Breaking: Argon Watches Gets the Boot from Kickstarter?

Argon Watches search result on Instagram.

I just received a DM from IG @timesnewroman because he noticed that a project by Argon Watches is no longer available on Kickstarter's page. By way of background, Argon's Spaceone is a partnership between highly accomplished watchmaker Théo Auffret and watch businessman Guillaume Laidet. The watches are extremely creative, employing a jump mechanism, and have been very well received (you can see a compilation of their press coverage here).

Kickstarters "404 not available" screen as of right now.

There is a rather stark message on Kickstarter right now reading "Argon Watches is the subject of an intellectual property dispute and is currently unavailable." A screengrab is to the right. This has got to be a gut punch for the brand and for collectors who were looking forward to receiving these watches.

I reached out to Argon for an update and received the following statement:

+++
Hello there,

As of today, you might have received a message from the Kickstarter Trust & Safety Team concerning our recently closed SPACEONE project that you have backed.

We are surprised by this message from the Kickstarter team and have not received any advanced warning about this issue. This Intellectual Property Dispute concern our trademarks.

As a precaution, it seems that Kickstarter has frozen the project for the time being automatically while we provide the relevant documentation to their team.

The funds are currently still with Kickstarter - we have not received them yet and we will make sure that we stand right by you, the backer.

On our side - we want to confirm with you that we have indeed registered the trademark MONTRES ARGON in france in 2018 and extended to all EUROPE, USA & JAPAN.

We remain available for any other questions and will make sure to keep in close contact with you about the situation, the funds & the watches!

Best Regards, Guillaume, Theo and the Argon team
+++

Let's keep fingers crossed that this all gets ironed out sooner rather than later. A recent post suggests there are more than €1 million at stake!

My book on the history of Rolex marketing is now available on Amazon! It debuted as the #1 New Release in its category. You can find it here.

You can subscribe to Horolonomics updates here.

Comments

Fining the Crown

News recently broke that watch brand Rolex was on the receiving end of a €91 million fine levied by French authorities. A view of Rolex's offices in France. Source: Google Maps. Generally, the headlines ascribed this fine to Rolex's alleged practice of prohibiting online sales of its watches. However, I've looked closely at the situation and I don't think those headlines are completely accurate (although they're probably what French authorities would want you to believe). I came to this conclusion after reading a Google translation of a 134 page report issued by the French Competition Authority on December 19, 2023. Generally speaking, such documents do not make for engaging reading. However, for those who know how successful Rolex has been at maintaining a comparatively high level of corporate secrecy, the French report provides a compelling and rare insight into some specific aspects of the brand's business. It is these insights which lead me to conclu...

Have Watch Prices Reached Bottom?

There's a quip in the world of finance: "nobody rings a bell at the top or bottom of the market." AI generated image of someone looking for the bottom of a chasm. If you're on a trading floor, you know it is the start of the day because of the "opening bell." But, if you reach the low point for prices, there is no bell. Everyone just has to do their best to figure out if prices are finally going to start increasing again. This is certainly true of watches. According to Chrono24's Chronopulse index of watch prices (full disclosure, I've contributed to this index), we've just begun the third year of a "bear market" for preowned watches. Chronopulse overall index of late. The rate of decrease in prices has certainly slowed, but there hasn't been an overall turnaround in prices just yet. It is hard to say if we're at the bottom or if we're just on a gentle downslope that will continue for the near term. Right or wron...

Rolex, Bucherer and WEKO: an Update (of Sorts)

The other day, I was poking around in Swiss business registries (as one does on a weekend) when I noticed that Jörg Bucherer was still listed as the "president and delegate" of luxury watch retailer Bucherer, AG. A Rolex clock in front of an AD in New England. Since Bucherer, the man, passed away on November 8, 2023, this clearly raises some questions. More curious was the fact that Rolex ownership of Bucherer, the business, was not indicated in Bucherer's commercial registration and Rolex's own business registrations did not indicate a lash-up with Bucherer. News of Rolex's intent to acquire Bucherer broke roughly eight months ago. Now, I will admit that I do not understand or know all the nuances involved in Swiss business registration. I do know that registrations are administered by the Swiss cantons (roughly equivalent to states in the US) so perhaps this was simply a matter of delay in updating the registrations across cantons (Rolex is registered in G...

Horolonomics

See my Time + Tide articles here

Search This Blog