Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Chag Sameach, and all the best to you and yours this special time of year.
When I founded Locke & King in 2020 it was out of a desire to re-align what I valued in my life, both to do something I loved and to make time for those that I love.
So beyond all the commercial emails, gift buying, deals. spam, and other, realistically unnecessary stuff that this season can sometimes seem to lean too heavily into, I simply wanted to make the time to thank you all for an exciting year, to wish you all happy holidays, and to offer all the best wishes for 2023.
Make time for what matters to you this season. And make your own time always.
- Ryan Moran, CEO & Founder
P.S. See below for a simple, little gift from us to you.
Complementary Festive Art Prints
The two, festive digital art prints below depict Gore Park, the core promenade in our hometown of Hamilton, Ontario's downtown, with its iconic fountain and glowing tree, located at King and James.
Simply click on either image to have access to the high-res digital file, download and enjoy your free, festive art prints of our hometown for use however you like.
Often the assumption is because I am a collector and aficionado. I dabble, but no, not the reason - in fact when it comes to collecting, it's not even necessarily the big, special brands that appeal to me... It's the ones with stories.
When it comes to watches and Locke & King - notwithstanding the passion for ensuring that our timepieces are complex, intricate, and of an enduring quality - arguably among my greatest interests is a watch's ability to tell a story. Whether it is the brand story, or the deep personal story written between the watch and its owner based on the significance behind their receiving it or their experience with it, or both.
With that said, here's an example from my own collection...
Carriage is not a particularly notable or prized brand, in fact, it is barely even a sub-discount brand of Timex. Yet, when my grandmother gave me this black-leather strapped, silver-cased Carriage watch for my 17th birthday, I saw it as a very special gift. The significance to me was both that it was from my grandmother, and that it was in recognition of the age that I was turning - as though I was entering this new, nearly adult phase of my life, and here's the sort of watch that a grown-ass man should wear.
Knowing nothing of watches at the time, I also assumed that my Nana, who though comfortable did not have deep pockets, must have dropped some serious coin on it.
As such, for the ensuing years, and even well into my 30s, it became the official formal watch in my collection. The one I would break out only for special occasions, both because I don't wear black too often, and because it had this deeper meaning to me as a gift from my Nana.
Sadly, my Nana passed away last December at age 95.
In May, as my wife and I finally got to have the black-tie wedding we had been planning for the past three years - and in spite of both a modest collection and owning Locke & King - it was that discount drug store, black-strapped Carriage that completed my tux. There was no question about it.
Moreover, it now had an even deeper, embedded meaning. It was no longer just the special gift that my Nana had given me 22 years ago, in a sense it was my Nana, celebrating that day with us and with the family.
I've always felt that watches are tools, they don't tell us the time, they help us navigate what to do with the time we have to make the most of life and live our own story. Yet, they also become scribes of those stories, and symbols of our lived experiences, representing meanings that make the directions in which they point us through time only that much more significant and meaningfully precise.
For me, that is both my "why watches?" And what the heirloom-worthy Locke & King timepieces offer to those who roll up their sleeves to strap one on.
]]>First, a note about the name and theming of our watches.
Though drawing inspiration and taking cues from classic watch styles, the stories our watches tell aren't about type, they are about the roads that those who wear them walk down. Literally. Our watches are named after streets from around the world.
Presenting our second watch...
Naming our watches after the roads we walk around the world, but always with a roll-up-your-sleeves Hamilton lens, we wanted to stay in Canada for our first few models. So of course, it would be hard for us to look past our neighbour a few kilometres east, Toronto.
One of the most physically fascinating aspects of Ossington, particularly along its "main-drag," is that unlike the rest of Toronto, it has remained largely, architecturally untouched for the past 70 years.
Drawing from these mid-century building styles, and combining with the effortlessly cool character of the modern street, we went in a minimal dress watch direction with heavy Bauhaus design influences. The result is a piece that combines cool refinement with the rustic, everyday hero style that Locke & King is known for.
Between the clean geometric simplicity, and the complexity of the guilloche dial representing rough patches across time, and even with the subtle nod made by the hour markers to Scott Eunson's Ossington Particles installation found in the Ossington station, this watch embodies the experimentally casual cool that the street now represents.
With three colour iterations to start, the refined design ensures it's an everyday hero that looks as good dressed up as it does dressed down.
Keep Scrolling for your first look...
Specs and Details:
The Ossington is currently in the final stages of production and will be here by a definite date of June 1, if not sooner.
We are offering an exclusive presale rate of 20% off the regular price of $699 (CAD).
In addition to the presale rate, all presale purchasers will become automatic members of the LK Society at no extra charge, opening you up to discounts, early releases, and events.
So to summarize, making your commitment to the Ossington now, will also get you:
Now... meet the Ossington.
]]>Alright. So we've teased long enough, it's time to start showing and telling.
But first, a note about the name and theming of our watches.
Though still drawing inspiration and taking cues from classic watch styles, the stories our watches tell won't be about type, they will be about the roads that those who wear them walk down. Literally. Our watches will be named after streets from around the world, and like our company name, we're starting with our home town.
Presenting our forthcoming, debut watch...
Our first and debut model, named for one of our home-town's oldest streets.
James Street in Hamilton, Ontario is defined by Lake Ontario in the north and the Niagara escarpment in the south. It has the heritage of being an entry point for newcomers to Canada, rooted in the history of North America's railroad, featuring everything from a port and an armoury, to galleries and medical facilities, and is now a diverse arts & cultural hub.
The James, like those that built it across time and continue to make it everyday, from artists and architects to chefs and medical professionals, is a ruggedly elegant everyday hero.
Keep Scrolling for your first look...
For design we drew from the heritage of railroad watches, with a hint of field watch, for their connection to the history of the street. Like the street and city, the coin edge, ridged bezel offers a certain sophistication while literally being a "a little rough around the edges." Meanwhile the subtle sectored dial design references the classic clock of Hamilton's old city hall, a fixture of the street for over 130-years, now located in the City Centre clock tower.
With three colour iterations to start, the refined design ensures it's an everyday hero that looks as good dressed up as it does dressed down.
Keep Scrolling for your first look...
Specs and Details:
The James is currently in production, this isn't crowdfunding, this is happening, we are opening up our presale now.
With a delivery date projected for September 2021, we are offering an exclusive presale rate of $400, saving 20% or $100 on the regular price of $500.
In addition to the presale rate, all presale purchasers will receive a pair of Locke & King sunglasses, and will become automatic members of the forthcoming LK Society at no extra charge.
So to summarize, making your commitment to one of our first editions now, will also get you:
And now your first looks. Note that these are 3D renderings, so there may be very minor differences with the final product...
...In one week.
Yes, a little tease, sorry, but we've officially decided to unveil our first, debut watch in one week.
We have had an exciting few weeks to date, from launching our site and online store, to making weekly deliveries and shipments of our accessory and stationary gear to our awesome first customers (thank you!), and inching ever closer to our "main event" pieces, our watches.
On that, the past few weeks have ALSO seen us approve engineering drawings of our first line, start production, and even finalize the design of our watch boxes.
We're still looking at the official launch of our first line later this summer, but we've decided it's both time to show and tell you all about it, as well as to open up an exclusive presale offer with a gift on top.
So mark your calendars... Next Monday, we're kicking off summer by revealing our first watch!
Until then, have a great week!
]]>It’s in our heads, our pockets, and incidentally, on our wrists. But it isn’t real, it’s just an imaginary construct to help us measure the thing that is real, life. Time isn’t slipping away, nor is it marching on, it is just living, it’s building, it’s creating, it’s evolving, it just is.
Having always liked watches and talking style, I can’t remember the exact time that I decided to start Locke & King. I do remember, however, when the idea nestled itself in my head while reading an article about watches on a cross-continental flight to San Francisco, I do remember when I started researching and preparing more in earnest in the following years, and I do remember concretely and resolutely moving forward – “onward & upward” – with it after losing my job in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The point is that like life itself, Locke & King has been been iterative. And like what time does for life, every step, every tick makes it that much more real. As Locke & King emerges, grows, and develops in ways that maybe even I don’t see coming, it becomes simply what it will be. Like time, like life, starting a business, and in this case starting Locke & King, is a process.
Which brings us to the website launch, another step in this life-journey of making Locke & King more real. Of course, one of the biggest questions may be “Hey. What the hell? Where are the watches?”
Easy. Still in prototyping, as we want to make sure that they uphold the standards and story that we represent, and believe it or not, this is all a part of the plan. We are approving engineering specs this week for the first line of watches, but wanted to launch the site now, with our emerging selection of stationery, our docker caps, and our Sunseekers, because it’s time to start telling our story more fully.
Explore the site, check out our gear, and as it is a soft launch, if you see any bugs, feel free to let us know.
And what to expect from here on out?
In other words, exciting times ahead.
Onward & Upward and Make Your Own Time.
Big thanks once more to Shaun O'Melia Design for the incredible brand work, and to Shopify, and DMS ShopHere's Rachel and Vanessa for being great supports on bringing this site together.
]]>