Who doesn’t want to drop everything and move to the beach? It was an appealing thought before the current crisis, but now it’s one that tugs at our very souls. It’s also a reason to admire Gregor Bieniek, founder of Crude Watches as that’s precisely what he did, upping sticks and heading out to the idyllic island of Ibiza.
It was a move that was as much a shift in lifestyle as location, selling off worldly possessions and downsizing to a more carefree, laidback way of living. But this is a man who bought his first Panerai at 18 and as we’ve all come to appreciate, a love of fine watches is a hard thing to get rid of. It wasn’t long before Bieniek started missing the reassuring weight of metal on his wrist.
So, he decided to build his own watch. The idea actually started from something incredibly simple. A lover of jewellery too, Bieniek crafted a beautiful silver buckle for a watch strap. But as there are very, very few watches built from the same semi-precious metal, it didn’t fit anything. So, he built the watch to fit – which became the progenitor for Crude.
It would have been easy to copy a Submariner style or some other established archetype, but for Bieniek that wouldn’t do. In Ibiza, it’s all about Rolex, Rolex, Rolex, and he wanted something to stand out, something that better reflected his own love of rough-and-ready, charmingly scuffed, rock ‘n’ roll luxury. He wanted watches with character.
To that end, each Crude watch uses a single piece case and dial, cast from an individual mould. It’s an idea that seems insane in any traditional watch studio, but by leaning on the jewellery and casting expertise in Germany’s Pforzheim, Crude have created their own, unique process to make some spectacular, single-piece watches.
From there it would normally be a case of polishing them up and making them perfect. But that’s not the Crude way. Instead, their watches are just how they came out of the casting process, minute imperfections and all. Not that it’s too carefree of course; roughly 20 in every 50 cases go back into the melting pot, but the ones that remain are unique.
Indeed, character is what Crude is all about. It’s why they use silver in the first place, why they wear their flaws on their sleeve and why diamonds, which Bieniek has as much love of as a glam rock superstar, are a focal point of the dials.
It’s not all aesthetic either. Crude watches are constructed so that they retain 100m water resistance even with the crown pulled out and the movements are customised Eterna calibres for solid reliability and a 65-hour power reserve. Just because you’re having fun with your watch doesn’t mean you can compromise on mechanics.
Above all however, Crude is about reflecting a certain lifestyle, one that embraces imperfections, would rather rumble around in an old Land Rover than a Ferrari and would rather stand out than blend in. The result isn’t subtle, and it isn’t for everyone, but whether you love them or not you have to respect what Crude is doing. As for us, we’ll be heading out to Ibiza first chance we get.
More details at Crude-Studio.
