More often than not, a microbrand is built by a collector; someone that sees a hole in the market for the kind of timepiece they want and can’t find. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always lend itself to the kind of expertise actually needed to make said brand a success. Neil Duckworth however is not that kind of founder. In fact, he’s been an industry stalwart for nearly half a century, whether that’s as retailer, distributor or in-house at TAG Heuer.
In short, if there’s one guy that knows the market, it’s Neil, which goes a long way to explaining why his own start-up watch brand, Duckworth Prestex, has been killing it recently. Between their retro cushion cases and eye-catching colours, it’s a range that’s been doing better than any microbrand could hope for.
Still, it’s also a brand that didn’t suddenly appear from thin air, no matter how sudden its impact.
“I started working at the family shop, Prestons, back in… must have been 1975 or 76, when I was 21. I went to Switzerland to learn about watches (like many people did back then) and helped out in the shop. They’ve been around since 1869 and would, like many retailers, buy pocket watches and put their name on them.”
Essentially, they were white-labelling Swiss watches and, if you trusted the retailer, you’d trust them to offer fine timepieces in their self-titled collection. As time moved on, they transitioned from pocket watches to the cushion cases typical of the 1930s, all with Prestons on the dial. Then, they went one step further and, rather than stick to their own name, opted for Prestex on the dials.
“It just sounded more like a watchmaker,” said Neil. “Ex as a suffix was incredibly popular. It sounded luxurious, Latin and modern, hence Rolex, Timex, Vertex. Even Kleenex. As it’s now my brand, I wanted to add my name to the dial, too. It’s a little unwieldy but no more so than something like Vacheron Constantin!”
So, after years of working for other brands in the industry, when Neil finally came around to creating his own watches, the brand, the story and most importantly the name were already there. But in which direction to take it? There are plenty of heritage British brands around and standing out could be hard.
“I didn’t want anything too old fashioned, but a fusion. I wanted to bring together the vintage, cushion cased watches we produced back in the 1930s but with a modern twist. So, I made the cases a little larger and went for a splash of colour.”
For me, those colours are what Duckworth Prestex is all about. Between the textured look of the dial and the slight fume from bright orange to ruddy black, it’s a stunner. Sure, the more vintage-looking Boltons are nice in a classical, Fears-adjacent kind of way, but the Verimatic models stand apart.
“I wanted to have the same sort of washed-out colours as the kind of vintage cars you’d find roaming around Miami”, explains Neil. “When I was a kid, I used to play with Dinky cars and they were always those kinds of blues, oranges, pinks. That stuck with me.”
And indeed, there is something about old, impossibly long Cadillacs about the Verimatic’s hues, especially with the fume effect like a faded car bonnet. Yet what really sets them off is the twist of colour – the yellow hand on the blue version and the blue hand on the orange.
“That I took from Paul Smith. If I could afford his suits, I’d have many more of them. He always manages to put a twist of colour in his designs somewhere, small but eye-catching and I wanted the same effect.”
The thing is, it’s not just the cool colours and cushion cases that separate Prestex from other microbrands. Neil being an industry vet, he’s leveraged his contacts to make sure that Duckworth Prestex is one of the few you can actually find in a bricks-and-mortar retailer.
Don’t worry though, there’s barely a hint of the usual retail mark-up and they’re still incredibly affordable. The flagship Verimatic models will set you back just £595, with the pocket-watch inspired Bolton just a touch higher at £625.
With incredibly appealing prices, a plan for Bond villain-esque global domination through retailers and a pipeline that includes GMTs, divers and rectangular watches among others, Duckworth Prestex will likely be on micro aficionado’s lips more and more in coming years. Even if we’re more likely to shorten it to just, Prestex.
More details at Duckworth Prestex.
