Winchester watch company

British watchmaker aborts Kickstarter fundraising

An attempt to raise £10,000 for a new British watch brand via Kickstarter crowd funding has been aborted just one day after it began.

Winchester Watch Company, founded by Steven Batchelor, was aiming to raise the seed capital via Kickstarter to finance the creation of a British-made quartz watch collection.

The funding effort started on August 6, but was cancelled a day later without explanation on the Kickstarter website.

It had raised £1825 from 11 backers, each of which had pledged £160 in return for the promise to be given one of the Meridian watches that the company intended to develop. The watches were to be delivered by October this year.

Just 250 Meridian watches were due to be produced in their first manufacturing run, according to pre-publicity from the company.

In his introduction to the company, Mr. Batchelor suggested he wanted to create a brand rooted in British tradition. “England has a rich heritage of watchmaking. We are reimagining the art of making watches, and are passionate about bringing an exciting new product to the wrists of fashion-forward contemporary men.”

An earlier adjustment to the Winchester Watch Company plan was a move away from creating a British movement for its watches.

“The Winchester Watch Company initially wanted to create a watch that was not only British-made, but also comprised solely of British parts. Unfortunately, the decline of the watchmaking industry in Britain has been so dramatic, quartz movements can’t yet be manufactured here. The team at Winchester will be using a Swiss-made quartz movement by RONDA – but the Meridian will be designed, crafted and assembled by a 100% British team, here on UK soil, with a home-grown company at its helm,” the company admitted.

The Winchester Watch Company website is not working today. It’s Facebook page appears to have been removed. At the time of writing, WatchPro could not track down contact details for Mr. Batchelor.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *