Pillar #2: Design Lab
Watch collecting is one of many hobbies that tap into a primal part of what makes us human. People are naturally drawn towards collecting. We like things that are mechanical, intimate, and beautiful. Watches are all these things, and so are cars, knives, shoes, guitars, and plenty of other things that people like to collect.
The Design Lab program was started with two broad categories in mind:
1) To reach into different categories and work with influential people or groups within watch-adjacent niches
2) Work in collaboration with groups to design task-specific watches
The goal of both of these Design Lab collaboration categories is to bring more attention to smaller independent watch brands.
Design Lab is a collaborative platform that is a good fit for those who want to create a watch without building an entire company and business around it. In short, our collaborators have the fun part of creating a watch – designing it – while Nodus does the heavy lifting.
When appropriate, we aspire to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone by either implementing novel features or attempt to solve unique use-case scenarios.
Here are some examples of Design Lab projects:
The Canyon by Matt Farah
Matt Farah is an automotive journalist and YouTuber who is well-renowned for his car review channel, The Smoking Tire, as well as his wide-ranging podcast, The Smoking Tire Podcast. It is widely-known that in addition to his passion for all things automotive, he is also a huge watch enthusiast.
When we first started working together on this project, it became clear that Matt knew exactly how he would design a watch if he were given free reign over a blank canvas. We provided the blank canvas, and months later, the Canyon was born.
TrailTrekker with Raven Watches
Raven Watches is one of the early microbrands that blazed the trail that many microbrands follow today. Started in 2008, Raven specializes in adventure-ready watches that are extremely durable and function-forward.
The idea of working together on a collaborative design came about at an early Intersect show, where we wanted to emulate the collaborative creative process that musicians go through when they collaborate on music. Our brands cater to different audiences with different use cases, which posed unique and interesting creative constraints. The resulting watch is called the TrailTrekker, which gets its name sake from a combination of our Contrail platform, and Raven’s Trekker model.
Our supply chain and processes are uniquely set up for collaborative projects at scale, so we plan to continue to find collaborators that address different niches and develop novel solutions for their audience.
