I also admire the restraint applied in respect to the sheer number of design elements, even down to the omission of unnecessary prose on the dials. This is really rare these days!

It would be all too easy to declare the Master Complication my favourite (it is amongst them ;-)). But I really liked the expressive dials and bezels of the Majesty and would really love to see another case shape.

I certainly will follow the brand further and wish them all the best for the future!

Thanks for reading,

Magnus

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