NORQAIN | Independent Swiss Watchmaking Redefined

We had the pleasure of meeting the NORQAIN team at COUTURE Las Vegas to learn more about one of the fastest-growing independent names in Swiss watchmaking. 

Founded in 2018, NORQAIN is an independent Swiss watch brand driven by adventure, authenticity, and innovation. In this episode, we explore the brand’s inspiring journey, the vision behind its creation, and how it continues to forge its own path in the highly competitive world of luxury timepieces. 

From its family-owned roots to its commitment to quality, performance, and community, discover what makes NORQAIN a brand that resonates with modern watch enthusiasts around the world. 

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Transcript

0:03

Hey everyone, I'm very excited to be here at Norken with Emmanuel. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you very much for uh coming our little booth here. There's a lot of people that are obviously starting to know now and notice about the brand, but there's also people that don't know about the brand. So do you mind quickly explaining what is Norken? Norken is a Swiss independent and family-owned watch company. Okay. Started in 2018, so relatively a young brand. Yeah. Started by Ben Cooper in Nidau. Ben has a very strong watchmaking history from his father. He used to own uh Roventa Henek's very large um watchmaking facility. So all the watchmaking know-how was already in the family, and then Ben had the young driving enthusiasm to start a new watch brand. So that was uh 2018. So we're now seven years into the journey. It's been a really exciting journey. Uh we are now already quite established. We have a you know a nice network of um highly successful retailers in the US as well. It's our strongest market. Beautiful, beautiful. Okay, amazing. And how long time have you been uh involved with the company? Since 2019 is actually when I started. Almost uh in the big almost, yeah. So I started uh the US office 2019 out of a little tiny office in in Miami. Now we have a very strong team with seven people uh in New York now as well. So we've come come a nice way since then. Obviously, COVID gave us a little bit of a slower start, but since 2021, really, we've had uh we've had a great growth. What do you have uh what do you have for us here? Yeah, so I've got a few pieces here. Maybe we start first with the one that I'm wearing, which is our Wild One skeleton watch. So now um this is really kind of the ultimate mechanical sports watch. So the one you're showing there is actually the independent skeleton chrono, which is a flyback chronograph with a beautiful uh mountain decoration on the dial itself as well. So it is a column wheel chronograph, chronometer certified as well. This is really kind of our high-end uh part of the collection. Uh really, really successful collection that we started end of last year. This particular one is a limited edition of only 500 pieces. So that's yeah, it was launched during Watch and Wonders this year. Really, really popular piece. It has a grade 5 titanium case with a very very strong DLC coating around it. Good. Next one. So this collection is the one you're wearing, and the one I'm holding here. This is our Wild One skeleton collection. So the Wild One is really the this ultimate sports watch. So here it's all about lightweight, so it's only 78 grams. It's all about the comfort, as you know, it's very very comfortable to wear. It has an integrated strap as well, so very comfortable. Yeah, it is 200 meter water resistant, so you can do anything with it in the water as well. And most importantly, it has up to 5000 chi shock resistance. Okay, so that's really of the way that the case is constructed with this uh multi-layer principle, where basically you have the movement protected by this hard rubber shock absorber in the middle, so anything you see here in turquoise, yeah, and then on the outside you have this very hard shell with this Nord Tech material, it's a proprietary material, it's a carbon fiber composite, so it's a very, very strong shell. So this top piece and the bottom piece, and then everything is held together with the four screws on the locks. Can you also talk about this time piece which is about enjoying the life and bringing up, you know, some uh happy feelings? Exactly, exactly. So I think uh everybody deserves uh a lot of happy feelings at the moment. Also, this is the perfect watch to do that. It's the Freedom 60 Chrono 40mm case, and uh the specially this enjoy life. So we have a very fun color scheme on the dial with these three pastel kind of ice cream uh reminiscent colors, and uh the funnest part is that the date wheel actually displays an ice cream once a week. So at least once a week it's time for ice cream, right? So the fun is uh uh the watch is really a fun reminder to make sure you enjoy your ice cream. Now, what is this last one? So this is our third collection, it's called the Adventure Collection. Okay, the Adventure Collection really is kind of the modern sports watch. Okay, so in terms of design, we see kind of a diver style design. We have a turnable bezel here on the top of well. This one actually is our largest piece that we have in the collection, it's a 44mm case. 44. Uh yeah, in this case as well, it's a chronograph, but there's also a GMT version, and it also has this striking we call a cerulean coloured dial on it, and then again, it has a steel case, steel bracelet with a very very strong DLC coating on it. Okay, Norkane is all about outdoors, it's all about wearability. We want our customers to wear the watches outside and really do any sports with it. And play hockey with. And of course play hockey with it. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Listen, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with us and to uh introduce Norcane to uh to our community. You guys uh just make sure if you go if you want to learn more about the brand, go on watchdnna.com slash Norcane. Every brand that they have on their own page. You can learn about the brand, obviously, you have all the links for the website, but also something interesting is that you can go to the store locator and see who is your closest authorized dealer. So that's also very important.