There are a ton of watch projects on Kickstarter, but some just stand out and this no-nonsense, old school automatic watch is one of them. It’s made in Germany, has a decent depth rating if you want to go underwater on holiday, and a classic dial that simply tells the time. No messing, no sub-dials. Not even a date window.

There’s a Sellita SW200 movement inside the 38mm case, sapphire crystal and some handy lume on the markers and hands. Three different steel strap options.

Here’s a little bit of the philosophy behind the project from its creator;

“The aim was to create a timeless, very robust case, a quintesence of the very balanced watch cases I really liked from the heyday of mechanical Swiss watchmaking in the 50s and 60s. A case, on the one hand is elegant and self-contained, but on the other hand also exudes a certain robustness and serenity. Water resistance of 200m / 660ft was also very important to me, because I wanted to design a watch that can master all activities and that you don’t even have to take off for diving (important, always screw on the screwed crown….:-)). And if you asked yourself why “TRUTH BEAUTY LOVE” on the caseback? That’s what we  stand for, “TRUTH, BEAUTY, LOVE“. I will explain further down. But if you like it more clean and minimal – easy – it’s only an option.”

HOW CAN YOU CALCULATE IMPORT DUTY ON EU WATCHES NOW?

Good question.

The Ten Eleven Nine watch is priced at 923 euros, with no VAT levied on UK sales of course, but you will get stung by HMRC on import taxes however. How much? Nobody seems to know. There is no information on products over £630 on the UK gov website, no handy calculator to let buyers work it out. Worse still, once you pay the duty, there’s VAT on the total cost, including postage and the import duty, so it’s impossible to know in advance what a watch from Switzerland, or the EU will actually cost. Your parcel courier company or Royal Mail will just email a bill and you either accept it, pay up, or reject the parcel. Crazy.

Verdict; It’s a handsome, clean design that will attract anyone who likes 50s/60s dress watches like the Omega De Ville/ Geneve, or the Seiko Sportsmatic. It’s an added bonus that it has 200m dive resistance as well. The potential retail price in the UK with all import duties and VAT on top could be about £1250-£1350 and at that level there are some tempting alternatives on Kickstarter, and from brands like Yema, Baltic, Tissot or Hamilton, although the Jazzmaster Thin only has a depth rating of 100m.