How Barry Cohen Turned Military Illumination Into Everyday Watches

A watch that can be read instantly at 3 a.m. is either a gimmick or a quiet form of freedom. Barry Cohen has spent decades proving it can be the second one, first as the co-founder of Luminox and now as the force behind ProTek and the vintage-leaning Santo line. We talk about how self-powered illumination went from military-only utility to a consumer expectation, and what that shift reveals about product design, branding, and real-world performance.

Barry walks us through the tritium story with unusual detail, including how GTLS tritium tubes are drawn from glass, coated with phosphor, filled under vacuum, and laser-sealed to glow for years without “charging.” We also get into the practical stuff collectors care about: why green tritium reads brightest, when blue starts to make sense, and why a single color choice can change how fast your eyes orient in the dark.

From there we pivot into ProTek’s “no excuses, no compromises” build philosophy, how the USMC partnership came together, and why ProTek is expanding from pure tactical watches into general sporting designs with new sizes, carbon composite cases, and bolder straps. Barry also shares the less-glamorous side of the watch industry: crowded competition, slow brand growth, and why Kickstarter can be a smart awareness engine even when you are not raising funds.

If you care about tritium watches, tactical watches, field watches, and what true quality looks like at an attainable price, this conversation delivers. Subscribe for more watch-industry conversations, share this with a friend who loves lume, and leave a review with the watch you daily drive.

Checkout Protek and Szanto:

https://protekwatch.com/

https://szantotime.com/

Transcript

A Pioneer Of Night Visibility

Blake Rea 0:01

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Lonely Wrist Podcast. As always, I am your host, Blake Ray. And today's guest is a pioneer in the watch industry and somebody who can whose impact can be felt on the wrists around the world. He is credited with bringing self-powered illumination technology, which was once reserved for military use into the hands of everyday consumers, forever changing what people expect from a watch. You may know him as the founder of Luminox, the brand famously worn by Navy SEALs, but his story does not stop there. And after decades of building one of the most recognizable tactical watch brands in the world, he is now leading the charge with performance watch brands such as Pro Tech, a no compromises in performance watch, and Santo, a line that blends traditional design, heritage, and lifestyle. Joining us today is the man himself, Barry Cohen, watch industry, watch industry innovator, entrepreneur, and a man who spent over three decades shaping how we see time, not only in the day, but in the night. Barry, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Well, thank you for that glowing introduction. I'm a little I'm humbled by it. Thank you. No pun intended. No pun intended. Appreciate you taking the time to be with me and to spend a little time learning, I guess, primarily about Pro Tech.

Finding A Real Market Advantage

Blake Rea 1:31

Yeah, no. And I you and I had this discussion before, because we're we're new friends, but in most I don't think I've ever really said this on the internet, but my first Switch Swiss watch was one of your watches. Right. You know, that's it's crazy. So like I've I've known you for I've known of you for so long because of what you've been doing and and horology and and you know now because to me, like when I got my first Tritium watch, you know, it was just a game changer. And when I when I had like little Miyota divers and stuff that you know, Japanese watches, I I never really understood why they would glow for like 45 seconds and then just stop glowing, you know. And then as you learn about why why they're designed like that, right? Like there's just nothing like a like a tritium watch. So so thank you for for doing that, because that changed my world.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Well, we uh thank first of all, uh, I was the co-founder of Luminox. My partner was a fellow named Richard Timbo. I found the technology, and uh I I was already in the fashion watch business. This was at the moment when fashion watches were blowing up in department stores. You had Swatch entering, you had gas, you had fossil, and a number of others. And so I was already in the biz selling to department stores, but I felt like I needed something that would be a point of difference and that would enable a sustaining business because all the other, I mean, you could have any essentially Asian Asian stores fashioned brand, and you could bring it into a store, and it could be you could promote, you know, present it as X at wholesale, Y at retail, this is the margin, and somebody could have the same exact design come right behind you and offer a lower, a lower wholesale, uh, even if it's the same retail with greater margins, and you know, it's not going to be sustainable. So I I thought we uh we needed one of two things. We either needed a famous design name, a designer's name, and I had no context for that, or we needed a technology to separate us and allow us to sustain businesses. And when I when I found this Loom Tech, my reasoning was that it would separate us from the masses, and at the same time, it just seemed like an enabling technology. I mean, we don't all live in daylight, you know. Many of us live in darkness too. The heck, there's some people that work night shifts, and then there's, you know, the North and South Poles at different times of the year when it's dark, 20-some hours a day. So, you know, darkness is part of life. So if if you can solve the age old problem of being able to see time in the dark, why not? And so that was that's the reason for the advent of Luminox. That's why we started it. How did you first get get exposed? Oh, sorry, go ahead.

The Fax That Started Luminox

Blake Rea 4:28

No, it's I mean, it seemed to work. So yeah, I mean you touched you touched my heart with that. How did how did you first get exposed to like the tritium technology? Because I know that that was primarily like military like application, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:44

You know, and also uh full gander, I always want to be straight. There were two watch brands that were using this already, but really for military sales and distribution. And again, my reasoning was well, that's great for them, but why wouldn't the regular consumer want it too? And and so we weren't the first to do it. Yeah, but but I imagine at that at that time we were probably the first to bring it to the consumer arena. And I I I I felt to answer your question, I saw something in a a sharper image catalog, who was actually one of my main accounts, even outside of watches. I was selling all kinds of things to sharper image. And I saw this watch once on a page that had a night loom. It was not a great design. I thought it was overpriced, but the technology appealed to me. And since I worked with many of the buyers and and merchandise managers there, I actually called up one of the buyers and said, Hey, we haven't gone for lunch in a while. Let's go grab a burger. So we went for a burger and we're chatting. I said, I really want to pursue this. Is there any way you could help me find who who creates who has this technology? Well, you know, I'm not allowed to do that. All right, well, how about just a fax number? And so I got the fax number and I faxed the company, and the CEO responded, and we went back and forth for you know, not every day, but we went back and forth over a month or so with faxes, and and this is when the faxes were those rolling papers.

Blake Rea 6:26

Uh and last slides you rip off.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Yes, and and you know, I was just a young guy, I didn't have like an office staff or anything, so I'm I was even handwriting faxes. I didn't even have a word processor, let alone a computer. And of course, his were coming back to me typed by a secretary with all the proper footnotes and all that. But I was chatting with a basketball buddy and telling him about it, and he said, You want this deal? You go sit in front of him. So I called up an old friend, this became my partner in this venture, and I said, Hey, I'm going to Switzerland. I'm gonna sit down with this guy, and I'm gonna see if I can't carve a niche here. And if you want to join me, you can. And that's how Luminox got started. We went, well, actually, it's kind of amusing when I tell some of these stories, people can't believe it. So we went over there, we spent four days with this guy, and every day he kept saying, Well, how much money do you boys have? You know, we kept we don't have any money, we're just young guys, but we work with all the mail order catalogs in America, and we figure that could be our marketing story. We'll show day, show night, and tell the story every day. And on the last day, again, you boys need money. Because we were young guys, so we were boys, you know. This guy was in his 60s, 65 or so, and I I finally just stood up and I pulled out my front pocket, and you know how sometimes your pocket gets lint in it? Oh, totally. I pulled it out in my front pocket, and I had a little pile of lint, and I just dropped the lint and I said, That's about all we have. We do not have money, but we have heart, we work our tails off, we're in all the mail orders, and if he give us his chance, I think we can make it work. In fact, I'm confident we can. And he turned around and he got his checkbook, and he wrote me a personal check to my name for$80,000. This is 1989, that's a lot of money. Today, it's a lot more then. Oh, yeah, yeah. And he says, here's what we're gonna do. Every watch you sell until you hit 40,000, you give us back one dollar, so we're co-oping the money you need to get this going. And of course, when we left that, which you know, 80,000 bucks, I could have just gone and lived in the Caribbean for a few years and been a beach bum, but my goal was to build something, and and plus you got to be honorable and ethical. And so I when we left it to that end, I turned to my partner Richard, I said, You realize this guy just put us in business, and when somebody does good for you, you got to do better for them. So he's expecting a dollar. We're gonna give him a buck fifty to show them our character and to accelerate the pace. And that's how we got underway. I mean, we our first shipments were April of 1990.

Blake Rea 9:40

Did did you ever feel and and now if you look at your past and now knowing the future, right? Everybody freaking loves Loom, you know, like you're starting to see Loom dials and all Loom watch cases and all this shit. So, like, you know, back in the day, like Loom had more like utility, and now you're starting to see it just more as kind of like a feature. So, like, do you do you feel like the market took the con like you had to convince the market that it loom wasn't just a feature and more like a necessity in the watching?

SPEAKER_01 10:20

I mean, the utility remains, it it's the same solution being solved, it's just that more people jumped into it one way or another. Yeah, yeah. And there's not that many. Look, well, when we did it, we became the neon sign for the technology. Yeah. And all of a sudden, people are coming from all over to try and have it in a watch, one way or another, just one watch or a full line or what have you. At its peak, this man's name that we worked with is Oscar Tuuler. Lovely, lovely man. And his right-hand man was a guy named Jacob Bansicker, who's maybe the quintessential gentleman, one of the nicest men I've ever met. He actually coached us on how to win the opportunity with his boss, which was pretty nice, I thought.

Blake Rea 11:13

Anyway, so you know, I lost track of what was your question? I'm sorry. Loom being a necessity and not just a feature. Right.

From Radium To Super-LumiNova

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah, so it's it's like I've said from the from the start, it's enabling, so why not? And and you know, also you've seen, I mean, if you go back in the history of loom time, it began around World War I. At the time, they were painting dials with radium, a noxious substance. Yeah, uh, you know, the truth is that before World War I, men didn't wear watches, it was considered slightly effeminate. They had pocket watches. But when when a soldier's in the trenches in the field, by the way, the field watch came from that, in the field, they're carrying all kinds of gear. So that was when they strapped the watch to the wrist. And those watches were using radium loom, which is a photoluminescent technology. It needs light to hit it, which activates the luminosity, it glows until it fades and then needs to be recharged. Oh the stories go that a lot of the people who worked in the factories died young from radioactive poisoning. If you put a black light on them, the whole face would be glowing. But at some point between World War I and World War II, I believe there was a shift to tritium paint, again, a liquid that's painted on, dries to a solid, absorbs light energy, it's photoluminescence, gives back a glow. And then, of course, today the staple of that technology is Superluminova, which is the best of the bunch.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

I've used Superluminova in my Hawaiian lifeguard official watches, I use them in Santo, I've used them in several brands, and it's certainly a good technology. The thicker the application, you know, the more multi-printing, the more material, the more ability to absorb light energy and therefore it'll glow longer. But it's not going to go 25 years, and that's what tritium gas. This this is uh gaseous tritium light sources, GTLS. And that's what this is. So it's uh it's tritium gas. That's I can describe the whole process to you if you want. It's like a physics laboratory, or or we can get to that at a later state, whatever you wish. But it is it's kind of James Bondsville in Q's laboratory, a little bit.

Blake Rea 13:36

I'm I'm actually curious because you know, obviously, like you kind of briefly touched on it, but you know, watches were designed with utility aspects, right? You know, tool watches have been around for frickin' ever. But arguably, and I could be wrong, but when you came around with Luminox, like there was a very small if if non-existent tactical watch category.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

There was always G Shock. And G Shock has never abated, it's been hot since the day I ever heard about it in the mid-80s.

Blake Rea 14:14

But they they they weren't really just focusing on the tactical market.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Is that is that probably not, but it became uh like the go-to tactical watch. I think more G Shocks is sold than any other type of tactical watch, actually. You know, you had you also had if you want to call it tactical, you had Timex's Iron Man Triathlon watches were kind of in that realm. Today, of course, it's things then became you know, Sunto came along as a as a wrist instrument, and today Garmin. I mean, that's that's most of the military people that I know, and I know quite a few, having been around them for years, are wearing Garmin these days. Yeah, you know, you mentioned the Navy SEALs, and you know, luck plays a role, good or bad, in life. And so my partner Richard and I were at an outdoor retailer show in Reno, way back in the old days, early 90s. And uh gentleman from the SEALs chief Nick North wanders by our booth and said, I've been looking all over for you guys. Nick, we've been right here. Come on in. And so we started a discussion with him. He says, if you'll put this into a basic dive watch for us, we'll buy it. Uh, we're not gonna buy a lot of them. First of all, there's not that many SEALs. We're not gonna buy a lot of them, but we'll buy it, and then you could tell the world we asked we asked for it and see if it resonates, and indeed it did. You know, I mean, in the grand scope of things, the Navy SEALs did not buy that many watches. And still, and today I don't believe they buy any, and they haven't for many years of of Luminox or of any Tritium watch. Like I said, I think they're using wrist instruments these days. Yeah. I mean, it's the same with you know, I work with the Hawaiian Water Patrol, which is and with iWaterman. These are these are two Hawaiian companies founded by Brian Kailana, who is he's a living legend in Hawaii, actually. This this guy is something else. He's like lifeguard emeritus. His father was a pro surfer, the first lifeguard on the west side of Oahu, Buffalo, Kaalana. Anyway, Brian's just a uh a wonderful guy, a sweet guy, but he's developed quite a few businesses, and one of them is iWaterman. IWaterman trains U.S. military and at special forces, including Navy SEALs, on how to expedite ocean rescues, often with the use of a jet ski. He created the lifeguard protocols that are used all over the world. It was him that said, hey, if we're using a jet ski to pull guys onto 50-foot waves, because you can't swim onto a wave that big, then why don't we use the jet ski to save them? So he was the first one to do that. He invented the toe sled that you see behind them. So when a guy's in danger and gets wiped out, they come up behind him. They never wear a watch on their left arm because you got to grab the guy and get him onto the toe sled and get him out of danger. But the watches they wear are garment. And he also has another company. The very guys that are on those jet skis is called Hawaiian Water Patrol. These are elite Hawaiian lifeguards. That's another one of his businesses. And he's also the go-to guy for Hollywood for anything done there dating back to Kevin Costner's Water World in 1995. So you name it Magnet PI, Lost, anything Hollywood in Hawaii, in the water, he's the go-to guy. In fact, he put his first cousin, Jason Momoa, into that as a stunt man, and that's how he became an actor. So and right, totally separate subject. Right now, I'm developing a couple of watches with Brian. One will be his signature watch, and one will be the official watch of the Hawaiian Water Patrol. Oh, that'll be cool. I'm working on something called Ocean Icons, where we've found identified five people we want to create signature watches for. And he's one of them because, like I said, he's alleged. There's two, you know, Hawaii's different. I'm off topic, perhaps, but maybe your audience will find some interest in this. They got baseball, they got football, they got basketball, soccer, they got all that stuff. But they're surrounded by water. Water sports takes top billing over there. For sure. And so these things that I'm referring to are really, you know, the top of the top. And there's two waterman awards that are given in in Hawaii. One is the Eddia Cao Quicksilver Award, which is about that's that's the Waimea Bay, the Quicksilver surf contest.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

And the more prestigious is the Duke Ahanamoku Waterman Award. There's only three people that have won both, and Brian's one of the three, so that that gives you an idea. Yeah, yeah.

Blake Rea 19:06

No, I mean that's amazing. And when are when are those expecting to kind of like roll out or the new ones? Yeah, yeah. Any idea?

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Looking at end of summer's uh September for the Hawaiian Water Patrol and for Brian's, I might as well tell you at least one other. Shane Dorian is a if you surf, you know his name. He was a U.S. surfing coach. Yeah, yeah. He's known as one of the best big wave surfers ever. I did a watch for him in Time Concepts oh, about seven years ago, but I was I was in the middle of a non-compete, so I couldn't use tritium. Sure, sure. So he and I were just chatting, I don't know, four or five months ago, and we said, why don't we do another one? And this time, well, actually, we're gonna do it based on this. It's like you're looking watch. Where do you see these designs? These are super cool for all of them. Very different from what we do in ProTech. You see, Pro, I mean, part of the whole ProTech thing and part of the whole Tritium thing is this tactical segment of the market, which, you know, historically, I've been around Tritium since late 89, 90. It's it's always dark, it's always black, charcoal, gray, maybe deep, deep dark net blue or something. And I'm I'm thinking it doesn't have to remain that way. So this little ocean icons collection that we're working on, as well as this watch I showed here with a little bit of bright colors, is to really take a step into general sporting, not just tactical, general sporting for the regular consumer. And we're not gonna abandon tactical and law enforcement and military and all that, but we're gonna put one foot into a different category.

Blake Rea 20:57

Yeah, yeah, amazing. Yeah, I can't wait to to see what those look like. And I'm assuming they're gonna be at ProTech, right? Yeah, okay. You know, obviously, you know, we're well, this will be my final question about Luminox, and then we can kind of like go into, and I think it's a perfect segue question, but you know, you were all you were at Luminox for nearly 30 years and building that brand. Yeah, you're building that. I was giving you credit for a couple more plus or minus years there. So 27 years, like, and I'm sure you've learned all different types of lessons, you know, in the watch industry. So what is it that you've learned from 27 years at Luminox that you know still guides you today in watch brands? Or at at uh time concepts, should I say?

SPEAKER_01 21:48

I gotta I gotta watch what I say here because I don't want to get in any trouble. But what I would tell you is that my primary desire, which by the way, this never changed for me, but it's heightened. Today is I want to make quality job one. And if it's not quality, I don't even want to do it. So I mean, look, I don't have, you know, the good news is I don't have to work anymore. So I'm I'm doing this because I have a passion for it. Yeah. But when I when I decided, you know, I'm not a young guy anymore, but I decided before I'm too old, maybe I'll take one more shot at it. I just started with a clean sheet of paper, and I just wrote what I believe is our ethos, and that is no excuses, no compromises.

Blake Rea 22:34

I was about to say that. That's funny that you that's your ethos now. That's that's our ethos.

How GTLS Tritium Tubes Are Made

SPEAKER_01 22:39

And then I borrowed something, our mantra. I I saw an amazing quote from the legendary Vince Lombardi, who's you know, Americans certainly know who he is. Yeah, for sure. And he had a great quote that he said, perfection is not attainable, but if you pursue perfection, you can arrive at excellence. And I said, That is unbelievable. That's gonna that is our mantra. We know we can't be perfect, but we're gonna try to be, and we'll be completely satisfied if we're excellent. And the great news, and I can, you know, at some point I can send you stuff after this discussion, but the great news is we continue to get unsolicited mails coming to us left and right from people who've acquired one of our watches. And and that's a whole separate subject about brand building, which we can jump to, but they've acquired one of our watches and they send us these incredible comments, unbelievable. That you know, I I grew up with your old brand. I had that, you know, I had four of them, I had eight of them, whatever it is. I found ProTech, and wow, uh you get you're just doing it better than you ever have. And I mean, this is it's it's um it's so rewarding because it's exactly what we want to do. And we've had, I don't know, 50, 60, 70 actual reviews, not not just a consumer comment. Consumer comments count a lot. That's that's who we rely on. But actual reviewers, including certified watchmakers, who have told us that we make excellence. They've said you make the quotes like you make ProTech is the best value tritium watch in the business. Now, I know there's lesser priced ones, but I've seen that written. And then the best part is, and the build quality is outstanding. That's what we want to hear. And to date, our defect rate is below one half percent. That's crazy. Now, in the world of quartz watches, generally they say aim for two percent. If you get two percent, you're doing well. But if you have tritium, three percent is acceptable because you got these little glass tubes on the hands, and while they're tiny, it adds weight, and there's more torque needed for that. And they say it's okay to be a little bit higher defect percentage. So if we're under a half, we're we're doing pretty well there. And if if you I don't know if your audience wants to know or if you or if you care to hear how the loom is actually created, I'm happy to tell you it's a little all right. So I described photoluminescence. Light hits it, it gives back a glow. This is a different technology entirely. So it starts with half-inch diameter or silicate glass tubes, and under heat they're drawn down to minuscule diameters, micro technology, anywhere from three-tenths of a millimeter up to 0.065 in tubular shapes, but there's also flat shapes as well. So now you have these tubes that are about 18 inches in length. And the people in the factory are wearing goggles, magnifying goggles that kind of look like the oculus glass. And they fill the inside of this vessel with a glue, and the reason for the magnification is to make sure it's fully coated, and then they pour a phosphor powder into the vessel, again under magnification, once again to make sure it's fully coated. Now, one end of that tube is sealed with a CO2 laser, and they take about, I think it's about 15 of these, into a vacuum machine uh case, like it like you see babies in an incubator that are prematurely burned bored. And they're attached to these little connectors, and now tritium gas is pumped into the tube. And the reason it's done in a vacuum is you're able to get more tritium gas into it in a vacuum than if it's not a vacuum. Uh once the tritium and tritium gas is H3, heavy hydrogen. H2 is hydrogen. So once the gas is pumped in fully, they're sealed with a CO2 laser. So now you have these tubes about 18 inches. Let me fit it into your frame here, about eight inches in length. And those now go over to a CO2 laser machine, which is uh five feet by two and a half feet or so. Big monitor up there, so you can look at the monitor and see what's happening down below, but you can also look down in. And the computer programs these tubes to be cut at the appropriate lengths for hour hands, minute hands, hour indices, second hands, the bezel pit. Literally 10,000 tubes fits into a box one inch by four inch by four inch. And that box, so this is a completely different step in watchmaking, and then that box is sent to the conventional watch assembly facility where there are affixed to the dials and the hands and the bezels and so forth. And so that that's how it's done. That's that's the nature of it. But the moment that trinium is inside that tube, it starts emitting beta, and the beta causes the phosphor to fluoresce on its own for 25 years, and different phosphors will yield different glow colors. There's nine colors.

Blake Rea 28:39

I I nerd nerdy enough, like when I had gotten my first tritium watch, I like, you know, but I don't even know. Like, I was just buying shit aimlessly online. I built my whole collection of tritium watches, and then I got my first blue tritium watch, and I was like, okay, man, like that color, that that blue glow from Tritium is so sexy. But I'm with you on that. The qu the question goes back to the process that you talked about. Is that for all tritium tubes, or is that just for you know the pro glow that you're talking about?

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Ultra okay. And if and in in terms of a scale, if green's 100, blue's only 40. Yeah. So it goes, not looking at the list right now, but it's green, white, and yellow. I can't remember, that's about 80, then it drops to 60, then it drops to 40. Now, so in the old days, I mean, there's two companies that put Luminox on the map, the Sharper Image and Cabela's. Those are the two. Yes, we were in LL Bean, and we were in Orbus, and we were in Brookstone, and we were in Homiker Slemmer, and we were in Eddie Bauer, and all of those catalogs. But the ones that really put us on the map were the sharper image and cabela's. And at one point, Cabela's, known as the world's foremost outfitter for hunting and fishing, they said we want a sniper watch. So we did it in red. Now, red is about 15. You can barely see it. Yeah. We had so many returns because people said, Oh, this thing doesn't glow. No, it glows. It's what they wanted, but it's created for someone who's laying in the darkness for up to an hour. I mean, you could see it after 15, 10, 15 minutes while you're when your eyes fully dark adapt. But people who want a tritium watch want to look at it quick and see the see the glow. So I tend to use green most of the time. Now, with some of our larger tritium tubes that have way more activity, it's defined as T100 versus T25. They're 1.5 millimeter by 5 millimeter. They're big flat tubes. That's where I use blue because it's much more easy. There's so much of it, you can see it much more easily.

Blake Rea 30:56

I remember orange being up there too, right? Like orange is pretty easy to read from the city.

Color Mark Origins And Dial Choices

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Orange is actually down, orange is actually down in the 40 range as well, but it's so different. We use orange at 12 o'clock. We always use a different color at 12 because you need to orient yourself to where's the top of dial right away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So orange is our default at 12. I'm just now for some of these special ones I just told you, I'm starting to use yellow and white, which I've not used, but want to have a little fun.

Blake Rea 31:27

So something to me, like, so like, you know, this was before I started wearing like e-wearables, you know, smart wearables, whatever you want to call them. I would pop prop up my little Luminox there by my bed because I had a one of the chronographs. The Luminox, like I can't think of the name of it right now, like the 3050 like seal chronographs or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Um I think that was that was my most successful watch there was the color marks.

Blake Rea 31:56

Yeah, I still I still have I still have still have it. That's one of my first. I'll never sell it. And I dude, I got engaged in that watch, you know, so it's a special one. But besides the point, I would literally prop that thing up because the way that the case would sit, you know, like the the band would create a little stand.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

You put the long end of the band into the short end through the keepers, you pop it up, and I have it by my bed still every day. You know it. So it's no longer Illuminox, it's a Protect, but the setup the same way. I need to upgrade, I need to upgrade mine. Let me let me put it that. So we can help you with that. By the way, this is kind of a goofy story, but it's true. Um I'm in Switzerland, and I had a dream. And in the dream, the idea of color mark came to me. And I said, I gotta get up, I gotta get up and write this down. I'm gonna forget this. I'm gonna forget it. So I got up, I got a pen and a pen, and I wrote down what my whole concept was because I was gonna be with a designer the next day, and that became our best selling watch.

Blake Rea 32:57

And and and what what was like so color mark was it just a collection?

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Like what was the concept? Collection instead of using white, you know, markings, the markings one through twelve, the the the hash marks, the indices, and so on, instead of using white, which we'd been using all the time, the idea was use color, colored markings, color mark. So it became the color mark collection, and it sold like crazy.

Blake Rea 33:25

What what about the concept for like the tritium cardinal marker on the bezel? Because to me, like that that was a pretty freaking iconic little like feature. You know, how you had the little tritium gas tube at the midnight on like your cardinal marker for your your bezel, and then you had like sapphire, like or or some type of like pixiglass or something that was like encapsulated a little piece of stainless steel and with a sapphire lens over it.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

And the the purpose of that is just basic dive watch stuff, because if you look at uh even a non-tritium watch, there's always a loom dot uh in the in the rotating bezel. It's it's yeah, yeah, forwarded well. But if you I mean uh it's amazing how many people don't know how to use a dive watch. So the the idea would be normally that you put that spot, let's say you have a 30-minute dive tank, then you now put that spot at 30 minutes from where the minute hand is at that moment, 30 minutes out, and now you're tracking the minute hand against that dot that you better be up up from under the water by then. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Building ProTek And USMC Watches

Blake Rea 34:36

But no, but a lot of people don't dive, they'll just use it for a parking meter. You you were you were the first person, my understanding, to put tritium on an actual bezel, you know. I'm not sure about that. I don't know, so I won't just my understanding, you know, because like the way the way that you had implemented it into the bezel. I don't want to take credit for something that I didn't do because I and I'm like we'll we'll have to I'll we'll have to circle back on that one. And and so now, ProTech, right? You and this is funny, and and and Barry and I had talked about this, but you know, Barry had sent me a watch to kind of like have fun with. And long story short, I no longer have that watch because I took it to the club meeting and somebody just refused to give it back. And so I essentially I sold the press loaner that you had sent me, and then I called you and I said, Hey Barry, like I don't know if this is okay, but I told I told the guy like he was hard to back down, like he wouldn't let me leave without. But I sold his press loner, and I've have already paid you for that, by the way, just so just for the record, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:50

But you know, and the guy was a marine, and that's the reason because it was a USMC watch. So we want him on Marines, so that's wonderful.

Blake Rea 35:59

And yeah, how did how did that happen where you became and I I need to get him as box, but you you are the official watch of the United States Marine Corps, is that we are an official watch. Oh okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

So all right, so well, while we were running Luminox, and again the SEALs came to me and asked me to create that watch, and that's what began this whole thing. Many, many years in, uh the guy that worked with me for 16 years, who was at Luminox for 19 years, great guy, Marine. I still have a wonderful friendship with him. I love the guy. Can do in every way. It's never could we, it's we can. He knew a guy with the USMC office, and they came to meet us to suggest why don't we create a Marines collection? And, you know, nothing but respect for every branch of the armed services. I I had to think long and hard on it, but I thought that it might dilute our Navy message, and so I politely declined, but had met him. And when I came out with ProTech, we did not have that. And this same guy that had been with me for 16 years, right hand man, really, once a marine, always a marine, and he was in touch with that gentleman. And one day I I the phone rings actually very complimentary, and I pick it up and various Mike. All right, my son's Mike. I know a lot of Mike's, you know. Very, very open name. And and he and he's carries on to you know, Mike uh with his last name. And I said, Oh, Mike, how you doing? And he and his two lines. He said, The words on the street, you're back in Tritium Tactical Watches. I said, That's true. And then extremely complimentary, he said, if you're doing it, we want it. Let's create a Marines program. And that's how it happened. At the time, you know, I looked at who had an affiliation, and there were, I think, six brands at the time, from from$49, you know, kind of cartoonish watches, you know, the EGA, the Eagle Globe Anchor is their logo. And they had like colorful EGAs over the whole dial for 49 bucks. And I that doesn't seem very serious to me. Yeah. Um, and then they have some some pieces, even a tritium watch, up to 1500 bucks, which you know, I respect. But so we we knew what we wanted, we had this conversation, we got it underway, and we started with one series, and then we added another series, and then we added an automatic version, and then we you know, we just kept adding. And this right now, actually, November 10th was the 250th birthday of the USMC. So I had the good fortune of meeting a three-star general who I've developed a really nice friendship with. I and I bounce everything off of him. And he's been really, really generous with his time and his kindness, looking at everything that we're developing. And we settled in on a collection of five watches. Now it's called the Semper Fidelis Collection. It's got a special case back with a few, the proud, 250 years of uncommon valor written, you know, written around. And we took the specs and moved them out to get that line in with the EGA. And so we did three in a new case body that's 45 millimeters, and I could discuss that separately. But because not everybody wants that big a watch, and the entire collection originated at 42 millimeters, we have two pieces in 42. Of course, we have a black dial. You have to, but it was the first time we used Marpad Digi camo, which is their digital camo that you see on their uniforms.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Yeah.

Watch Sizes Carbon Cases Bold Straps

SPEAKER_01 40:03

So in the larger size, we did uh a green digicamo and a gray digicamo, and in the smaller size, we did a green only, plus of course the black. And on the dial it says 1775 to 2025, because that's the 2005 years. Yeah, it says more, but I'm not remembering all it says. Um anyway, so that so as long as that this sort of segue to size, if you don't mind, I'll touch on size a little bit. Sure. I mean, we we we all live through a time where watches got to be almost gargantuan, they were like a clock on your wrist. Yeah, and I never really liked that, but it was the trend, so you had to be on trend. And at Luminox, we did 44, 45, 47. I think we had a 48, even if I recall. And I remember about 15 years ago, Oris came out with a 36 millimeter men's watch. Now, our women's watch was 38. And I thought, whoa, this was like shocking. Whoa. I hope this is a harbinger of what's to come, but who knows? Uh obviously it was, and watch sizes returned to some semblance of normalcy. So when I decided to come out with this brand, I knew I wanted to be at 42, not 44, not 45. I find it to be a more wearable size for most people. But interestingly, over the course of the first few years of the business, we had people say, I got your watch, I like it, I wish you'd make a larger one. And so with this new Sten for Fidellos collection, we came out with a 45 millimeter case. And we all but we always make sure to turn the horns down so it still fits a smaller wrist. And this this is not that watch. I wasn't thinking we'd be speaking today or I'd have it here. That's all right. Um, but this is the same case, and so when I was working with the designer on this, I said, I I want you to think a little more aggressive. I want this to be a little chunkier. So think of how G Shock is chunky, and think of I mentioned a couple others. And so we actually named the series the aggressor because it's a little more aggressive. And in this series, we're using the larger T100 tubes that you can see as indices here. Those things are huge and they glow like you can't believe.

Blake Rea 42:38

That's the the 1000 series there, or is that the 1010s? This is the 4000. 4000, okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Now it comes with a charcoal strap, but I'm playing around a little bit.

Blake Rea 42:47

Yeah, I was like, I I see, you know, I've seen the the 1010s and the 1000s with the the color straps, but no, no, those are 42s, this is a 45.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

And we also started adding dial colors in this range with a nice, I don't know how to define it, a lighter blue. I'm not gonna say powder blue, that might sound too feminine, but a lighter blue. Sure. A an orange, which is known for diving. I mean, in fact, the cap you're wearing, those are the people that really pioneered that orange dial look on dive. And a bright yellow, this yellow, as a dial. And then I thought, you know what? Now that we're using these easy on off spring pins with the quick release, let's also replicate those colors in straps so someone can actually have the color go all the way through the watch if they want, or they can take the charcoal watch head and just have the color be a little fun on the strap. So we're that's part of going toward this general sporting realm that I was telling you about instead of staying only in tactical. And by the way, on these are not black, so the cases are a carbon component. So basically, we had used carbon powder with polycarbonate. This past year we evolved to long bar carbon with polyamide. Both are an upgrade. Long bar carbon gives you a little more view of the carbon, and polyamide's a little more forgiving. And they're charcoal. They're not black, they're charcoal, which I actually like better than black. So when it comes to the strap, I don't want a black strap. We pay extra to get a charcoal strap so it matches. We just try to do things the right way. Yeah. Not no excuses, no compromises, no shortcuts.

Blake Rea 44:40

Yeah. So that's the epitome of the ethos, right?

SPEAKER_01 44:45

For us it is, yeah.

Blake Rea 44:47

It brings me to an interesting topic. You know, obviously, you know, you're designing watches for people who operate in high-stakes environments, you know. How how does that ethos does like influence every decision that you make down the pipeline? You know?

SPEAKER_01 45:08

Well, if you're gonna bring up the word design, I have to bring up my good friend Eddie, who I've been working with since 1993. Thank you, Eddie.

Blake Rea 45:18

What's that?

SPEAKER_01 45:19

I said, thank you, Eddie. Yeah, really.

Blake Rea 45:22

For your service.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

Yeah, he's he's truly a friend. I mean, you know, 30 plus years. And and he's no split. The Formula One was his Tag's Formula One, sold 3.7 million pieces. That's one of the biggest success stories ever in watches. Yeah. Um the Tag 2000, the Tag 3000, the Tag Professional Diver, Gucci's Top Watches, and 15 other brands that I don't have a list in front of me to reference, but Tag has been an influence because Eddie was a significant part of Tag when the company he worked for was developing their watches before they had their own factories. And so that gentleman again, Oscar Tuler, who was with the Loom Company, we went to visit this company in Bien, and Eddie was sort of assigned to us, and a friendship began, and a very, very mutual passion for a certain style of design. And the way I would define that is we both love uncluttered, not busy, timeless, classical design. We do not want. I used to have a boss when I worked with a jewelry company, and he when things got all like crazy, like he called it ungapachki. And we don't like that ungapachke stuff. We want clean design. If you look at our designs, they're very clean. Yeah. And he and I have always been aligned on that. And so I mentioned him because he's a one I think he's fantastic. I love him.

Santo And Modern Vintage Design

Blake Rea 47:09

Rest is history. Let's transition. So at Time Concepts, you also own Santo, right? And Santo feels very different from ProTech. You know, what was the vision there? All right.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

So, first of all, I uh run in Luminox at many trade shows, outdoor retailers, jewelry shows, shot shows, dive shows, all these shows. People would occasionally happen by and say, Hey, you know watches. Would you make one for me, for my retail store or chain or for my brand? And so I needed a platform on which to do this. So I started Time Concepts, which is fairly aptly named. The idea is concepts and watches. Yeah, yeah. And we did design for a lot. I mean, we did I did a whole seven-month project of design for 511. I did designs for Eddie Bauer, I did designs for just a lot of people and and and different brands. And so this was a platform to make watches for others. But I very quickly realized this was not a good business model for us. And that is because we do not control when they're ordering, when they're reordering. It's all up to them. And so at that moment, I said, you know, we should probably put something on this platform that we owned. And this wasn't even my idea either. So there's a celebrity chef named Tyler Florence. I don't know if you've ever heard of him. He's been on the Food Network like 20 years. He's got great restaurants. He had a few of my Luminox watches, and one day he calls me up and he says, You got to come meet me for coffee. You got to see this watch I got. All right. So I go meet him, and he's wearing like an$18,000 IWC top gun because he's got the money and he's got the taste. Okay. And he pulls this ratty old World War II military watch out of his pocket with a tattered strap and a watch head the size of a quarter, and he big smile, and he goes, What do you think? I said, I think it's really cool. I love it. But nobody's gonna buy this was when watches were 47 millimeters. Yeah. I said, but nobody nobody's gonna buy a watch with a watch head that small. He goes, I know, I know, I know. But I was looking at the industry, and nobody's doing vintage design watches. Just going back to 2010 here. Okay. Yeah.

Blake Rea 49:45

Everybody's doing everybody's doing them now, it seems like.

SPEAKER_01 49:49

And he said, There's a void. You should create some vintage designs made for today with today's quartz movements, or even today's mechanical, you know, automatic movements, and create a little brand for that. And I thought, wow, never thought so. I can't take zero credit here. I said, I never never even thought of it. You know, I was immersed in Luminox. And I started looking at what was out there, and after a few months, I said, you know, you're right. There's nobody doing this. Now, today there's a lot of people doing it, but that's when I decided to come out with the brand Santo, which you know, very tough to come up with a new name. Boy, is that tough. Coming up with Pro Tech was tough. Coming up with a name is tough.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:37

It happened to be a family name from my mom's side, who passed away, and I said, Well, it's not me, but you know, okay, I could use that. Because I was, you know, I must have had 25 names on a piece of paper, and I just kept crossing one out, crossing another out, cross. And so ultimately it became that. And and we just took a look at vintage designs and tried to reinterpret them for today, still with a clean design aesthetic. And that's what Asanto has been. But honestly, I've I never to be totally frank, I never gave it the support it needed. I was so deeply involved with Luminox and working day and night, six days a week, and you know, because I was working with the Swiss, I was often, you know, working until two in the morning, and I just I just never gave it enough focus. I should now, and we have a few new designs coming for fall that will reinvigorate it a little bit.

Blake Rea 51:44

Do you do you feel like so? Do you feel like Santo reaches like a different customer entirely, or do you feel like it reaches to like a different side of the same person? Like we we all love vintage watches, we all love them, you know.

SPEAKER_01 52:01

Like, you know, in general, generally speaking, it's a different customer, but today, especially guys have watch collections, yeah. So it's okay to have different watches for different applications that are completely differently styled.

Blake Rea 52:19

Yeah. Yeah, it's that's okay. Because I know for sure we in the watch club that we have in Vegas, I think we've got maybe three or maybe maybe three or four Santo watches in the in the group, you know. I mean, it's cool, right? So I'm surprised they found us. Yeah, I mean, it's a very the these these watch collectors will sniff out a good value I mean, and they're they're the value is there, man. Like you make a nice little watch for the for a very fair price, and the whole line goes from like retail, suggested retail, two and a quarter to four seventy-five.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

You can't and the four seventy-fives are automatic mechanics, yeah.

Blake Rea 53:04

I mean, you can't really beat that. And then so I guess even though it's less tactical, you know, how do you how do you what's the what do you feel like you have a DNA for Santo? Like, do you have a fingerprint?

Cause Watches Lessons From Failure

SPEAKER_01 53:20

Like how like I like vintage design, so it's just what I'm like. I mean, we got some new ones coming. I got a motorsports chronograph coming out in fall that's really cool in the panda direction, you know, which which is light. Yeah, and I have a there's one in our line now called Desert Sands, which is when we created it, the feeling was the thinking and the and the vibe was kind of World War II in North Africa. So we, you know, went where Rommel and and all of that fighting was going on, and we kind of went with that flavor, and that was a chrono, and now we're coming with a small second subdial instead as an alternative. Yeah, I mean, they're nice, and and we use really nice leather straps, either waterproof leather, Italian leather, or or Horween, or I mean and different platings like antique gold that looks like brass, but it's not. Yeah. Half the price, half the weight. Uh yeah, we're just just having a little fun. I did antique silver for a while, but it it's it's not attractive, so I cut that out. Yeah, yeah. You know, I did two other brands in time concepts. When when I left Luminox, and which was uh November 16th, I was I was thinking, you know, I never really kind of gave back. And and I thought to myself, well, this there's not many things I can do, but I I believe I can style a decent watch. So I saw I saw two causes that were going on, and I decided to take a stab at it. The truth be told, these were both failures, but but it was a noble gesture. So one of them was you know the beginning of the Me Too and the Time Zone. And I've got a son and I've got a daughter, you know. And I thought, well, at the time she was looking for work and found out that guys were being offered more for the same job. And I thought, well, that's not right. I mean, it's you know, it's who you are, it's and and what you can do, it's not what gender you are. And so I said, all right, so I created a little collection called Baia. And for those that don't know, Baia was Zeus's daughter, the Greek goddess of raw power and strength, Nike's sister. By the way, Nike was a woman also, most people were that. And so we thought that was a good name for it. You know, the our logo even had a woman like and but honestly, it did not succeed. I took I took it to Times Up and Me Too, and I said, Look, I created this for your movement. You helped me broadcast it, and I'll give 25% of all revenue to your organizations. Oh, we can't align with a company. No, we can't do that. All right, well, I'll give you less. I'll still donate the 25%, but it'll be less, which is what we did. And then the second one was I was reading about medicinal cannabis when that was coming on, and the two largest groups to get relief or help from medicinal cannabis were seniors and veterans. And I thought, well, gosh, if if we don't support them, who the heck are we supporting? Now I knew that I knew the guys that started 420. In fact, one of them is in the printing business. There are five guys from Sandra Felt, California. One of them was in the printing business and had printed some of my Luminox catalogs, but there was always a stigma around cannabis, so there's no way I would have touched it. But as medicinal came out and I realized who it was really helping the most, uh I went to this guy and I said, Hey, let me use your 420. And these guys were called the 420 Waldos. And the reason, I mean they're written about it. You can actually, I'm not making this stuff up. This is you can you can actually read about it. And the reason they were called that is they met at 420 in the afternoon after high school on a wall in front of the school, and they became known as the 420 Waldos. And they began the 420 moniker that's used for cannabis. And we're in April, it's coming up, April 20th. That's their national, the national holiday. So I just said to this guy, Larry, let me use your your coin your term, and we named it 420 Waldos. And it was the same situation. I took it to the Drug Policy Alliance and Normal, and I said, You guys help broadcast it, and I'll give you 25% of all revenue. Oh, we can't we can't affiliate with anyone. All right, I'll still give you the 25%, but it's not gonna be the same amount of money. So I did that for like I don't know, three years, and I said, you know what, this is my heart was in the right place, but this is not it's not my area. I make guys' watches predominantly. So the bio is women's, that's not me. Cannabis, I don't to me, it's a non-issue. I don't care if you do cannabis or not, I don't care. Sure. But what it's you know, I'm where right now I'm back where I belong in Tritium watches. Yeah.

Blake Rea 58:44

Something too, like, and we don't have to really talk about it too, but you were distributing, was it like Hawaiian lifeguard?

SPEAKER_01 58:51

So that that came about because well, my wife's Hawaiian. That's how some of this Hawaiian stuff started. Okay, so she has family there that's deeply ingrained in those water things, the water sports I was telling you about. So her first cousin's husband has introduced me to a hell of a lot of people over there. Now he he has the Duke of Hanamoku Waterman Award. Actually, he's a little crazy. He swims between the Hawaiian Islands. What? I mean, one of these, the big island to Maui, is 30 miles of open ocean. Oh my god. You you you go in the water at midnight and you come out at 8 p.m. the next day. And on his first attempt, he got bitten by a cookie cutter shark. And they had to, it's you know, they take like a scallop out of you, kind of like an ice cream scoop. And he got rushed back to a hospital and so forth. And I remember seeing the back of his calf where he got bit, it kind of looked like sashimi. But uh I said, Well, I guess you're done with this craziness. Oh no, as soon as this heals, I'm gonna do it. And he's one of four people to do that crossing. And he, I mean, I remember being with him once on his boat, and he says, I'm gonna go for a swim. He goes, two hours off around the corner of the island. A couple hours later, he's coming back one time on the north side of Maui. I'm gonna swim to Lanai and have lunch, and then I'll swim back. That's nine miles. I mean, the guy is anyway, he's introduced me to a lot of people, and he introduced me to a guy named Archie Kaleppa. Archie is one of the other, I said there's three people that won both of those Waterman Awards. He's one of the other two, and he was the lead guy during those devastating fires in Lahaina. He was the one meeting with the governor, meeting with the president. He's uh a Hawaiian lifeguard emeritus as well, like that guy Brian, I told you. Anyway, he introduced me to Archie, and Archie said, Why don't you make a watch for the Hawaiian lifeguards? And he introduced me to another guy, and we put that together and we created a dive watch for those guys. And that was actually that watch was a great watch for 250 bucks. Yeah. That was a killer watch. Could you can bang the crap out of it? Really thick superluminova. It glowed five to six hours at night. We did that for about seven years, and then a new president came in, and we're ending some of our license programs, and so we were a casual, and that's fine because I was ready to take off on pro tech. Yeah. So it didn't matter to me. But but it was a great watch and a great design, and we're gonna use that design in Pro Tech.

Blake Rea 1:01:36

Fair enough. Fair enough. Let's talk about your philosophy real quick before we I mean, we're getting here at the top of, I mean, we're already past the top of the hour, but sorry if it's carried on to for especially for your listeners.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:49

I'm sorry if it carried out.

Blake Rea 1:01:50

No, no, no. I mean, a lot of the people that listen and tune in are like super, I mean, we're all watch nerds, you know. I think I think I can speak for everybody, so but you know, obviously you've been working with, you know, you know, watches since the 80s. Like, how how has your perspective kind of evolved, you know, over time, would you say?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:17

Uh I mean, you know, for me, it's the same thing. I just uh like I you know I could be retired and I'm not. I do it because I have a passion for it. So in some respects, I'm like your group. I love watching. So uh and I love creating. I mean, some of it's like you know, sales is a necessary evil. You gotta sell to be able to sustain. It's not the part I love, the part I love is creating. And coming up with new concepts and new designs is I mean, it's that's the reason I'm doing this, because I love that stuff. How have things change? You touched on it before. There's way more watch brands, if you want to call them that. There's way more mom and pops who said, I can buy this off a shelf in China and I'm in the watch business, even though they don't know what what they're really doing. So it's a much more crowded space, which makes it tougher to establish. And by the way, watches are a brand-driven category. You know, gold you pretty much buy by weight. Okay, it weighs this, okay. Here's a gold chain, a gold earring. Watches are names. You know, I want an omega, I want a bright link, I want a Rolex. It's names. Yeah. And therein lies a really difficult aspect of trying to establish a new brand. Uh uh I would I would almost say that if I didn't have some background in this space, it would be even tougher. Now this you know, John Brown comes out with, oh, here's a Tritium watch. But you've never done tritium. At least I have for decades. So maybe that gives a little bit of enhanced credibility to help us get this brand name going. Yeah. I can tell you this. It took much longer than I thought it would. I figured by the second year we'll be doing great nonsense. Lost a lot of money three years in a row. Each year less. This year we'll turn a little profit going in the right direction. And at the recent shot show that we do shooting, hunting, and outdoor trade, we had many people come to our booth saying, I've been hearing about this brand. People are talking about it. I've seen videos with some guy who did Luminox. You know, they're talking to me, they didn't even know it was me. I don't care. I've seen videos. No, this this guy, the guy who did Luminox, is doing it. We weren't hearing that the last several years. Now we're hearing it. And in addition to that, we had a great response internationally. We've now opened up Denmark. My old Luminox distributor from Scandinavia is coming on board for all of Scandinavia. We oh we've already started to ship it to Sweden. We're into the UK trying to expand on that. We're advertising in UK publications, began last year and expanding it this year. They also have a domestic footprint. We a guy approached us from Germany, who works Germany, Austria, who wants to handle those two countries, but he's since come back to me saying he's collaborating with someone from Czech, and they now want Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States, Spain, and a couple other countries. This, you know, this wasn't happening before. A company from Brazil came and said, We want to take your brand and dual brand it with ours. So it'll be our brand by Pro Tech, and we live in two spaces the tactical, but also the outdoor. They want to begin immediately. That Wasn't happening before. So we certainly haven't arrived, but I feel like this is the year we're beginning, we're arriving. We're beginning to arrive. And I just come back to the I mean, the big problem is not enough people know about us. But I come back to what I said earlier, and again, I'll share some stuff with you privately separate afterwards. But the comments we're getting from people, once they get one, they love us. I mean, here's one. And I do I do Kickstarters every time I come with a new series. I'm not doing that to fund it. I've already funded it. That's why we're losing the money. But I'm not doing it to fund it. I'm doing it to cast a wide net of awareness. And it really does that because each each Kickstarter we've done various ones, various nations. Singapore, Taiwan, China, Belgium, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland. I mean, we wouldn't be getting any orders from those places otherwise. Right. We did when we first came out with our field watch, which by the way, I love our field watch. Only 48 grams medical grade titanium, waterproof Italian leather. You don't know it's on your wrist, it's so late, light, it uses the oversized tubes. So this fellow fool Lucerne apparently bought one. Okay. Apparently, he subsequently bought another one and another two. And only then did he send an email. I bought four out of the five. I might as well get the fifth. Right. And that wouldn't happen without the Kickstarter. So that's why we do it. And we always offer you know an outstanding value on the front of it. Because what's the most important thing to us right now? We've got to get on wrists. Because if Tommy likes it, he'll tell his buddy Bobby or tell you know Jimmy or he'll tell David or whoever. Yeah. Building customer advocates. And it's one thing if we place an ad. An ad is an overt screen. Come buy what I have. Yeah. PR is a little better because it's something gets written about. And then if you read it, you think, Oh, uh, I didn't know about this. Maybe I should. Look, look what this publication is saying. But the best is when your friend tells you.

Blake Rea 1:08:18

The only way to sell watches in the modern world, in my opinion, is to get them in somebody's hand and get somebody to try them on. You know, it's like buying shoes. Like, you know, you're not going to buy shoes online unless you've tried the model of shoe or had it before in the past. You know, you're not going to go just buy a random pair of shoes without putting them on your feet, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:41

I'm surprised that people do, but they do actually. You're right. But you're right. I got to try it. Yeah, yeah. One last thing. I touched on that waterproof leather. That's pretty that's pretty cool, by the way. So most leather starts kind of stiff, you got to break it in. But if you get it wet, it gets brittle. It'll easily crack right where the buckle is, right? Yep, yep, yep, yep. I I got leathers, all of our leathers are waterproof. I've got uh leather straps that I've had them water a hundred times purposely. Nicer than new, molded to the wrist, does not crack, doesn't get brittle.

Blake Rea 1:09:20

I want to get this out too, because this is probably, I mean, a very important question. But you know, you've been now in the industry for decades, you know. Like, do you feel like your your concept or or maybe idea of what a great product now has changed from when you first got into the industry? Like, or or do you feel like you've always just kind of understood what defines a quality product?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:56

Yeah, I come back to what I said earlier. I think the number one thing is make quality. If you make quality, eventually it all works out. You just don't want to make some part quality. Um and you know, you look many of those brands that I mentioned earlier, the uh esteemed brands, uh mostly Swiss, you know, they're fantastic, they're great. And then you get up into the art forms with watches that are hundreds of thousands of dollars and a little more esoteric and unusual, and and they're fantastic. But I've always maintained, and this is the niche we have filled and want to continue to fill, especially with guys with watch collections. Even the people that own the really high-end or the or the esteemed four to ten thousand, fifteen thousand dollar watches, even they need a knock-around, bang the crap out of its beater. Perfectly happy, elated to fill the role of the beater, the tool watch. And if you're doing, and and okay, maybe a lot of those guys aren't doing yard work and they pay someone to do it. But if you're doing yard work or whatever, you don't want to wear a$15,000 watch. You you put on something, you can bang the crap out of it. We're that's us. Go ahead, test us that way.

Blake Rea 1:11:14

Even if you're going on vacation, you know, you don't want to bring your nice watch, you're going to the beach, you know. Like, why are you gonna bring a$20,000 watch into the water? Like just bring something, you know, that you know, can hang, right? Can hang. So you know, obviously, you know, I I think for me, and and you know, after you know, now becoming more close to you and understanding your brand and the impact and the legacy that you have on you know self-illuminated watches, you know, Tritium, right? If that's what we're gonna talk about. But you know, what do you want to be known for like beyond you know, the name? Like, you know, 20 years from now, when somebody says Barry Cohen.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:03

Well, the first thing is we want to be I want to be known as a good human being, I want to be known as a good husband and a good father. And you know, there's a phrase I've always used, and that is, you know, people have called me a lot of things in life, but the best thing I've ever been called is dad.

Blake Rea 1:12:22

Yeah. You see, very proud of your children too, because we we were talking about that, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:27

Yeah, yeah. I mean, and and what do you try to do? You try to set them up so that you don't give them everything, but you try to set them up so they have the tools to go do what they want to do. But in the watch category, it's nice to be known as somebody that I didn't create a category, I helped to build a category. Sure. And and someone who who did it with honor, integrity, with a focus on making quality, and and importantly, an understanding of the aesthetics of good design.

Blake Rea 1:13:01

Yeah, yeah. I mean, couldn't agree more. A couple more, let's knock out, and then I'll let you get back to your day. If somebody has never experienced one of your ProTech watches, like point them in the direction that you say, is it the 1000 series? Is it the 1010? Like, what is the watch that you want every watch owner to experience from the ProTech collection?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:26

Well, again, this bigger size is new, so we haven't gotten a lot of track yet on it. I expect it's gonna do very well. It's sold fairly well thus far, but it's only a couple months old. The best sellers for us are the series 1000 and series 1010. So 1000 and 1010 are the same. It's just 1010 as USMC. And there's people who say, well, I don't want to wear I wasn't a Marine, I was Air Force, or I wasn't I wasn't in the military, I just want the basic. I don't look at it that way, I look at it as an homage. It does I wasn't in the Marines, but I wear it. It's an homage to them. So those two are our best sellers, but and here's a big surprise. Five of our best sellers are our field watches. And now when I when we created that, remember I told you I we launched the carbon composite dives in 42 millimeters, also our steel dive at 42 millimeters. On the fields, we went down to 40. I just didn't think as a fairly macho type of brand. I didn't think I could go into the 30s, you know, like a 38 or a 39. I thought I had to stay at a four, so we did it at 40. It's an incredibly comfortable watch. And we have a again, 48 grams. Even if you put the solid link titanium bracelet on it, it's you you don't know what's on your wrist. It's I I don't think I have it here, or I'd show it to you. So so it's really good. And by the way, when we just when we do a bracelet, you see a lot of people do this, I don't get it. They take either an off-the-shelf bracelet, why, it doesn't go with it, or they just have a bracelet with an without a fitted end piece. And so you see the space between the the bracelet and the case. I mean, how hard is it you tool a fitted end piece? And then it shouldn't just be a bracelet. The bracelet has to have some kind of tie to the case design. It can't be discordant. So, for example, on our on our steel dive bracelet, you know, the raised pins that are on the bezel for grip for turning the bezel, that shape is emulated in the center link of the bracelet. So it goes with the case. In in the field watch, it's a five-link, so link two and four. There's a chamfered edge that goes around the the shoulder of of the watch case. We put that chamfered edge onto both sides of link two and four, so it looks like it goes with it. It kind of blows my mind when people just say, Oh, that's good enough. It's not good enough. By the way, good enough as a phrase implies you compromised.

Blake Rea 1:16:10

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, people are cutting corners, right? And I think that's something that you've avoided your whole life, it seems like. I mean, certainly a fan of of your career, the things that you've done for the watch industry. I mean, personally, like like I said, I've been wearing your products for 12 years, 16 years, you know, every day, nonstop. And and and I'm, you know, obviously here because I really um think what you're doing at Pro Tech is amazing. You know, you have an amazing product. It didn't take very long for for me to see that, you know, when your your new one came in.

Where To Start With ProTek

SPEAKER_01 1:16:59

And yeah, we need to get one on your wrist, of course. Yeah, and and your customers when when they feel our bezel, there's no play. Type, type work. And because you're gonna, you know, two things we didn't do here. We didn't have a a ProTech cap and t-shirt on you. Same here. I I didn't know we'd do this today, and I didn't have other watches to show, and I didn't have a tool to demonstrate the loom, which is what we're all about, our primary feature. So we missed that. But for your audience, if they want to see what we're doing, of course, we have a website, it's protechwatch.com, it's P R O T-E-K Watch.com, and maybe we can structure some kind of a special for your audience. I'd be happy to do that. We'll come up with we'll come up with a code for your audience that you can add to this and they can get a discount.

Blake Rea 1:17:52

Yeah, yeah. Everybody, we will certainly link Barry's website for ProTech here in the description. You know, once I get a couple watches in, you know, I I I want to make some YouTube content about you know about your products, and and that's gonna be another opportunity for us. And and yeah, yeah. Sorry, I'm not wearing a pro tech hat. And yeah, I I so I'm going to Switzerland. I'm going to Switzerland.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:16

I'll put something in the mail to you tomorrow.

Blake Rea 1:18:19

Yeah, yeah. No, I and and I've been sick, you've been sick, and I'm freaking going to Switzerland on Wednesday for two weeks, you know. So I I wanted to get get this out, get this in the airwaves before, you know, as soon as possible, right? Because you know, people need to know, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:35

If you want, I might be able to arrange for you to meet Eddie.

Blake Rea 1:18:39

Yeah, yeah. I'll be in actually being in Geneva and then I'll be in Bien for one day. So we're we're gonna fly out to Bien or take a helicopter or something. I'll try to connect you with them. Yeah, that'd be great. Well, Barry, again, I want to thank you so much for spending time with us. Again, everybody, we will make sure you have the links here. I'll work with Barry to get you a discount code or whatever he's generous enough to offer. And and I really think you know Barry's working on something special with ProTec. I'm I'm just not saying that because he's sitting down, but it it's a no-brainer, especially for a watch that you can wear every day that is light, it's durable, and you don't have to really worry about you know banging up your expensive stuff. And and I really second that. And again, I just want to thank you, Barry, again, for coming on. And I can't wait to see what shows up in my door soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:30

It's the opposite. I have to thank you. So I appreciate your time very much.

Blake Rea 1:19:33

Yeah, no, always, always. Well, we will chat very soon.