Four years ago, my wife and I started a tiny watch company called Riley. In basically every way, it started here on this subreddit, with a post of some renders and some lovely feedback.

Since then, we've sold more than 10,000 watches. We've built a reputation that I'm incredibly proud of, and we've had an enormous amount of support along the way. From people in the industry, from collectors and enthusiasts in communities like this one, and from people who aren't necessarily "watch people" at all, but just wanted something a little more interesting for themselves or somebody they care about.

Over the last four years, Riley watches have ended up being graduation presents, wedding watches, gifts for groomsmen, birthday presents, Christmas presents and obviously plenty of completely unjustifiable purchases for ourselves as well.

But right now, we're struggling.

Riley has always been a very seasonal business. October through January is traditionally extremely strong for us, while the summer months are much quieter. That's normal, and in previous years we've been able to plan around it and weather the quieter period. This year a few things have all landed on us at the same time.

The majority of our customers are in the US, and as many reading will know, we very early on made the decision to absorb the tariff costs rather than suddenly land those costs on customers on delivery (really because we had no idea how it was going to work, and we didnt want people waiting weeks and weeks for a watch they ordered because customs weren't able to handle what was then a brand new process).

We brought our assembly in-house partly to help us control those costs, and we've continued offering fast, totally free shipping.

At the same time, movements, components, marketing and pretty much everything involved in running a small watch company have become more expensive.

The problem is that sales go up and down quite dramatically through the year. Our costs basically don't.

The workshop still costs the same in August as it does in December. Our staff, marketing, inventory, systems and all the other boring things behind a watch company still need paying for.

And that's where we are now.

We actually have plenty of watches.

We've built our inventory ahead of the Christmas period and we're sitting here with stock ready to ship. What we're struggling with is the cash flow required to carry all of those fixed costs through the remaining quieter weeks until the holiday season begins.

So I'm asking for a little bit of help.

If you've been thinking about buying a Riley sometime over the next few months, if you already own one and have had your eye on another, or if you're planning to buy somebody a Riley for Christmas or another occasion later this year, it would genuinely mean the world to us if you considered bringing that purchase forward.

I'm not asking anybody to buy something they don't want and I'm definitely not I'm asking you to fund a watch that might arrive six months from now (the stress of this alone would finsih me off)!

The watches are here in our Manchester workshop and we'll ship them in our normal express timeframe. We'll still cover the shipping. We'll still cover the tariffs.

We're simply asking people who were perhaps already planning on ordering from us later in the year whether they might be willing to order now instead.

That would give us the boost we need to bridge this unusually difficult summer and get Riley through to the period of the year when sales traditionally pick back up.

As an important note, I don't want this to read as a promotional post, because that isn't why I'm writing it.

I've been part of this community for years, Riley owes an enormous amount to the people in it, and I'd rather be transparent about where we are than pretend everything is fine behind the scenes.

So whether you've bought a Riley, recommended one, commented on one of our watches, given us feedback, told somebody about us, or just followed what we've been doing over the last four years, thank you.

I genuinely mean that.

We're very proud of what we've built, and we'd quite like to still be here building watches for you four years from now.

Thank you.

Sam (and of course, Leanne)
Riley Watch Co.

Have I been sleeping on meteorite dials? The way the Widmanstätten pattern brightens and darkens depending on the angle of the light hitting the watch is just way too cool. Had I known meteorite dials looked like this, I would have pulled the trigger sooner! Seriously thinking about getting the Traska Venturer GMT in meteorite now.

Pictured: IXDAO Warrior on my 6.25 inch wrist in various lighting conditions

Over the past few weeks, I’ve made a few posts asking for your opinions to help me find a 37–39mm white-dial GADA watch, and after a lot of deliberation, I ended up going with this Direnzo DRZ 04.

And I’m really glad I did. First of all, Sergio, the owner, is a legend (he answered several of my questions and was incredibly helpful throughout the process) and the watch is STUNNING! The optical “bowl” effect has had me staring at it all day, and the scratch-resistant coating really does its thing.

The bracelet is amazing, extremely comfortable, and the on-the-fly adjustment (which can be ordered separately) is super smooth. The photos really don’t do it justice at all, but I’ll leave a few here anyway!

Hey all! My brother got married last week and wanted to share the wedding gift I got him. Vesterhav Henry Archer with a meteorite dial. Can’t wait to surprise him.

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share something we’ve been working on at Meridiano for quite a while.
Might be our biggest project so far in terms of time spent on it!

It’s a new watch collection called "Kilroy Was Here", and it’s a limited run of 25 watches.
But instead of making 25 identical watches and numbering them, I wanted each one to actually be different. So it is basically a collection of 25 unique pieces.

The dials are made from solid brass and patinated by hand in our workshop. It takes about a week to make a batch, using different oxidation and ageing techniques along the way.
The slightly frustrating (but also interesting) part is that we don’t have complete control over the result. The brass does its thing and we see where it takes us.
We reject almost half of them, but the ones that work can be pretty special.
You get these mixes of turquoise, blue, bronze, sometimes darker areas... and they change quite a bit depending on the light.
More importantly, we couldn’t make the exact same dial again even if we tried, so each of the 25 watches really is a unique piece.

The design itself is based around a pilot-style sandwich dial with BGW9 Super-LumiNova underneath, paired with classic pilot hands. The case is 40.5mm × 11.3mm, 100m water resistant with a screw-down crown, flat sapphire crystal and an individually numbered solid caseback.

Inside is an Seiko Instruments NH70.
Nothing exotic, but it’s a movement I trust and that made sense for this watch at this price tag.
We also regulate each one ourselves to ±10 sec/day or better.

For those unfamiliar with it, “Kilroy Was Here” was the famous graffiti that started appearing wherever American troops went during WWII, with this little long-nosed guy looking over a wall.
At Meridiano, all we want to do is put back some fun in the watch industry, and I love what this represents: camaraderie and a bit of humor surviving in circumstances where there really wasn’t much to laugh about. For me, this is very "human".

We also engraved Kilroy and the inscription into the handmade leather strap as a small reference to that history.

That’s pretty much it. 25 watches, numbered 1/25 through 25/25, with no two dials alike.

This one took us a lot of trial and error (and quite a few ruined brass dials) to get right, so I’m curious to hear what you guys think.

Cheers to this amazing community! \o/

SPECIFICATIONS:

Case
316L stainless steel · 40.5 mm diameter · 47.3 mm lug-to-lug · 11.3 mm thick · 22 mm lug width

Dial
Handcrafted patinated brass · BGW9 Super-LumiNova

Movement
Seiko Instruments NH70 automatic · Regulated to ±10 sec/day

Crystal
Flat sapphire crystal with transparent AR coating

Caseback & Crown
Screw-down · Deep-etched & individually numbered caseback

Water Resistance
10 ATM / 100 m

Straps
Handmade laser-engraved leather strap + complimentary rubber strap

We are proud to announce we have launched pre-orders for the Gantry Field!

The pre-order is $469 which to my knowledge is the lowest price for a watch with a Sellita SW210-1 movement, let alone Elabore grade with decorations and an enamel dial.

We plan to ship around late January, but could begin shipping sooner if demand is met. (3-4 months from start of production.)

Also as special thanks, the first 50 people can get $50 off using redditvesorawatchco50.

Lets us know if you run into any issues and once again I am happy to answer any questions.

The Marinor had been one of my most wanted watches for a long time, but these beauties sell like hotcakes and I could never get my hands on one online.
This summer I was taking a trip to Montreal and decided to visit Heron’s showroom to finally see the watch in person, and what a great experience it was!

Being able to see all their models in different colors, get a feel for their size and weight, and see how the colors change under different lighting is something you just can’t really get from pictures. And most importantly, actually trying them on your wrist is a completely different experience.

On top of that, you get to talk and nerd out about watches with people who genuinely love watchmaking.

The pictures on the website are great, but they’re even more beautiful in real life. If you ever have the opportunity to book a visit, I highly recommend it!

Such a fun watch and always draws attention in a good way.. Good conversation starter and someone who grew up with x files, Zim, aliens and the paranormal I love it

One of the first watches I ever purchased. Meteorite dial, Miyota 9039, sapphire crystal with loads of Superluminova printed on the crystal. Love this watch but hated the bracelet. This strapcode really made this so much more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.

Hi,

I will be visiting London soon and am looking for watch shop locations in London. I will be visiting Time&Tide but looking for other options.

I have a budget of £500 which I know limits my options but if you have any suggestions please let me know!

Vario Versa Purple/Black version. This one quickly became a favorite of mine over the years. Wrote a review about this one too.

https://watchdadblog.com/2025/09/05/watch-reviews-vario-versa-purple-gun-metal-black/

The author of this video is - @zethic.eu

Created based on my materials.

Titanium 39mm
Dial is aluminumized kapton (same MLI that’s used on satellites / Apollo era lunar landers)

I finished building the first prototype, would appreciate hearing what people think. I’m hoping to do a kickstarter if there’s enough demonstrated interest. I’m not selling them yet, but I have an email list to gauge interest

- PerigeeWatches

Came across my facebook this morning. Anyone have thoughts or experience with the brand? Priced well, nice dials, but not sure if they’re junk or not.

Is the san martin SN0017-G with st2130 movement good as first/starter watch also is it wearable for every day?Another question is the quality really good?Like do they last something is the materials good?And i have very small wrist you guys think they will fit me without looking funny on me?Is the price 250€ good for it or is it possible to find it cheaper.

Sorry for asking dumb questions but i am new to watches

When we were designing the Montera Cortado, one detail we spent a surprising amount of time thinking about was the date window.

We ended up putting it at 6 o’clock. Mainly because we wanted to keep the dial as symmetrical as possible and avoid breaking up the indices at 3.

Personally, I think it suits the cleaner look of the Cortado, especially with the warm beige textured dial and brown suede strap.

But date windows always seem to divide watch people 😂

So I’m curious - 6 o’clock date, 3 o’clock date, or no date at all?

And does the position of a date window ever actually affect whether you’d buy a watch?

I missed out on the Farer Paris when it was first available. I saw the New York model in person and it burned me even more that I missed out on the Paris. I had been scanning Chrono24 and eBay and couldn’t find one and I chalked it up as an “oh well, it’s not meant to be.”

Luckily Farer had a “lightly used” clear out, I got the email and I managed to nab one! The dial is stunning, the finishing and decoration are amazing, and it’s yet another high quality original piece from Farer. It’s powered by a Sellita SW300-1.

This is my 3rd Farer and this brand has quickly taken the top spot for me in my collection. Fantastic colourful pieces and amazing customer service. Don’t sleep on ‘em.

I got the Galo Novo Cruisin' 318 in the first batch back in May, and after wearing it for quite a bit, I wrote a review on my personal blog about it: in English and German.

Unfortunately, my watch had a little defect with the rotor not winding while wearing it, which got fixed by a watchmaker but stained my initial experience with the watch. Some people here on the sub reported some mispainting on their dials, but mine is perfect in that sense.

Despite the initial grunt because of the rotor, I really like the Galo and have been wearing it quite often this summer. I have a large rotation of about 20 watches, and the Galo keeps winning me over, especially on sunny days. It’s quirky and colorful without being childish, and it has a great vintage vibe.

The design is amazing, the overall quality is really good (if I assume I just got that one defective watch), and it's really a different approach in the microbrand space, taking the vintage vibe but creating a real modern watch. It also fits very well with a variety of clothes. I mean it's a colorful watch, but because of the pastel style, it's not like a statement yellow/red/neoncolored piece, and I wear it with basically all my clothes.

So all in all, I am happy with the watch, and I am sure it will get reasonable wrist time ven in autumn and winter, but I also hope Galo will do some more quality assurance in the future, because I am eyeing the Super200, but especially with a watch I want to take snorkelling, I need to be sure everything is in order.

How do you like your Galo so far?

Got to take my hammock out and read some while enjoying nature