We've spoken before about our watches, in fact mechanical watches in general, being “forever products”. The idea being that if you look after your watch and have it serviced every 3-5 years, they’ll legitimately remain functioning and accurate long after we shuffle off this mortal coil. In fact, if the person who takes up the mantle of looking after said watch continues to treat it well and have it serviced as you did, it will outlast them too. Watches are made from metal, gemstones and sapphire - materials that don’t degrade like our materials do - hair, skin and humour - which is why, when we recently peered into our stock room and saw the ever-growing trays of “used” watches, we thought… something needs to be done about this.

To own a new thing is part of what makes modern living fantastic - the thrill of a freshly obtained object - being the first to make an acquaintance with something is a visceral human experience. Last year, I replaced my decades old bike with a new one and the excitement I feel each time I go out on it remains to this day, because I remember the moment I peeled the protective stickers off and clipped into the pedals for the first time. I’ve created memories with that bike (typically exhausted ones) that began when the bike was zero years old and continues each time I go for a well needed cycle.

But there’s also the excitement of something that has history before your intercept; an object that carries with it inherited memories from experiences collected with someone else. That someone might be me, or Oliver. It might be a journalist or reviewer, customers or repairers. There’s a growing number of watches we have here in the office that have travelled various paths since that brand-new day of sticker-peeling excitement, because in the course of growing our business we have been required to have watches available to people other than you, our customers. We need to market Marloe Watch Company, and we need review pieces to do that. We need to give people hands-on time with our watches so they can understand the quality and excellence of manufacture that each of our watches attain, so that they can pass that knowledge on to you. We also need watches here in the office for when interested people want to come and see them for themselves. And we have watches that arrive from manufacture with little issues that prevent them from being put up for immediate sale - little manufacturing defects, mechanical quirks or misalignments - these watches are made by people after all, not machines, and humans, as should come as no surprise, are not perfect either.

So we have decided, after much rumination and organisation, to release these watches to the world through a new mechanism we’re cleverly calling “Marketplace”. This will be a new section on our website that catalogues the watches that didn’t make it past our stringent quality control when we first received them from our manufacturer, and have since gone on to be rectified. It will also present watches that have been used as review pieces, display models or watches that have been returned by folk who try our watches on, decide they don’t like it and return them, but have placed it down on a table and micro-scratched the side of the case. We’ve taken these watches, refurbished them as best we can, if required, and are passing them on to you, via Marketplace, for reasonably reduced prices.

The beauty of the Marketplace is that the watches appearing on there might very well be watches long discontinued, like a Lomond Chronoscope or a Derwent Classic. There’s a few Morar’s going to appear shortly, as well as retired Haskell models, First Edition Conistons and maybe, just maybe, the odd engineering sample. Not only that, but alongside Marketplace, we’re also introducing a trade-in facility called, inventively, “Trade”. This will allow any existing Marloe customers to send in their watch to us, whereby we will assess its condition and offer an amount to be used against another watch of their choosing. With these two services, Marketplace and Trade, we hope to ignite the secondary market for Marloe watches and usher in a new wave of upcycling, refurbishment and enjoyment for everyone.

In addition, we'll soon be formalising a new in-house Servicing program. We're now 7-years old which means, not only do we have many watches out in the wild, but some of those watches are due (or over-due) a service. We want to ensure you get the best out of your Marloe watch, and although we've been servicing for many years now, we'll be pro-actively reaching out to those of you who might need a little reminder.

Marketplace, Trade And Service are here to support you and your Marloe purchases, and reassure you that wherever you laid your hands on your Marloe timepiece, we'll be able to support you and keep your watch ticking for years to come. We think that’s very much Time Well Spent, don’t you?

We'll be launching Marketplace and Trade shortly, with the Servicing arriving soon afterwards. Stay tuned to our socials and sign-up to our newsletter if you haven’t already - it’s the easiest way to be kept in the loop of Marloe happenings.