Since day one, our core customer was very clear: watch enthusiasts. The community around watches is unlike any other. There is a strong sense of kinship between brands, friendship between enthusiasts, and community between brands and enthusiasts.

Platforms such as WatchUSeek and WatchCrunch have come online while platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have grown in both functionality and size, giving easy access to enthusiasts to find each other – yet something is still missing.

We wanted to create an event that was – like watches – physical and intimate.

Our very first iteration of this event was literally about half a dozen people in a greasy bar in Koreatown, Los Angeles. It was a “pickup party” for the first Avalon that we released in 2018. Everyone brought their collections to show off while they resized their Avalon bracelets and poured each other drinks.

Filled with beer, and shoes sticking to the beer-stained floor, I left our first meetup with a feeling of fulfillment. Our customers became friends and started us down a path of creating a community, not just around Nodus, but celebrating independent watch brands from around the world as well.

While it was cool to see watches from other watch brands, I thought it would be infinitely cooler to have the brand owners themselves be at the bar. So a few years, many watch releases, and a pandemic later, I sent a text to my good friend, Steve Laughlin from Raven Watches to see if he would be interested in flying out to LA for a weekend to host a watch party.

We created cocktails named after our watches, invited about 50 people (COVID-19 limited the size of gatherings in Los Angeles), and did what watch nerds do best.

Fast forward a couple of years, we met Peter Cho from Jack Mason and Markus Walchli from Formex at WindUp Chicago, and had an idea to do an event in Dallas at Jack Mason’s showroom – something bigger than just a regular meetup but smaller than a tradeshow like WindUp. Something that more resembles a party.

There are three main criteria for brands that come to Intersect:

1) They must be independently-owned
2) A decision-maker must be present at each show
3) Said decision-maker must be cool, collaborative, and community-driven

With brands that fit the above three criteria, we believe that attendees self-select to be positive members of the watch community too.

Peter, Markus and I established the InterBoard to manage Intersect. We ultimately aim to cultivate an immersive experience for watch enthusiasts to meet other like-minded folks.

In order for enthusiasts to stay enthusiastic, they need something to look forward to – something more than just the next watch release from their favorite brand. Intersect is meant to be the coolest corner of the industry, where the coolest brands hang out with the coolest enthusiasts.

We will continue to grow Intersect, not in terms of the number of brands or attendees, but in terms of value for both sides. The format will evolve with the needs of the brands and the experience will improve for attendees.

A look at Intersect throughout the years: