Creators and entrepreneurs who rethink time

Far from having had their day in the face of smart phones, watches remain stuck to our wrists, and some designers, whether craftsmen or entrepreneurs, like to adjust their codes. Here are the workings of three Quebec initiatives in this area.

Sylvain Sarrazin
Press

From reclaimed leather

Over time, he made some very pretty things in the Montreal workshop of Chikiboom. In particular, minimalist watches for women and men whose bracelets exhibit a very special touch; a touch of leather, more exactly, but not just any, since it is a recovered and recycled material.

With their fingertips, Felix Marcuzzo and his employee rework them, redesign them and thus set the record straight – that of recovery – by offering a wide range of matching bracelets and dials. “We buy scraps from local leather suppliers. It can be, for example, skins which present defects such as spots or the tattoo of the cow. These pieces are not used, but since the parts we need are small strips of leather, I can bypass them and recover them, without loss ”, explains M^me Marcuzzo, who founded Chikiboom 12 years ago.

Apart from re-cutting and shaping to obtain the bracelets, no additional treatment is carried out, the colors being left as they are.

“I don’t step in and try to find the right skin tones, which sometimes makes it a bit difficult when I’m ordered in large quantities of a particular shade. Sometimes I can only make two or three watches with a scrap, ”she explains.

Faced with the vegan wave, is she thinking of adapting her raw material? The craftswoman looks at the subject with caution, as vegetable imitation leather is not necessarily a more ecological option. Until we get the facts on this subject, its watches and bracelets are sold at festivals and outlets across the country. The dials, with a stainless steel back and designed in Montreal, are imported to keep the selling price affordable (from $ 75 to $ 85); local manufacturers for this market segment are non-existent in Quebec anyway.

Recompose precious time

“Watches, I don’t repair them, I break them! This is Marie Robitaille’s response when asked if she has a watchmaker training. In fact, this jeweler dismantles the mechanisms to better reassemble them in the form of original pendants, earrings, brooches, necklaces, belt buckles and frames. “Defeated in Quebec”, she even likes to indicate on her website.

By drawing from her reserves of springs, crowns, hands, bracelets and gears, she shapes all kinds of jewelry reminiscent of our relationship to time, even to a loved one; because it happens to him to launch out in creations starting from the old watch with the tired cogs of a regretted ancestor. An art that she has been practicing for 28 years, in the heart of Quebec City.

“It all started when I opened a pocket watch and saw the craftsman’s work it was hiding. Something had to be done with that, ”remembers this autodidact. Since then, she has collected her raw materials according to her finds, but especially through bequests, which allows her to have all kinds of parts on hand to reassemble them and change their vocation, associated with other materials. to arrive at his ends.

Thus, frames, dials and dials are found associated with a chain to give birth to a pendant, or metal bracelets are assembled to create a frame representing the New York skyline.

“I remain fascinated by the work of the artist who created the watch or the clock, its mechanism, but above all by the movement associated with it”, she explains. Her unique creations, priced at around $ 40 to $ 200, are available on her website and, since last fall, at the boutique of the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul. And while waiting to discover them, the artisan sends you her best wishes for “Good Hours for 2022”!

A bright idea

It’s a bit like clockwork: while the very first instruments to measure time were sundials, a duo of Quebec entrepreneurs are once again relying on this source of energy to develop elegant watches and eco-responsible.

The idea? Power a quartz watch with natural or artificial light, via a very long-lasting battery. In fact, the Land of the Rising Sun was a pioneer in this technology, and it is therefore on its shores that Alexandre Desabrais and Samuel Leroux, two entrepreneurs graduated from HEC and co-founders of Solios, were seduced by the idea of ​​a traditional watch eliminating the worry of regular battery maintenance.

The watches developed by the Quebec company are therefore equipped with a battery capable of operating for six months with a simple charge of two hours. It should also stand the test of time, since its recharging capacity is supposed to maintain at least 80% during its first 30 years of life, assure its designers.

In addition to their mode of operation, the watches claim to be the result of an eco-responsible approach, the duo of entrepreneurs having inspected the factories of its Asian suppliers to ensure that materials and working conditions meet ethical and environmental standards. The bracelets are thus made of recycled and ionized metal or of siliconized vegan leather.

In the age of cellphones and connected watches, have these solar boxes launched in 2019 found their audience? “When the smartwatch came along, it really disrupted the traditional watch market, which then picked up and is growing today. The first is seen as a tool to be connected, while the second is a way of expressing a value, a personality. We wanted to project this same kind of image for responsible consumption, ”explains the co-founder of Solios.

For this reason, these solar watches offer an “affordable luxury” face, focusing on quality and durability, in a price range between $ 325 and $ 350.