Minuteman Watch Co.'s Darby Automatic

[AtomicTom]

Guys, have you seen the Minuteman Watch Company's new automatic named the Darby?

The new watch has the Miyota 9015 automatic within it's 42mm stainless steel, or PVD
coated stainless steel case. On top of that, you have some eye-catching dials with unique
luminous markers, and hands, double domed AR coated sapphire crystals, and 200 meter
WR. All of the watches are assembled, and tested here in the USA, and the straps are
actually made right here in the US as well.

Just a few pictures...













Links to Wrist Watch Review, and Minuteman also guys...

https://www.wristwatchreview.com/2016/1 ... full-auto/

http://minutemanwatches.com/

[andrema]

It looks pretty good. He should move that ring slightly outward to allow the date window to not create a break.

[59yukon01]

I like them. Made in the USA is a plus.

[andrema]

It looks pretty good. He should move that ring slightly outward to allow the date window to not create a break.

And flip the 24 hour numbers on the lower half of the dial

[JP Chestnut]

The blue likes pretty nice.

[Joeprez]

I actually like it, the blue dial with SS case and the black dial with PVD case look really good.

[andrema]

Good size at 42mm too.

[marchone]

It looks pretty good. He should move that ring slightly outward to allow the date window to not create a break.

The break works best with a negative space. Not so good with white date wheel on blue dial.

[hoppes-no9]

Looks good to me. Especially the stainless/blue. Price?

[andrema]

Looks good to me. Especially the stainless/blue. Price?

i believe it's around $400

[Thomas Carey]

I like them. Made in the USA is a plus.

Hello as the brand owner I want to clear up things a bit. These are not made in the usa. The leather watch straps are, and the padded zipper cases are. They are also assembled and tested in the US. But things like the movement of course are not made in the US. Therefore we can not say that whole watch is made in the USA under US law.

[Thomas Carey]

Looks good to me. Especially the stainless/blue. Price?

i believe it's around $400

Correct the pre sell for the brushed with the blue sunray dial is $369.

[Thomas Carey]

Thanks to all of you for posting about our watch. Our brand is one you don't typically see being discussed on the watch forums. I believe much of that has been due to our use of quartz movements in the past. =)

We are very hopeful this project will fund as we have long wanted to do a series with an auto and these would actually be the finest quality highest spec watches we've offered to date.

This design is one we have sat on for about 3 years or so. Its been tweaked here and there along the way. Along the way the version that had always gotten the most interest is the Darby. So far though the most popular has been the RWB in brushed finish. To date our brand has always sold a lot more watches in PVD or DLC than a natural stainless finish. So the results so far have been a surprise. The Darby in the DLC finish is starting to catch and may pass the RWB which we had thought the Darby DLC would far outpace the other versions.

[andrema]

It's a nice design, Thomas. Congratulations on coming up with something original looking at a decent price!

[mikeylacroix]

Blue is nice

[andrema]

What is the timing on production?

[Thomas Carey]

It's a nice design, Thomas. Congratulations on coming up with something original looking at a decent price!

Thanks so much for the kind words. We feel the price is inline with many brands that source 100% in China.. The cost for the US portion of our watches is a lot more than Chinese so its tough to sell at this sort of price.

For example most of our Current watches are quartz. In China assembly of one would be $3 and here it costs us $35. For our leather strap Chinese would be $10 for the quality we use which US is $30. For the mechanicals our US assembly will cost quite a bit more.

[Thomas Carey]

What is the timing on production?

On March 31st we are going to see if we have enough pre orders to move forward. If not we will stop taking orders and refund those that put down a deposit. If we do have enough orders we will continue to pre sell till the end of April. Watches are projected to start shipping in September. I am actually hoping for August.

This go around we are doing what we did when we first started the brand more or less. Which means we are offering the lower pre sell price. But when you order now you are only putting down about $130 as a deposit. If we move forward then we will collect the balance just before placing the production order. We only plan to make 25 of each version in our first production but this could change depending on the demand.

[andrema]

Well, I wish you luck

[Jeep99dad]

Hey Thomas.
Hope all is well. This is a very nice watch and great size too. I love that top model and blue SS.

Don't you employ vets to do the assembly and testing ?


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[poppydog]

Like 'em and good luck

[Thomas Carey]

Hey Thomas.
Hope all is well. This is a very nice watch and great size too. I love that top model and blue SS.

Don't you employ vets to do the assembly and testing ?


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That was the original plan but our partner on that flaked out before even the first watches were built. I don't want to go into the details of that or what I really think about the group that was behind that effort here publicly.

So we switched to having two shops here in IL owned by long time watchmakers that were well equipped. Currently we use just one shop in up state IL.

We did search high and low for some vets to do the builds before giving up on that altogether. I found one gent that was in his late 70's and closing up shop that would have been interested if his health would have allowed it. The other person I found was a fellow that was working for a large Swiss brands service center. The plan was to have him work for us on the side at his home shop. His employer nixed that due to conflict of interest...

We had also hoped to at some point be able to find a vet interested that we could put through the school at Gem City but we needed to be a lot bigger than we are now. I had honestly thought our brand would have been able to do that by now and but sadly we are not.

We are though still raising funds for charities that help veterans and their families. For 2016 that charity is Fisher House. In fact this month we are donating to them $300 for ever Jester watch we sell. Those we sell for $399 so we are losing quite a bit on every one we sell. But that series is sunsetting and we are in the black on it so we can do that. Especially since we don't actually have a full time employee and I don't take a salary from our Minuteman brand. I actually have a full time job selling RV's. This allows us to work on tighter margins and donate funds to charity.

If all of you could help us get the word out about the deal on Jester watches we sure would appreciate that as we would like to raise a large amount for Fisher House this month.

[snootydog]

I like the brushed steel, black dial version the most. Good luck with your project I hope all goes well

[Thomas Carey]

I like the brushed steel, black dial version the most. Good luck with your project I hope all goes well

Thanks so much for the kind words.

[Disc Golfer 209]

That brushed SS blue is a beauty !


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