Introducing Staudt Watches: The Story of a Musician who became a Watch Creator

We visited Staudt Watches, and bring you this introduction to a new independent company and their watches. 

 

 

Yvo Staudt

Once in a while you meet people with an inspiring story. Yvo Staudt of Staudt Watches is such a person. His watch company was born during a crisis in his personal life. Yvo, a gifted musician, had moved to Italy to master the classical accordeon. He had left his family and girlfriend, whom he knew since he was fourteen, behind. Without friends and family the feeling of loneliness became stronger and stronger to the point that his passion for music was jeopardized. To deal with the loneliness, Yvo started to read about watches, something he was interested ever since he got his first watch – a Pulsar – when he was 12 years old. Hours of reading did lead to an idea of getting a mechanical watch. As a student he did not have much money, so Yvo started with buying some movements and disassemble and reassemble the movements to become familiar with the mechanics. Yvo developed a passion for understated, legible, quality mechanical watches.

Unfortunately he could not find an affordable watch that met his criteria. So he decided to build one himself. He started designing and drawing the case, the dial and the movement. Nevertheless he continued his music education, now at the Dutch Conservatorium. He also completed his own watch. To his surprise his watch gained great interest. People asked him where they could buy his watch. But he still was on the path to a professional musician career. Then he got the news that his girlfriend had broken her back during an accident. To Yvo this was a sign to radically change careers; He stopped in 2014 and decided to focus full time on creating great watches.

 

 

 

 

Staudt Praeludium

With the help of an angel investor, Yvo produced the first batch of the Praeludium hand-wound watch. Every single part of the Praeludium was designed by Yvo himself: 42.5mm case, crown, dial, hands, and the movement. The latter to a certain extent as he knew he had to use an existing base movement. Each Praeludium houses an Unitas movement modified based on his specifications: three-quarter gold-plated bridge, enhanced beat rate (21,600 instead of 18,000, swan-neck regulator and the use of chatons, jewels and blued screws. Glass is antiglare sapphire on both sides of the watch. The case is made of 316L steel.

 

 

 

The rest is history…. After delivering the first batch, Yvo started working on new designs.

Playing with dials

By now he has added a 37mm version of the Praeludium hand-wound, various dial colours, an automatic housing an ETA-movement and his latest addition: a red-gold Praeludium hand-wound with guilloché dial handmade by guilloché master Jochen Benzinger. New models are to be expected soon!

 

 

Especially the production of the two-tone dial is (was) a tour-de-force. His supplier had quite some experience in developing dials for the car industry (Ferrari, Rolls Royce) so choosing them seemed like a no-brainer. Nevertheless, it took quite some time to develop a perfectly looking dial with multiple layers. Each dial is first painted in the basic blue color that you see in the center of the dial and the subdial. This step is followed by adding 7 layers of paint to the outer part of the dial, the hour markers and the railroads, using a lithography-technique. The most difficult part was to retain the basic blue color with the railroad.

 

 

 

The movements

Another challenge was the assembly of the watches and the movements. Initially Yvo bought fully assembled movements from the factory and built those in the watches personally. He had to change this because the movement assembly was done sub-par. Consequently he had to service multiple watches returned by customers. A change was necessary. He hired two watchmakers, who now do the movement assembly and the watch assembly. Each watch is carefully checked before it is delivered to retailers and customers.

 

 

Recommendations and concluding thoughts

Would I recommend buying a Staudt watch? Absolutely! This is not “just” the result of an assembly of purchased watch components. Everything is carefully designed and thought through. Yvo pays a lot of time on finding the right dimensions and the materials that do justice to the tradition of watchmaking. The dial looks well balanced. The shape of the hands and the size of the railroad fit perfectly. The 37mm version looks even better. A slightly modified manual-wound movement is a nice bonus. The strap is a high-quality alligator strap.

There is, however, another reason to recommend buying a Staudt Watch. The man behind the brand is as passionate and dedicated to delivering beautiful understated classical watches. Money earned is invested entirely in the company for further development and growth. To me this is a key ingredient for transforming from a startup into a successful company.

 

The Collection:

Praeludium Hand-wound:

Case, dial and glass: steel, diameter 42,5mm, thickness 10,51mm; two-toned multilayered dial available in three colours: staudt-blue, arctic ivory and midnight black; arabic numerals, polished solid stainless steel hands (thermo blued in artic ivory version); sapphire crystal glass on both sides with double anti-reflective coating; subdial for seconds;
Functions: hours, minutes, seconds;
Strap and clasp: Alligator leather, handmade in Italy; engraved stainless steel folding clasp
Movement: Swiss hand-wound Unitas movement with 19 jewels, gold-plated chaton de rubis, 21,600 Bph, 50hr power reserve, circulair Cote de Geneve, polished and thermo-blued screws; ¾ bridge plated with 18-carat pink gold;
Water resistance 3ATM;
Two years warranty;
Price: €2.349.
Personalization: options and price upon request

 

 

Praeludium Automatic:

Case, dial and glass: steel, diameter 42,5mm, thickness 9,81mm; two-toned multilayered dial available in three colours: staudt-blue, arctic ivory and midnight black; arabic numerals, polished solid stainless steel hands (thermo blued in artic ivory version); sapphire crystal glass on front-side with double anti-reflective coating; date window at 6 o’clock position;
Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, date;
Strap and clasp: Alligator leather, handmade in Italy; engraved stainless steel folding clasp
Movement: Swiss automatic ETA movement with 25 jewels, 28,800 Bph, 42hr power reserve, circulair Cote de Geneve, polished screws;
Water resistance 3ATM;
Two years warranty;
Price: €2.489.
Personalization: options and price upon request

Praeludium Guilloche:

Case, dial and glass: 18 carat red-gold case, diameter 42,5mm, thickness 10,51mm; two-toned multilayered dial available in three colours: staudt-blue, arctic ivory and midnight black; roman numerals, polished solid stainless steel hands (thermo blued in artic ivory version); sapphire crystal glass on both sides with double anti-reflective coating; subdial for seconds;
Functions: hours, minutes, seconds;
Strap and clasp: Alligator leather, handmade in Italy; engraved solid red-gold buckle
Movement: Swiss hand-wound Unitas movement with 19 jewels, gold-plated chaton de rubis, 21,600 Bph, 50hr power reserve, circulair Cote de Geneve, polished and thermo-blued screws; ¾ bridge plated with 18-carat pink gold;
Water resistance 3ATM;
Two years warranty;
Price: 14.000 euros.
Limited to 25 pieces.
Personalization: options and price upon request

Each watch is delivered in a wooden box in blue:

 

 

For more information see: http://staudtwatches.com/en/