Start-ups

Hamburg Startup Introduces Slow Watches To Beat Time Stress

27 April 2015
Innovation by Christopher Norskau and Corvin Lask celebrates the slow lifestyle. 24 hours displayed to cover the entire day

No second hand, no ticking sound, just minimalist design: the slow watch kills today’s stress by purism. The new watch is the brainchild of four young entrepreneurs, who founded the Hamburg startup Blackboard and have been selling the iconic watch online since 2013. Meanwhile, some 10,000 wrist watches have been sold, and more than two million euro were made in turnovers.

One Day, One Full Turn

“slow is not a speed, but a state of mind”, say Corvin Lask and Christopher Nörskau, who manage the business and take care of production and distribution. Gabriele Guidi and May Margot, both Swiss-born, are the designers of the new gadget of hipsters and trend-conscious consumers. Making just one full rotation every 24 hours, the solitary hand moving at half the speed of a regular analog timepiece remains the bearer to take things easy and slow down. While twelve o’clock at noon is marked at the standard position, midnight is right down on the opposite at the former six o’clo mark, with each tick mark between the hours indicating 15 minutes. Minutes and seconds have been abolished by the slow watch.

Headquarters in Hamburg

To keep costs and prices low, the watch is only available on the Internet. Headquartered in Hamburg-Eppendorf, th the slow watches are being manufactured and distributed by Ronda in Switzerland. The portfolio currently comprises 15 models in two sizes, sold at 230-280 euro, with a new model announced for the end of the year. The original Slow Jo measures 38 mm, the smaller Slow Mo 34 mm. Watchbands can be changed; choices include leather, metal, nylon and canvas. With no logo or branding visible, the watch also reminds the bearer to live his or hers own life, and to be present in every moment.

Idea With International Appeal 

The philosophy of slowing down meets the needs of today, where more and more people suffer from heavy works loads, and even burn-outs. International media such as The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, and GQ thus highly welcomed the concept of the slow watch and praised the Hamburg inventors.
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