Quality Standards Transparency

In this industry, and many others, there are levels of quality that vary from brand to brand and even from manufacturer to manufacturer. Throughout our 9 years of experience, we've come across so much variety, and been very thoughtful of what to provide at different price points. In the past, we've gotten some questions about why some watches that look pretty similar are priced differently. So, we've decided to list "Quality Grades" to each watch's product page. Here's what they mean:

Base This level of finishing is the bare minimum required for us to produce what we deem a good, solid watch. Most of the time, the parts look very similar to Standard Grade parts to the naked eye, but under the loupe and having worked with the parts for years, it's pretty clear to us. We stray away from using any Base parts except in our most affordable watches. If you've ever purchased a Q9 Origin or one of our first ever pilot mods using our first batch of pilot dials, the hands set in those watches were of Base Grade.

Standard This level of finishing is what many deem to be very good quality. Many microbrands and reputable parts store use parts of standard level finish. The Seiko parts that I've worked with over the past 9 years are typically of Standard Grade.

Standard + This level of finishing is similar to the normal Standard Grade. With this level of finishing, we would have typically ask our supplier to change something slightly from something that they've provided us in Standard grade in the past that we weren't 100% happy with. 

Premium This level of finishing is a step up from Standard Grade and costs us a pretty penny to upgrade. These are parts of the watch that are very apparent such as the case finishing, the intricacy of the dial, and the finishing of the hands (especially when uncased).