MWCQ_EDITION 02

ED IT ION 02

Cover image and this stunning shot of Glencoe courtesy of Tom Hills & Laura Andre - @traveltwo_

FOUNDERS’ NOTE

W

e find ourselves releasing the second edition of MWCQ in the most unimaginable of circumstances.

This time three months ago a global pandemic couldn’t have been further from our minds, yet here we are, taking advice from our government to socially distance ourselves from one another, only attending our place of work if absolutely necessary, and regularly counting our blessings as we watch various statistics around the world increase. These truly are unprecedented times and our thoughts are with those affected.

However, in the midst of all that is going on, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy, and this, our second edition, is as exciting as our first. Concentrating on the theme of adventure, we re-visit Dr Busby and get an update from him on his Mobile Malaria Project, we talk openly about why British Design is so important to us, and write our own little adventure in Moving to Scotland. We might also tantalise you with a few little hints at what’s to come - feel free to rise to the bait!

Oliver Goffe & Gordon Fraser Co-Founders

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As ever, thank you for your support, especially during these uncertain times. And if you have any feedback for us we’d be more than happy to receive it.

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IN THE FIELD WITH THE FIELD STANDARD

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HASKELL BLACK EDITION ON THE ROAD, VINTAGE STYLE

WHO CARES ABOUT BRITISH DESIGN?

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GOING MOBILE

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WHO IS JOHN MUIR?

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MOVING TO SCOTLAND

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ONE FOOT AFTER THE OTHER

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ROAD MAP OF MWC

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STRAIT AND NARROW

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EDUCATION STATION

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WHAT’S NEXT FOR MWC?

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A WORD OR TWO

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Hiking in Glencoe

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Photos courtesy of Tom Hills & Laura Andre @traveltwo_

HASKELL Field Standard - £745 Dark Earth Barenia Leather

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WHO CARES ABOUT BRITISH DESIGN? When operating any business, exposure to haters seems to be part of the gig nowadays. “British Design means nothing” is a comment we receive regularly. Stephanie wants to set the record straight.

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rolls. Depending on whether you’re of the social media generation or not, the word may conjure up either an image of a squat, unloved creature dwelling beneath a bridge, or it might make you think of an – often otherwise respectable – individual who scours the internet looking for companies or people that they know very little about to fixate upon and attempt to engage in verbal warfare. It isn’t just teenage boys with excess testosterone who do this; middle aged school teachers, doctors, professors, builders, chefs, stay-athome parents… you name the profession, there’ll be a troll within their midst.

It’s a telling sign of the age we live in; a keyboard or

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phone provides an excellent mask, weapon and shield for anyone wishing to try and expel any bitterness within them onto complete strangers on the internet.

It comes with the territory to a certain extent, and it’s not always coming from a bad place. Not everyone who criticises, questions or challenges us is a troll; far from it. The vast majority of the time, people just want clarity on who we are and what we do, and we’re always happy to provide that; we are a very open company who make a habit of sharing how we work, and we love talking about all things watch-related. But occasionally, a comment is made and it’s immediately clear that the individual isn’t interested in a chat or an education; they simply wish to attempt to belittle either us, as a brand, our watches, or the British watch industry as a whole.

The vast majority of the time, if we notice such a person residing in our exceptionally positive, engaging and clued-up community, we don’t give them a second thought. If any attempt to educate or inform further inflames their rage, we won’t push it; it really doesn’t bother us. Our watches aren’t designed to resonate with everyone, and if throwaway criticism is what makes them happy, then so be it.

However, there’s one comment that we have spotted a few times – both on our own social media platforms, and on others’ – that does somewhat arouse our passion. And it’s this one; ‘British design means nothing’.

Marloe Watch Company is a design-led business.

Design is where our expertise lies, it’s where our passion comes from, and it’s what we like to occupy our days doing. It’s where we know we can bring something unique to the market; we aren’t watch builders, and we certainly aren’t going to win in a competition against our Swiss or Japanese manufacturing partners in a battle of ‘who can make the most reliable watch movement’. There’s a reason they’re world leaders, and there’s a reason why we don’t manufacture our watches in Britain; that reason is just not immediately obvious to those who dip in and out of the watch world, as most do. Again, that’s ok; we love designing watches, and some of us are rabbit-hole watch people; but not all of us are.

Great Britain led the way in watchmaking in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many argue that the watch was itself a British invention. In the 17th century, King Charles II introduced the waistcoat to the fashion elite. This unusual garment required a slimline pocket watch to complement it, rather than a common, rounded pendant style clock which had, until then, been strung around the neck. These early timepieces were, ironically, pretty bad at telling the time, but nevertheless they paved the way for horologists to begin to hone their craft and build something more akin to the watches that we know today.

By 1800, Britain was making around half of the world’s timepieces – about 200,000 a year. Many of the

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great innovators of watchmaking were British, wholly responsible for many of the techniques and common features which are still used within mechanical watchmaking to this day. Daniel Quare added a minute hand in 1690, Thomas Mudge invented the lever escapement in 1755, Thomas Prest discovered keyless winding in 1820. John Harrison, best known for his marine chronometers of the mid-18th century, solved the problem of accurately telling time while at sea; something which allowed sailors to determine their longitude, which in turn was a huge factor in the growth of the British Empire. Every one of these British men was a pioneer, an inventor, and one of the founding fathers of watches.

Thus, the foundations of watchmaking were shaped in Britain; even Rolex, the world’s most successful luxury watch brand, started out in London. So what happened?

In the 1800s, the watchmaking industry was largely based in London’s northern suburbs. Producing high-end objects of luxury and beauty, despite the poverty and overcrowding which surrounded them, British watchmakers continued to thrive until both Switzerland and the USA began to offer far cheaper alternatives to their customers, opening up the market to a wider customer base. In 1846, a Swiss watchmaker named Pierre Frédéric Ingold set up a workshop in Clerkenwell. Ingold brought with him extensive plans for machines that he had built with the intention of mass-producing watches, but he was met with furore and distrust by his British counterparts. Eventually the uproar spilled into the Houses of Parliament; and the verdict was damning; mechanised watchmaking was simply not welcome in Britain at that point. And so, Ingold took his ideas to Britain’s main competitors; the USA, and to his native Switzerland, where they were welcomed with open arms. And they thrived. By 1900, there were just three British watchmaking companies remaining in the UK. The British industry had, by this point, realised that they must embrace factory production, but it was too late. Switzerland had attained a near monopoly on the high-end watch market, which remains the case to this day.

A sad tale, indeed. Ironically, the near-death of the British watchmaking industry was, largely, due to a desire to preserve tradition; and now, that’s

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where a few companies are focusing their efforts in an attempt to revive the industry; starting with tradition, and rediscovering the true spirit of British watchmaking. Today, there is only really one truly British watchmaker in existence; Roger W. Smith, whose team produce watches comprised of entirely hand-made, British parts – including their own British movement - from their Isle of Man studio. Clients often have to wait for around three years to get their hands on a Roger W. Smith wristwatch, and will pay anything from £100,000 to £250,000 to obtain one of his timepieces. Needless to say, as incredible as his work is, it’s not for everyone.

We are often asked why we use Swiss or Japanese parts and manufacturing. The simple answer is that they are the best, and there are no other options really if we are to continue to create what we’d consider affordable watches that live up to our expectations in terms of reliability, durability or quality. The vast majority of watch brands don’t manufacture their own movements; you’ll often find the same movement within a £5,000 watch as you would within a £500 watch from two different brands - and occasionally, they may be supplied and built, together with the rest of the watch, by the same manufacturing partner.

Therefore the only distinguishing feature of these watches is the design. It’s the heart and soul of the watch; it’s what makes it unique, what causes one customer to fall in love instantly and another to turn their nose up. Design goes beyond the colours chosen or the shape of the hands; it’s the shape of the case and how waterproof it is, it’s the durability of the crystal, it’s how the crown sits and the sweep of the hands as they traverse the dial. Much of what makes a watch high-quality is down to the design, rather than simply the movement within.

Marloe Watch Company was born from a moment of disappointment; when Oliver opened up his relatively pricey fashion watch to reveal its empty, batteryoperated core. Our customers will never experience that feeling, for within each of our watches lies a miracle of engineering. They may not be British movements, but they’re selected for their exceptional performance, reputation and heritage – which, ultimately, is still partially rooted in Great Britain.

What encircles the movement is, in the case of Marloe Watch Company, British to a molecular level.

Inspired by Great British endeavour and bodies of

water, every element of a Marloe watch is carefully considered and designed to reflect its roots; whether they lie in the Lake District, in the churning oceans off Scotland, or in the spirit of British adventure – our home permeates every one of our designs.

For any British company to acquire the expertise, tooling, machinery and workforce necessary to begin to manufacture their own British movements, an incomprehensible sum of money, time, and labour would be required. British watchmaking will almost certainly never again be what it once was, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be something great, and different. That’s where Marloe Watch Company, and a number of other British watch design businesses, come into the fray; and that’s where we are keen to emphasise the importance of British design. Far from meaning nothing, in fact quite the opposite, it means everything if we are to begin to rebuild what has been lost, and write a new page in the history books.

With the foundations of watchmaking still rooted in Britain – albeit under a pile of rubble now – there is an inherent desire among British watch designers to create, to encapsulate this spirit within beautiful timepieces once again.

So when we are told, by a generally ill-informed passing individual who is mid-scroll on their Facebook or Instagram, that ‘British design means nothing’, we are liable to want to educate them; because it matters. It means everything to the watchmaking industry, to us, and to our customers. There is absolutely no secrecy or shame in us working with the Swiss or Japanese to bring our watches to life; on the contrary, we sing the praises of the movements that we have carefully selected. They’re in our watches for a reason, and we are incredibly proud to be working with some of the very best in the world while ensuring that we still offer watches at as accessible a price level as possible.

While it’s wonderful to think that one day Britain might regain its manufacturing capabilities so that we can become ‘British watchmakers’, it’s an unlikely prospect in our lifetime. And we’re at peace with that, as proud British watch designers.

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GOING MOBILE

In 2019, Dr George Busby and his team of medical experts travelled around Africa, on a mission to learn and gather data about Malaria from the most remote parts of the continent. We caught up with him a year on to discuss his legacy, and what’s next for the Mobile Malaria Project.

It’s been a properly fascinating and superbly positive project for us, watching from the outside. For you guys it must have been doubly so. What were the main findings of your trip?

Over the seven weeks of the trip we travelled from the warm, dry deserts of western Namibia to Mombasa on the rainy Kenyan coast. With the exception of the very beginning of the trip, despite the diversity of landscape and environment, malaria and the mosquitoes that carry it were present throughout.

Our main finding was that it is possible to generate genetic data with the kit and equipment that can be carried in the back of a Land Rover. We proved that large labs are not necessary to generate the sorts of data that had previously only been produced in such large centralised facilities.

So what can be done with this data?

This was a much softer finding for us, but understanding why anyone would want to generate genetic sequence data in the field was an important take home. We had our ideas before the trip, for example the tests we conducted showed that it was possible to identify parasites that are resistant to antimalarial drugs and mosquitoes that are resistant

to insecticides, but an obvious area for us to explore was to understand what researchers and malaria control programs could do with this sort of data.

There were a number of use cases, like monitoring the effectiveness of interventions like mass drug administration, when everyone in a village or town is given antimalarial drugs, regardless of whether they are sick. This blanket coverage is thought to stop the spread of malaria through asymptomatic people (those individuals who have parasites in their blood, but who don’t appear sick), but there’s also the potential that this speeds up the evolution of resistance. Having a cheap way of assessing the population for the presence of resistance is an important step to ensuring that mass drug administration doesn’t inadvertently cause a superresistant parasite to evolve.

Understanding which species of mosquitoes inhabit an area is another use case that genetics can help to understand. Several different species of similar looking mosquito transmit malaria, and although they look the same, they can behave quite differently. In Kenya we learnt that a species of mosquito called Anopheles funestus is becoming more prevalent. This mosquito bites during the day, which renders bednets, the single best strategy for controlling malaria, far less useful.

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So we learnt a lot about how genetics might be used by people in-country. However, we also found that the skills required to analyse genetic data were lacking across the continent. Although the technology we trialled to generate genetic data is small, the data it generates is big. Gigabytes of data are generated from these little machines, and it requires computational skills in coding and data science to understand and translate. So if we’re serious about getting genetic data into use in Africa, then we need to think about ways in which we can upskill local researchers to enable them to exploit the full potential of the data.

We also learnt how to ask the right questions; how to engage with local researchers and people and to understand what was important for them when it comes to malaria research and control.

Have there been any developments or changes in how malaria is being tackled as a result? Are there plans to introduce changes?

We very much see the Mobile Malaria Project as a proof of principle for two things. The first is

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that genetic data can be generated with minimal equipment. The second is that people in-country were excited and motivated to take on learning and using it. After our return we have concentrated on trying to secure funding to develop these foundations further. Working with our colleagues in Zambia, we’re hoping to optimise the technology so that it’s cheap to use and the results are easy to understand. A key consideration for this is to work with our colleagues from the outset and to develop approaches together.

We’re confident that some money will come our way.

There is a growing appreciation that data of many different types (including genetics) is needed to help us down the road to malaria elimination. Whilst it would be crazy to suggest that our project has changed anything in the short term, it has shown that locally driven science can contribute to the global effort, should sufficient funding and training be targeted in the right places.

What next? Same project, focused on genetic sequencing, or something different?

We’re in the late stages of negotiations for further

funding for two projects, one in Zambia to work on malaria parasite genetics and one in Kenya to work on mosquito sequencing. We hope to train up some of our partners to use the technology and share some of our skills with them so that they can use it for their own research. We hope that this will lead to many more trips to Africa to help build capacity. Watch this space!

Where have you been with your Haskells since? Any further adventures?

It’s been a busy time since we returned. Isaac, a medical doctor, moved to Chicago to work as a government epidemiologist. His Haskell is with him in the US. Jason has worked tirelessly to finish his PhD research and has a trip to South East Asia planned. Apart from a few days walking in the Welsh Mountains, I haven’t travelled far. I wear my Haskell every day; as a constant reminder of the opportunity given to me through the Land Rover Bursary, and as inspiration and motivation to get planning for the next big adventure.

Thank you to George Busby and his team for the incredible updates, stories and photography.

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COLLECTORS CARDS Hand stamped

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WHO IS JOHN MUIR? Naturalist, author, inspiration, activist, explorer and, amongst other things, known as the Father of the National Parks of United States of America.

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little over a third of Marloe Watch Company watches are sent to the USA. Considering we are a small British business, tucked away in a quiet, rural location, we think that’s quite special. Our watches ship all over the world, and that brings us huge joy; knowing that there’s a small piece of Great Britain and Marloe in a plethora of countries is a humbling and often surreal feeling. But the company’s affinity with American customers is something quite special indeed.

Contemplating this got us to thinking about ScottishAmerican connections and, being of the outdoorloving persuasion, our thoughts naturally turned to one man in particular. John Muir is the sort of chap who one is either acutely aware of or has never heard of - it’s perhaps more likely that he’s known in the USA, rather than here in Britain, but he’s someone who had and continues to have a profound impact on the wilderness that we love here at home as well as ‘across the pond’. It was only in 2013 that the first ever John Muir Day was celebrated in Scotland, marking the 175th anniversary of his birth. I know of him quite by chance; a young lad who I taught in my pre-Marloe life asked if the school at which I taught could work towards achieving the John Muir Award.

A short afternoon of research later, we were signed up and raring to go. Within the year, inspired by the adventures of one man, we’d built safe environments for wild waterfowl and houses for bees, planted a wild garden, taken part in forest and beach clean-ups, and had begun to nurture a wildlife garden within the marshes and woodland surrounding this little school at the foot of a mountain in the Scottish Highlands.

So who is this John Muir, otherwise known as ‘John of the Mountains’ and ‘Father of the National Parks’?

And why are we only now beginning to celebrate him properly here in Scotland?

Born in 1838 in Dunbar, in the East Lothian region of Scotland, John was the third of eight children. He and his siblings were raised by strict religious parents who believed that spending time on anything which wasn’t Bible study was ‘frivolous and punishable’. John, unfortunately for his buttocks but fortunately for the natural world, was extremely energetic, fascinated by the countryside, and thus “prone to lashings”.

Despite suffering regular punishments, he sought out

nature and adventure at every opportunity; collecting and studying birds nests and insects, roaming in the countryside, taking off on solo adventures and worrying his parents sick with regularity.

He developed a passion for reading, but to his parents’ dismay, he had little interest in the Bible; instead choosing the works of the beloved Scottish poet Robert Burns, and the Scottish naturalist Alexander Wilson. When John was just 9 years old his family immigrated to America; his father had found the Church of Scotland to be insufficiently strict, so had joined a congregation of the Campbellite Restoration Movement, called the Disciples of Christ. The Muir family moved onto a farm and John was subjected to further ‘encouragement’ to adhere to his father’s strict religious ways; by the age of 11, John had learned - in his own words, ‘by heart and sore flesh’ - to recite all of the New Testament and much of the Old Testament. John was a very spiritual soul, but his connection was to the natural world, rather than God. He did his best to be an obedient son, but struggled to find any contentment in the world unless he was in the wilderness, learning and discovering and adventuring.

John attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, paying his own way and finally free to explore the world on his own terms. There, he developed his love for botany and chemistry. He took so many classes that he actually never graduated; never spending more than a year or two on one particular specialism, but building up a remarkable bank of knowledge alongside a solid group of friends and acquaintances, who watched him and his unique approach to schooling with fond bemusement.

In 1864, John left school and travelled to Southern Ontario in Canada. He spent much of that year roaming the wilderness; collecting samples of plants and flowers, marvelling at the changing of the seasons, drawing parallels to his home in Scotland and finding scores of thrills in the endless menu of new sights, landscapes and specimens which he had never encountered before. John covered an enormous amount of ground, hiking through spring, summer and autumn before making a sensible choice to seek shelter for the winter. He took a job in a sawmill in Ontario, continuing to ‘botanise’ alongside working, before returning to America in 1866.

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Mountain lakes in the upper South Fork of Bishop Creek basin, from Chocolate Peak

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He settled briefly in Indianapolis, working in a wagon wheel factory. His ability to learn quickly, to improvise and think outside the box - no doubt honed by his time alone in the wilderness - meant that he was able to impress his employers and he was quickly promoted. While he was fairly content, it took a horrific accident to prompt him to return to pursuing his true passion. A tool which he was using slipped, cutting open his right eye. His left eye ‘sympathetically failed’, rendering him completely blind, and he was confined to a dark room to try to recover for 6 weeks. He was tormented during this time, not knowing whether he would regain his sight, preemptively mourning for all the things he hadn’t yet seen in the world. When his sight began to return, he immediately began to plan the next phase of his life; he wanted to see as much as possible of the natural world.

As soon as he was able to, John set off on a thousandmile walk; from Kentucky to Florida - and wrote a book about his journey; ‘The Thousand Mile Walk’. He had no set route; choosing only the “wildest, leafiest, and least-trodden way” he could find, studying plants as he went. When he reached Florida, he took a job in a sawmill again, thinking that gainful employment was the right and proper thing to do. Within three days of starting his job, he nearly died of a malarial sickness. John wrote that “God has to nearly kill us sometimes, to teach us lessons.” Given that both of his recent jobs had ended in near-catastrophe, he took this as a further sign to return to his wandering ways and to pursue his one true passion; his study of the natural world. As he recovered from his sickness, he climbed onto the roof of the sawmill to watch the sun set and spotted a ship; the Island Belle. Asking around, he learned that it was bound for Cuba, and without further ado he bought himself a one-way ticket to Havana, where he spent a spell of happy time continuing to recuperate while studying the flowers and shells which this new part of the world presented to him.

Some time later, Muir reappeared in San Francisco, under the pretence of ‘settling down’ - almost immediately planning a trip to Yosemite. He had never been to Yosemite before, but he had heard about it and he felt compelled to go and see it for himself. When he laid eyes on it for the first time, he noted that he was “overwhelmed by the landscape,

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scrambling down steep cliff faces to get a closer look at the waterfalls, whooping and howling at the vistas, jumping tirelessly from flower to flower”.

He worked for a season as a shepherd in Yosemite, feeling unable to tear himself away from the majesty of the place. He hiked the mountains, walked the trails, and eventually decided to stay; he built a small log cabin next to Yosemite Creek, which he carefully designed so that a small section of the stream ran through the corner of one of the rooms - meaning that he could enjoy the sound of running water even while inside. He lived here alone for two years, writing another book about his experience.

While John found it easy to make friends, he had been alone and unmarried - for a long time, by the standards of his generation - due to his nomadic lifestyle. In 1880 he married a lady named Louisa Strentzel, and began to work for her father on his orchards in California. Sustained by the Californian mountains and by being outside in the orchards, he lived a happy life, having two daughters with Louisa; but the call of the wild was relentless and John spent much of his time on excursions back to Yosemite.

He would take only a tin cup, some bread, some tea, and a book - generally by the naturalist author Ralph Waldo Emerson - and set off for extended periods into the landscapes that he had come to love so deeply. As the years passed, he became a fixture in the valley; often spotted by visitors and locals alike, sitting reading alone or forging a path through the wildest parts of Yosemite which he could find.

Emerson himself visited Yosemite, and happened upon John; both men were equally delighted to meet each other, and Muir described it as something akin to a religious experience. After spending one day together, Emerson offered John a teaching post at Harvard, which John politely declined.

John’s interest in geology, and the extensive time he had spent in Yosemite, had together begun to form into something of a theorem in his head; he was convinced that glaciers had shaped many of the features of Yosemite, which stood in stark contrast to the generally accepted theory of the time, which was that it had been created by a huge earthquake. One morning, John was woken by a large earthquake in the valley. Panic was widespread, with many believing that this quake was a prelude to another cataclysmic

deepening of the valley. Confident that his theory was correct, John refused to flee the site, instead carrying out a moonlit study of the rockslides caused by this earthquake. As the residents of the valley calmed down, and other geologists arrived to study the scene, it began to seem apparent that John was right.

John quietly wrote several scientific papers, which were swiftly published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and his reputation as a leading naturalist grew. He undertook four expeditions to Alaska, becoming the first EuroAmerican to explore Glacier Bay. The Muir Glacier was later named after him, and he went on to record a further 300 glaciers.

John’s health had begun to suffer by this point; it’s unclear whether this was linked to the extremes that he put his body through, but he took to the mountains to recover, and recover he did. John was only ever totally at peace when in the wild, and he began to contemplate how very necessary the wilderness is to human life and health, and that of the planet. His focus shifted to preservation, beginning with the most beloved of his spiritual homes; Yosemite.

John had noted with disgust the effect that domestic livestock had on Yosemite; he had a particularly vigorous dislike for sheep, which he referred to as ‘hooved locusts’. In 1889, the highly influential and esteemed associate editor of Century magazine, Robert Underwood Johnson, camped with Muir and saw first-hand the effect that sheep grazing had on one area of Yosemite. He made a vow to write about it, and to use his influence to introduce a bill to Congress which would make Yosemite into a protected national park.

Just over a year later, the bill was passed; and by 1903, Muir was camping with the President Theodore Roosevelt in Yosemite. They spoke, man to man, under the stars and Roosevelt ensured that Yosemite would be protected forever more under federal law.

John’s quiet, calm influence over politicians and lawmakers was remarkable; and, as much as he didn’t particularly enjoy writing, he began to realise that he had something of a duty to future generations to ensure that his learnings didn’t go to the grave with him, and that his influence continued beyond his lifetime.

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Bear Creek Spire, Mt Dade over Little Lakes Valley, John Muir Wilderness, Inyo Nat Forest, Eastern Sierra Nevada, California USA`

Forcing himself to arise at 4.30am each day, John would agonise over writing; endlessly criticising his own ability, but driven by the need to make sure future generations would have access to all he had learned. John Muir wrote over 300 articles, and 12 books; each of which has become a hugely valuable and inspirational resource. However, in his own words, and as he was always keen to emphasise; “No amount of word-making will ever make a single soul to ‘know’ these mountains. One day’s exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books.”

So perhaps it’s apt that we begin to conclude this short, highly condensed tribute to John Muir, lest we detract from the time you have to get outside today.

He died at the age of 76 in 1914, of pneumonia. As you can imagine, he did a huge amount of living between establishing Yosemite as a National Park and his death; it would take us a lifetime to cover it all.

There’s a huge amount that John accomplished in

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his life that we haven’t even touched on here; but if there’s one take-away, we hope it’s a sense of appreciation for all that he has done for both the preservation of the American wilderness, and for the natural world in general. Despite having spent the vast majority of his life in America, John never lost his Scottish accent - which probably took some conscious determination on his part. He spoke often of his love for his homeland, and his legacy lives on here in the hearts and minds of the many children who are busily building wildlife hides and litter-picking in his name.

John Muir is, perhaps, the most precious of shared connections between the USA and the UK; something which makes us feel even more proud of the community of customers that we have in America.

We’ll sign off with some words from John himself, which feel very timely and relevant for us as a small company who feel strongly about slower living and reconnection with the outdoors in today’s overworked, over-stimulated world.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, overcivilised people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.�

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MORAR Sands - £449

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IN THE FIELD WITH THE FIELD

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t always delights us to see our watches out in the world being used and enjoyed as we intended them to be. It’s even nicer when we can see the myriad locations that they’ve visited on the wrists of our customers.

We’re so busy that we rarely find the time to have a jolly to stunning locations. But our go-to photographers DougJo headed out to New Zealand recently, and with them a Haskell Field Standard travelled.

Sit back, relax and enjoy the splendour of what the mystical lands of NZ has to offer. Our metaphorical bags are packed ready to go!

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MOVING TO SCOTLA ND

Our own adventure! The reasons for moving 400 miles north were simple; expansion, efficiency, creativity and cost. Not to mention the utter beauty of the Scottish landscape.

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ince our launch in 2015, on numerous occasions, we’ve discussed where to place our business to give it the best opportunity to succeed. Initially the business was run remotely - there was no need for premises as we had no stock or employees at the time, but when October 2016 arrived along with a few thousand Cherwell watches, we knew the kitchen table wasn’t going to cut it any longer. Oliver had been living in Sweden until mid-2016 and returned to the UK to oversee this transition - he was best placed professionally to deal with both his day job and our new business requirements simultaneously. We quickly identified a purpose-built “rent-an-office” space in High Wycombe, just round the corner from where Oliver was now living in Marlow. Over the following weeks, between me fitting 3,000 individual straps to watch heads and Oliver boxing the rewards, we shipped our first sales for Marloe Watch Company. Everything was going great, we had an office which, despite it being a bit underwhelming visually, served our purposes. Soon though, we had people requesting to come and visit us, but we were quickly running out of space with the Derwent and Lomond productions on their way, not to mention the space being rather unpleasant on the eye, so after only 6-short months we decided it was time to get our first “proper” office.

We weren’t having much luck through the usual estate agent channels, so through a bit of creative searching, including a spot of friendly doorstepping at some grand Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire estates, we managed to find an office in Lower Shiplake, next door to Henley-on-Thames, where Oliver was about to move to, which gave us everything we needed. The

Dovecot Office, of which many of you are familiar, became our home for the following three years.

Oliver was to join MWC full time before me; the operations and logistics side of the business was far more cumbersome a process than the design side, which I could easily control in my spare room and work around my full-time day job. Pretty soon though we realised that I was working later and later into the wee hours of the morning, whilst still going to my day job. The tipping point arrived and both Oliver and I found ourselves working for the company we had started a little over 2 years prior.

And so it remained. We worked hard and we grew the business to the point we needed more help, and that’s when Stephanie joined us. An incredible discovery; a more talented writer, copy editor, researcher and storyteller you shan’t find. And a fellow Scot! Yet the more we grew, the more we needed content to share on social, the more connected I needed to be to the business and the daily goings on. This was impossible to do remotely - so many things happen each day that for Oliver or Stephanie to manage these additional, daily and process intensive tasks was simply not realistic. You might have noticed that our social feeds lit up periodically with new pictures and daily goings on. That’s because I had flown down and was stationed, a week at a time, in MWC HQ. We would cram in as much as possible, often too much, and then I’d fly back up to Scotland and settle back into my one-man-studio.

As we approached Q4 of 2019, an opportunity presented itself for another move but this time up to

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Scotland, with further potential to develop a bespoke, purpose-built headquarters for MWC. Bringing the business up to Scotland meant I could finally have more control over our brand image, our social and visual output, our creative direction, and continue to develop products that resonate with our customers.

It’s hard to do these things if all the visual elements of the business are 400 miles away and you don’t have eyes over absolutely everything that we are doing, creatively. It doesn’t take much effort to start deviating from brand consistency if there’s nobody driving and checking it daily.

It also meant that Oliver, by releasing a lot of his daily burdens that come with running an office, could focus more on developing the MWC business and making sure that we are constantly, consistently, going in the right direction. Yes the design side is important, but the more mundane bits and pieces - the mechanics, the nuts and bolts of what makes a company run, is if not equally, then more important. The decision to move our operation to Scotland was made in early December 2019, and despite a lot of misfires in the premises department, we finally found a place that was big enough and convenient enough for me, some more staff and all of our “stuff ”.

Early in January we made the decision to move MWC ourselves - so with two luton vans, four large DHL shipments and huge assistance from friends and family, we set about on our adventure. It took us around three days to unpack and place everything we needed to operate properly, but soon enough we were shipping out orders and running our company once more. All is well - the temporary office* looks great and those who know about our move have been incredibly supportive, both in regards to our motives and our direction, as a company.

And so it is. We are now switched in our locations, Oliver and I; instead of travelling a week each month to Henley-on-Thames, Oliver will now travel a week each month to Perth. The future of MWC is no more certain than anything or anyone else, but what I do know is that I am so proud to see our little company here in my homeland; I am interacting with more people daily than I ever have before, seeing the ins and outs of daily MWC life, and looking increasingly more excitedly to what the future may hold.

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*We have big plans. You will soon see...

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HASKELL Black Edition - £845

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BLACK EDITION x DAVEMACCY We love working with others, especially people who have grown similarly to MWC. Dave McConaghy is one of them.

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he spirit of adventure. It weaves through every facet of our business; the thrill of getting out and doing something exciting.

We’re not always talking about heading to the far-off lands of Iceland or trekking across the Gobi Desert - sometimes it’s a quick blast for an afternoon in the car or a visit to somewhere you find interesting. It’s all adventure, and we love it.

We’re contacted often and plentifully by people wanting stuff for free under the guise of “influencing” others. Most of the time we politely decline, for there’s no real genuine interest there for us, or our brand; just a way to fill social feeds with content, generating more “hype” around their own particular brand. Now and again however, we do the contacting.

We ask people to take our watches on adventures. The only exchange is photographs to show us where our watches have travelled to.

One such exchange was with a photographer called David McConaghy who creates beautiful photographs, sometimes with drones, and each frame tells tales of adventure. Dave and his pal were heading out on a quick trip with a Royal Enfield as a companion, from

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London to the south coast. His pal’s classic motorcycle happened to have a black and gold colour scheme, and thus the Haskell Black Edition would be the perfect partner in crime.

Over the day trip, despite the Royal Enfield not playing ball a number of times, the boys made it to the coast and back whilst gathering some cracking photographs along the way. We love this style of photography, with a documentary feel and compelling scenery. That our Black Edition fitted so beautifully with this classic bike makes the photographs even better.

If you’re planning an epic adventure or a weekend excursion and happen to be a dab hand at the camera pointing, then give us a shout with your ideas and we might very well take you up on the offer. @davemaccy instagram

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HASKELL Sand - £745

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Yerupaja Sur, Siula Grande, 20813 ft / 6344 m, and Sarapo, from left, Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru, South America

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P

art of what made university so enjoyable for me was the multitude of ways to burn time - whether that was procrastination, drinking or partying - unfortunately something I did quite a lot of. But I also managed to do other things, like meander down to the vast shopping complex to see what was on offer. Not that I could do anything about it, for money, as a student, was a novel concept.

I studied at the University of Dundee, making good use of the Duncan of Jordanstone building to learn about Innovative Product Design. It was a new course back then, with our class being the 2nd year to run through the programme. I struggled heavily with one aspect of the course, which was bogged down in hardcore physics. It made sense; how can you design and build a product if you don’t know how things interact with each other on a fundamental level. Coefficient of friction, shear modulus and other baffling, to me, concepts, each grounded in the understanding of material properties and ergonomics, of which I just couldn’t get a grasp on. It’s strange actually, for I didn’t have any problems with atomic structures or other physical principles, like work hardening, and the reasons why they are so important too. I guess it was a more visual concept for me to understand than formulaic.

For 3 years I struggled, stressed and feared as each exam result returned with a resounding “F” stamped on it, and it wasn’t until crunch time arrived that I found myself properly questioning what I was doing.

If I didn’t pass the next exam I would be rejected from the course and 3 years of work/play would have been for nothing. Why was this important to me? I just wanted to design interesting things. Why do I need this deep physics knowledge to do what I need to do?

The answer was that I didn’t really, but the course was young and the directors perhaps didn’t know either and therefore this exam, which had the potential to ruin my trajectory, was unnecessary but required.

They just wanted to make sure that they were offering every tool to their new students, but this part of the course has since been removed. If it wasn’t for a lecturer called Gareth, upon seeing me at the end of my rope, stepping in and directing me, a kind hand extended in a time of desperation, I would have been out on my heel. I passed, finally, and made it through to the final year, where I developed an automated and integrated system to deliver daily medication to those

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in isolation suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

It was a hard time for me, emotionally and mentally, but one thing that got me through was the regular trips to the local “FOPP” store. You may not have had these locally, but in Dundee there was one stationed inside the vast Overgate Centre, and it offered relatively inexpensive music, DVDs and books, often oblique and specialist. I would spend hours in there deliberating over which DVD to buy to take my mind off the physics drudge. One day in 2004, sifting methodically through the stacks of DVD boxes on the shelves, I found a red box. Back then most DVDs came in clear or black boxes, so this red box stood out a mile. I picked it up and studied the icy scene folded around the case. “Touching the Void” it was called.

I read the synopsis and thought it sounded pretty exciting, headed to the till, paid my discounted price and walked the mile back to my digs on Blackness Road. Anecdotally the student flat, within which the most time was burned, is now in the process of being razed to make way for a new housing development.

About time, I say.

Originally a book, Touching the Void was written by now ex-mountaineer turned successful writer Joe Simpson, about his experience in 1985 during a climb of Siula Grande, a remote and treacherously difficult mountain set deep in the Peruvian Andes.

Joe was with his friend Simon Yates, another expert mountaineer, and their goal was to reach the summit via the previously unclimbed West Face; a viciously complex and ultra-expert level ascent through the most difficult type of climbing imaginable. Despite some of what Joe and Simon say are the most challenging conditions they’ve experienced, they ascended successfully to the North Ridge and made it to the summit. They had achieved what they had set out to do - challenge themselves to the very limits of their abilities. Joe mentions that 80% of all climbing accidents occur in the descents, and as they made their way down, the weather closed in, and the climbers faced an incredibly dangerous situation. Joe, working his way around an ice face with his axes, found himself suddenly falling through the air, landing heavily on his right leg, sending his shin bone through his knee, shattering and splintering the bone and cartilage, destroying his leg and with it his hopes of making it off Siula Grande.

Despite the acceptance that Joe was going to die, Simon didn’t leave him, as expected or silently agreed.

He instead made a plan and worked with Joe to lower him down the remaining 3,000 feet, using two ropes tied together in the middle; a 300 foot descent with each double-length - something they’d have to repeat 10 times. It worked flawlessly and soon they found themselves almost at the bottom. Buoyed by their success through adversity, the two climbers dared to hope. They might just make it out of this alive.

During what was likely the 10th and final lowering, Joe found himself inexplicably suspended in air, dangling upside down from his rope, 15 feet below an overhanging drop. Simon had unsuspectingly lowered him off a sheer drop and now, with the knot tying the two lengths of rope together being on the wrong side of the belay plate, Simon was unable to get the knot unhooked and past this device. Joe remained the dead-weight at the end of the rope and Simon couldn’t do anything at all. He was stranded himself, perched perilously in disintegrating powder snow above Joe, the full weight of Joe’s body hanging from Simon’s harness. As the weather closed in and

frostbitten hands became inoperable, Simon made the difficult decision to cut the rope.

What happens next has gone down in legend as one of the most unlikely and impossible survivals ever to have been achieved in mountaineering before or since.

Joe plummeted into a deep, vast crevasse, and with Simon now heading back to basecamp, found himself alone, unable to escape and unable to walk or climb.

That he subsequently made it back to basecamp and then survived to not only tell the tale, but climb mountains again, write a book about his and Simon’s experience, have it made into an award winning and superbly documented film, and travel the world and enjoy his life, is one of the most incredible parts of the whole story. Despite Joe and Simon succeeding in climbing an unclimbable face, and somehow making it back to basecamp alive, the journey for Joe was only just beginning.

It was the film version of Joe’s book that introduced me to this tale of indescribable triumph in the very depths of adversity. Of course it must be noted that this was self-inflicted human struggle - no-one

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asked Joe and Simon to climb that mountain, but the fact remains; through a process of setting small incremental goals, timing himself and celebrating his successes at each point, Joe was able to work his way out of that crevasse, down through a vast and perilous glacier filled with more hidden crevasses and deep fissures, through the grinding, abrasive moraines at the base of Siula Grande and back to basecamp. Despite all that and it now being four days since Simon had made it back; with a leg shattered to bits, brutally painful and immovable, with nothing to eat or drink, Joe arrived at basecamp to find Simon and Richard Hawking, the basecamp one-man support crew, still camped. A miracle. After a few days of eating, drinking and resting, he was then transported via donkey to the nearest hospital and, after many operations and rehabilitation, survived to tell the tale.

Since first watching Touching the Void in 2004, I have since read the original book, as well as Joe’s other literary work. There’s something about the “Void” story and the way the film version was made, that keeps me coming back to it every now and then. It might seem daft but I’ve probably watched Touching the Void 30 or so times; I’m not obsessed or a hardcore Joe Simpson fan, but his story and the way it has been presented is such a strong source, for me, of positivity and mindfulness, of human spirit and endeavour, against unlikely odds. Joe made it out of what was, at almost every point, a fatal position, by setting himself small targets to hit and going full-force at each one. He could have easily let the improbability of his survival get the better of him,

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and no-one would have blamed him for succumbing.

Instead he compartmentalised his objectives. He set himself reduced, achievable goals, and using his “cheap watch” to time his efforts he would either celebrate them, or chastise himself for not hitting his target. By doing this, by not letting the scale of his challenge overwhelm him, and instead breaking it down into small manageable chunks, he was able to methodically work his way out of trouble. That, in essence, is what draws me to this story, especially in times of personal uncertainty, or even now, when we are facing a global crisis, to remember that if we set ourselves smaller, achievable goals, and put our whole effort behind them, that we can do it; we can make it out of this.

I watched Touching the Void again last night. It reminded me once more why I love the film, the story and the message so much. It reminded me of my struggles and how, if I had adopted the same mindset as Joe did when I was facing certain doom in my exams, that I might have made it through with more success or even with more understanding. I guess the time I first watched the film the message and undertone was lost on me, probably due to my immaturity at that point. It’s not lost now though, and I gain a lot of strength from Joe’s approach, setting myself smaller, more achievable goals, and giving everything to achieve them.

One thing that still surprises and delights me even now, which wasn’t possible back then, is the ability to communicate directly to the people themselves; with

Joe Simpson. I tweeted to Joe last night having just watched the film and said that watching Touching the Void was a life affirming experience. That if Joe could make it through that and out the other side intact, then almost anything is possible.

What I really meant is that it makes you feel lucky to be alive, to not be fighting for your life, like Joe had done, and happy that you don’t enjoy tackling the Siula Grande’s or Everest’s of this world as a hobby. I didn’t expect Joe to reply but maybe if he saw it, he might get a sense that this means something to me and, maybe, he might just get a little kick out of knowing his story still affects people. To my utter surprise, Joe tweeted me back!

“Not sure I’d like to try that again to be honest or feel confident about the outcome! Funnily enough one of the things that saved my life was a very cheap crappy watch. It gave me time and therefore structure and therefore discipline. It stopped working 3 weeks later...”

He followed with: “It is also only life affirming because I made it. I’m sure many friends we lost over the years tried just as hard and didn’t. I know it’s not just luck. I also know life deals very unexpected cards sometimes and you just have to play what you’ve been dealt and make luck happen”.

Joe is a source of inspiration, for me. I really wanted to tell him as much but didn’t want to come across as stupid or wanting anything from him. I just wanted to tell him that his story has affected me and continues to affect me still. Not just Joe’s story but the film itself. Some who have seen Touching the Void, directed by Kevin Macdonald, will note that the talking-heads interview sections are shot with Joe, Simon and Richard looking directly at the camera. It gives an incredible sense of the person talking directly to you, looking at you and offering their words to you specifically. I feel like I know Joe, even though I haven’t the first inclination of what he’s like as a person, outside of the Touching the Void bubble or through his other books. I have a sense of the man, but not who he really is. I guess in a way Joe is my hero, and you know what they say about meeting your heroes.

Anyway, I shoot all our interviews for MWC with the

subject looking directly at the camera. This is the reason why.

Joe replied to one more of my comments: “Reducing things to manageable increments. Sounds like business speak. It’s not. Have a plan and do what you think you can do to make it happen. If it works make another plan... ad infinitum... not pretty but it works... bottom line... don’t get in that sh*t in the first place”.

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Photos courtesy of Tom Hills & Laura Andre @traveltwo_

HASKELL Field Standard - £745

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SCAPA FLOW

COLBOST

CARBOST

MORAR

FORT WILLIAM DUNDEE

TOBERMORY

PERTH

GLENCOE

EDINBURGH

GLASGOW

GRETNA GREEN DERWENT CONISTON

CANNOCK CHASE

OXFORD HENLEY-ON-THAMES

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MARLOW

ROAD MAP MWC

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If you’ve always dreamed of Oliver, Gordon and Stephanie being your own personal tour guides- and who hasn’t - you’re in luck. Sit back, relax, and allow us to whisk you away on a magical tour of the places that inspire us, and our watch designs.

E

very Marloe watch is named after a body of water - primarily within Great Britain.

We have, to date, managed to create an ode in the form of a timepiece to quite a good percentage of the beautiful island we call home; from the South East of England to the North West of Scotland, with a part of Marloe Watch Company’s soul residing in many locations - but we are far from finished.

Over a wee tipple one evening, we got to wondering what the ultimate Marloe Watch Company road trip would look like; taking in all of the places which have inspired our watches, and adding in some stops to places that we love.

And thus, the Marloe Watch Company Roadmap was born. Whether you’d like to scope out some patches close to home or go on a full MWC pilgrimage, we hope it will inspire you to get exploring. This is, obviously, by no means an exhaustive guide to Great Britain - just a cherry-picked selection of places and activities which mean something to us, and therefore to Marloe Watch Company.

A logical starting point for a Marloe Watch Company roadmap is Marlow, where 50% of MWC originated.

Marlow is Oliver’s hometown, a particularly quaint

Georgian town nestled on the banks of the River Thames. It’s one of those places where you could easily spend weekend after weekend; enjoying a tipple in a gin bar, strolling along the river, taking in a free exhibition at the museum, and enjoying the range of boutique and independent shops which line the town’s picturesque streets. A particular highlight is Tom Kerridge’s The Hand and Flowers; the first pub to be awarded not one, but two Michelin stars. We’re big eaters here at Marloe, and Kerridge’s team create what we deem easily the best food in this patch. What makes the Hand and Flowers special is that, while it’s a double Michelin-starred restaurant, it’s completely laid back, welcoming, and down-to-earth. Working with local, seasonal ingredients and cooking them with respect, skill and imagination leads to utterly delicious results. It’s easy to assume that a celebrity-chef owned venue would be over-hyped, but The Hand and Flowers is truly worth splashing out on for a special meal; worth every penny.

Keeping it local, we head from the origin town of Marloe Watch Company to the place where the very first Marloe watch was inspired by; Oxford. In many ways, Oxford needs no introduction; it’s largely recognised as one of the most beautiful, historic and iconic cities in the world, renowned for its prestigious university - the oldest university in the English-

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Radcliffe Camera, Oxford, viewed from the University Church

speaking world - and home to every style of English architecture from Anglo-Saxon onwards. Upon arrival in Oxford, you could be forgiven for thinking that you’ve entered Hogwarts or a Charles Dickens novel; every turn in this incredible city brings a new panorama of jaw-dropping architecture, incredibly quaint streets, historic monuments and places of diverse interest nestled among a hugely varied range of restaurants, bars, shops and accommodation.

Meandering slowly through the city is the River Cherwell; a name that will be familiar to those who have been with us from the beginning. Flowing South through Oxfordshire for 40 miles, it meets the Thames in Oxford, and plays a major part in punting; a familiar, and very English boating scene which one can take in from Magdalen Bridge. Expert punters use their poles to guide these narrow boats in and out of their docks, transporting loved-up couples, students, tourists and history-lovers alike along the tranquil river Cherwell in the most peaceful of ways.

You can have a go at taking your own boat out, minus the expert, if you like; that really gives the onlookers up on the bridge something to laugh about. It was on one of these boats that Oliver had the moment

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of inspiration that led to the development of Marloe Watch Company’s very first watch; The Cherwell.

On the caseback of the Cherwell watch, should you be the owner of one, you can see the words of renowned British author, poet and scholar, C.S. Lewis subtly engraved. Lewis studied at Oxford University and, along with close friend and fellow novelist J.R.R. Tolkien, was active in the informal Oxford literary group The Inklings. It’s worth popping in to the Eagle and Child (or Bird and Baby as it’s affectionately known to locals) where they used to while away the evenings, hiding Tolkien’s ring and telling him a small creature had taken it.

There are endless ways to spend an enjoyable day, week, or lifetime, in Oxford. A particular favourite of ours is to explore the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Probably one of the most strangely yet satisfyingly laid-out museums, and completely free to explore, it’s a veritable Aladdin’s cave of rows upon rows of large cabinets, entitled - among hundreds of others options - ‘Tahitian Mourning Clothes’, ‘’Inuit Parkas’, ‘Shrunken Heads’... you get the idea. Inside each cabinet is, as promised, a huge array of said item, with beautifully hand-written labels (make sure you take

your glasses) gathered from collections around the world into this one, beautiful building in Oxford. From ancient carvings and horrifying medical instruments from days past, to well-loved toys from around the world and musical instruments, there’s something to suit every interest - no matter how niche - and every age group. This typological arrangement of things - over 600,000 things, in fact - encourages global cross-cultural reflection and is a true celebration of human creativity and individuality through the ages.

The Pitt Rivers Museum is very helpfully attached to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, which is another fascinating place to roam - you can hug a bear, touch a dinosaur’s skeleton, and explore an incredible array of fauna and flora among a - very typically for Oxford - awe-inspiring architectural setting.

know that - if we are to do things in the right and proper chronological and geographical order - our next logical stop would be Derwentwater; the very place where our Derwent collection was born. But Derwentwater is a solid four-and-a-half hour drive north from Oxford, and if you’re anything like us which you can interpret to mean either laden with young children, excessively hungry all the time, or requiring of a frequent leg stretch - that length of drive would require at least one stop for refreshments and a mini adventure. A suggested location for such a pitstop would be the Trentham Estate; a vast, sprawling stately home with sweeping landscaped gardens by Capability Brown, labyrinths, lakes, and - rather unusually - a forest full of 140 free-ranging Barbary macaque monkeys. It’s a very child-friendly stop, with plenty of options for eating, drinking and the stretching of legs.

Onward For those of you familiar with our earlier range, you’ll

If you’re looking for something a little more ‘offthe-beaten-track’, Cannock Chase is a great option.

Britain’s smallest mainland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Cannock Chase is an idyllic setting laden with leisurely walks and cycle tracks and is known for its rolling hills, purple heather and miles of quiet woodland routes to explore.

Once you’ve taken in a plentiful amount of fresh air, stunning scenery and history, it’s time to get back in the car and head North. And so, onwards, to the Lake District; home to two of Marloe Watch Company’s best known collections; the Derwent, and the Coniston.

Alpenglow on High Crags as seen from the River Derwent

Coniston Water is the first logical stop. The Lake District covers an immense amount of ground, and there’s very little of it which we wouldn’t recommend visiting; but if you’re short of time, taking a drive around some key locations is a great way to take in the beauty of this area and ensuring that you can make some crucial pit stops. A recommended, 42-mile route uses the South Lakes village of Coniston as a starting point; making your way through the stunning Langdale Valley before hitting the ear-popping altitudes of Hardknott and Wrynose mountain passes.

Back on lower ground, head through the wonderfully remote Eskdale and Duddon valleys before finishing your epic journey with views of Coniston Water on your right. This is where the Campbell family - Sir Malcolm, and his son Donald - set numerous water

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take one out for a putter around the water and to the islands; it’s a lovely way to take in the stunning scenery.

North of the Wall

Sunset over Coniston Water

speed records, inspiring generations of thrill-seekers in their Bluebird boats, as well as inspiring the Coniston collection from Marloe Watch Company; including the iconic Coniston Bluebird, and the Coniston Speed Edition.

Derwentwater lies about an hour’s drive to the North of Coniston Water. Conveniently situated just next to the town of Keswick, this stunning stretch of water is studded with islands and surrounded by sweeping woodlands and fells. It’s on the muddy banks of one particular section of Derwentwater that Oliver and Gordon stumbled upon the old pressure gauge which inspired the Derwent Gauge; one of the four beautiful, 60s inspired timepieces that made up Marloe’s second watch collection, the Derwent.

Designed by Sidney Brannan, the pressure gauge may have been used in a boat, aircraft or industrial machinery - but it certainly hadn’t travelled far, as it was made locally. The Brannan family continue to run their business from the banks of Derwentwater, so a trip here always feels particularly special for us.

If trawling through mud for abandoned mechanical instruments isn’t your thing - which is fair enough - there are a variety of pleasure boats available to

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And now, to the true North; to Scotland. A mere hours drive from Derwentwater is Gretna Green; one of the most popular wedding destinations in the world. While this could easily be attributed to the surrounding beauty, the majestic atmosphere, the air of inspiration and joviality which envelopes you the second you cross the border into Scotland, the distant sound of bagpipes echoing over the hills (OK, we’ll calm down), it’s actually purely down to the fact that, following the 1754 Marriage Act which prevented couples under the age of 21 marrying in England or Wales without parental consent, it became the closest Scottish village to the English-Scottish border where young English or Welsh love-struck couples could be married. The famous Blacksmiths Shop in Gretna Green became a make-shift wedding venue, and to this day, it’s one of the most popular places in the world for a wedding; both for British people, and those from far and wide across the globe seeking a romantic elopement. It’s a lovely place to stop and soak up the atmosphere; with centuries of love stories played out in this tiny village, there’s a real air of romance.

Just up the road from Gretna Green, there’s one of the first tests of your Scottish pronunciation skills; Ecclefechan. Pronouncing the Scottish ‘ch’ sound will become more and more important the further North we go, so take the opportunity to practice now before we hit our first Loch. Heaven forbid you should pass through Auchtermuchty, Auchenshuggle or Achaglachgach before you master it! Ecclefechan is home to a particularly delicious and unhealthy treat named the Ecclefechan tart; much like a mince pie, but with more butter. There’s also a local whiskey, a true welcome to Scotland, called The Fechan - it’s worth seeking out a ‘wee nip’ if you aren’t designated driver. Once you’ve had a little taste of Scotland, and mastered your pronunciation (the whiskey will help with that), there’s the choice of an easy hour’s drive North to Glasgow, or just under two hours North East to Edinburgh.

Glasgow and Edinburgh are engaged in a long-

standing battle for the title of Best Scottish City; ask any Scottish person, and they’ll generally have a preference for one or the other. In our humble opinion, comparing them is like comparing cheese and chocolate; they’re very different, and we want both of them, a lot of the time. Tourists tend to prioritise visiting Edinburgh, due to its capital city status and incredibly dramatic and beautiful castle.

Trying to choose places to stop on a road trip North through Scotland is nigh on impossible; from here on out, our suggestion is to take the opportunity to wee whenever you can, stock up the car with snacks, stop absolutely anywhere where you see a Viewpoint sign, and don’t be afraid to drive towards somewhere that catches your interest. Brown tourism signs abound, directing one to anything from whiskey distilleries to

Forth Bridge from West Bay at North Queensferry

There aren’t many places in the world where you can watch a purple sunset (something which I have only seen regularly while living in Edinburgh) burning above an ancient castle, perched atop a huge volcanic rock, while sipping on a cocktail in a modern rooftop cocktail bar. You can in Edinburgh. That said, Glasgow is a true culture capital; a place where nobody takes themselves too seriously, the patter is top-notch, and live music, art, awe-inspiring architecture and a vibrant eating and drinking scene collide in a gloriously chaotic way. Whichever you decide to visit (and we strongly recommend both) be prepared to fall in love with the unique souls of both cities. It’s worth allowing a few days in either base; even they will afford you the time only to discover the tip of the iceberg.

From either city, the onwards journey begins to look a little wilder. We suggest heading towards Glencoe.

wildlife parks to historic ruins, lochs and waterfalls to hidden villages and wild coastlines. Take the journey as it comes, and give yourself time to truly explore.

Even if sticking solely to the A82 out of Glasgow without diversion, the most direct route North to Glencoe, within the two-hour drive you will skirt the magnificent Loch Lomond, passing through the Trossachs National Park, and taking in the utterly awe-inspiring scenery from the comfort of your car.

The Lomond Chronoscope, perhaps one of our most sorely-missed retired collections, was inspired by this patch; many a journey out west to visit relatives took Gordon along the banks of Loch Lomond. When the Rest and Be Thankful arrived, he knew he’d soon be arriving in the best place on Earth.

It’s quite normal to pass cars pulled up on grassy verges, their drivers standing with mouths agape at the mountain vistas stretching out before them, or

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Road leading to the base of Buachaille Etive Mòr, then Glencoe

perhaps observing the roaming herds of red deer, or - if you’re lucky - spotting something as special as a Golden Eagle soaring high above the ever-changing colourscapes of mountainside, heather, rock and river. Join these drivers; stop frequently, take photos, breathe deeply, and enjoy the wilderness as you enter the Scottish Highlands.

Glencoe village itself is located within the aweinspiring Lochaber Geopark; known as the Outdoor Capital of the UK. The deep valley and the towering mountains of Glen Coe, carved out centuries ago by icy glaciers and volcanic explosions, are one of the most iconic views in Scotland. Driving along the sweeping roads, passing by the foot of intimidatingly wild mountains, it’s easy to see why this location was selected for many movies; including the Harry Potter series and James Bond’s Skyfall. The road in and out of Glencoe takes you through the very heart of an ancient volcano; it’s otherworldly, and a must-do on any respectable Scottish road trip.

From Glencoe, there’s less than an hour’s drive, skirting round the Eastern shore of Loch Eil, with Ben Nevis looming to the East and passing through Fort William - which is a convenient pit-stop for refreshments - until you reach the Glenfinnan Viaduct. Again, if you’re a Harry Potter fan, you’ll

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immediately recognise this view - but whether you’re a fan or not, seeing the Jacobite steam train - or the ‘Hogwarts Express’ - cross this magnificent viaduct amid breathtaking scenery is quite something. Check the Jacobite timetable in advance to ensure that you’re safely installed and parked up - we suggest parking at the Glenfinnan Visitor Center carpark - in plenty of time to make your way to one of the numerous viewpoints to see the Jacobite chug its way across the viaduct. You can, of course, get closer to the action by riding the Jacobite train itself, and there are short cruises available from Glenfinnan to take in Harry Potter filming locations and the history of the area from the water.

You’re now less than an hour away from Loch Morar; the deepest body of freshwater in the British Isles, and the very one that inspired our first dive watch.

The loch itself is incredibly long, fed with fresh water from the mountains that surround it, and is jawdroppingly beautiful.

One inhabitant has traversed the ages and remains to this day a mystery; Morag, as she’s affectionately known, is believed to have lived in this loch for centuries. It is said that Morag is around 30 feet long, with rough skin and three dorsal humps, and we can’t help but be enamoured by this creature of folklore.

A potential comfort break could be Swordland Lodge, on the northern shore of the loch, which was used for training during the Second World War by the Special Operations Executive - an organisation formed by the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations with a purpose to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe. It doesn’t get more James Bond than that.

A mere 5 minutes up the road from Morar is Mallaig; a beautiful harbour town, and the main fishing port of the West Coast of Scotland. There are a few patches in Scotland where people still speak some Gaelic alongside English, and this is one of them. It’s a beautiful, lilting language which is sadly being lost through underuse; to hear it being spoken is a rare treat. Although it’s a worthy stop in its own right, Mallaig is also the gateway to some of the most special parts of Scotland; the islands. You can take a ferry to Skye, Rumm, Eigg, Muck, or Canna from Mallaig and every one of them is worth visiting. We would suggest starting with Skye; its wild, unchained beauty is ethereal and enchanting no matter what the weather, and the island is easily explored by car and by foot. Make sure, if you do visit, that you spend some time with the Old Man of Storr; created by an ancient landslide, these incredible formations of rock are visible for miles around and are one of the most heavily photographed landscapes in the world. There’s some great eating to be done on Skye too; the Three

Chimneys has a reputation for being one of the best restaurants in Scotland, making the most of the rich bounty which the land and sea around Skye provides, and using techniques from ancient Nordic and haute Scottish cuisine. If you’re looking for something a little more rustic while you’re out and about during the day, you’ll find most roadside cafés, pubs and stands sell exceptional seafood; from fish and chips to locally caught mussels, lobster and crab.

Skye is fringed with stunning beaches; often completely empty, affording stunning views out to the seas and its neighbouring islands. Carbost, towards the west of the island, is home to the Talisker distillery; where the world famous Talisker whiskey is made. Rich and rugged, enjoying a dram of this amber nectar will truly give you a taste of Scotland, and in particular, the Isle of Skye.

The stunning beach nearby, at Talisker Bay, seems an appropriate place for us to part ways, dear reader; clearing one’s head on the sandy beach, with a wild wind whipping around us as we gaze out across the glimmering Atlantic. Thank you for coming with us on this whistle-stop tour of a very small percentage of our magnificent island. We haven’t created any watches inspired by locations this far North, yet.

There’s something quite inspiring about the Atlantic though, don’t you think…?

Glenfinnan Viaduct

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Sunrise over the Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye, Scotland

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CONISTON Speed Edition - £299

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STRAIT

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&

NARROW Our little memory vessels are going places we never dreamed they’d go. One such place is the Antarctic; the spiritual home of the Haskell. Paul Scott, a Haskell wearer, decided the time was right to visit this formidable place.

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e speak often about a watch’s ability to be a conduit for creating and sharing memories. There’s an inherent property with something you wear, or someone you love wears, that allows that object to become a pathway to memory banks and stories that, without this gateway “thing”, would remain untapped and untouched. It’s one of our favourite parts of the whole process; the fact our watches are travelling to far-off places, attached to people who have put faith in them to travel with. Sometimes we get feedback from these travellers; where they’ve been recently or what they’ve seen. Often they’ll have photos and stories to share. Recently we caught up with one such adventurer and loved hearing what he had to say about a place we’ve long looked at, but never been to The Antarctic.

Paul is a regular joe, much like you or me. He spends his days as an IBM consultant and one day, two years ago, decided that it was time for a trip of a lifetime.

He booked his tickets and prepared to set sail; first step - get to Buenos Aires

The major take away though was the need to act now to save places like Antarctica from the effects of climate change.

As far as holiday destinations go, the Canary Islands or the South of France are big hits. Yet there you were, setting a rather more adventurous destination - what made you want to go to such a remote part of the world?

I think I’ve always been captivated by the idea of visiting Antarctica. As a teenager I had a bit of a fascination with ice (for some reason I always had massive icebergs as my computer wallpaper) and the David Attenborough episodes in Antarctica

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and the Arctic always caught my imagination with the harshness and bleakness of it all. I was always amazed that anything could survive in those types of environments. It always felt to me like Antarctica was the last real wilderness on earth, and that held a certain kind of appeal. With the increasing impact of climate change I was also keen to see it in its natural form before it changed dramatically or even disappeared, so that definitely moved the timelines up a bit.

I actually booked the trip two years ago at the start of 2018 as it is seriously expensive and the best trips get snapped up quickly. When I told my colleague Serena about the adventure she mentioned it to her son Leo and he asked if I could take one of his favourite Lego pieces with me, to take some photos. In the end Lara the Lego became a big hit on the trip - I printed off all the photos of Lara exploring Antarctica and posted them back to Leo with descriptions of where they’d been taken.

Back in 1910, the Terra Nova sailed from Cardiff, taking a long and dangerous journey to reach the Antarctic. We imagine today it’s a bit different a prospect, and yet the realities of getting to such a remote place can’t be easy? What was it like knowing you were heading to the vast bleakness of Antarctica?

The fastest route by ship to the Antarctic Peninsula takes 2.5 days sailing from Ushuaia in Argentina and covers about 1,000 kilometers in distance. On the crossing of the Drake Passage the ship is circled by various types of Albatross and Giant Petrels, with more variety of birds as you reach the peninsula and land is nearby. You start to encounter icebergs around the South Shetland Islands and then finally penguins (Gentoo, Adele, Chinstrap etc.) once you get closer to Antarctica. When you’re on land surrounded by penguins tootling up and down the mountains in their ‘penguin highways’ to feed themselves and their young, it really is a special experience.

It’s hard to describe just how incredible the mountains, glaciers and icebergs are close-up. The scale of everything is on another level. One night we camped on the shore, sleeping in bivvy bags, and were sleeping about five metres away from 20 penguins and three or four Weddell seals, with humpback whales circling

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the bay. Watching the sun rise at 4am (technically it doesn’t really go down) was pretty amazing. On the way home we also saw a family of orcas, which was definitely one for the bucket list.

What does a trip to the Antarctic entail - are there many people with the same adventurous quality as you?

The trip from start to finish felt like a proper adventure - any destination that involves 2-3 days by sea just to get there has to be something special.

There were just over 100 people travelling on our ship and it was a real pleasure getting to know everyone - there was such a variety of nationalities, ages and backgrounds on-board that gave the entire trip a fantastic atmosphere. Also having to share a room with 3 strangers in a double bunk bed cabin on a boat for 12 days was certainly an experience!

standards, pretty basic provisions. What things did you take away from having visited such a unique place?

The first take away from the trip was that Antarctica is breathtakingly beautiful and if you’ve ever considered going, just do it. You will not regret it.

The major take away though was the need to act now to save places like Antarctica from the effects of climate change. The expert guides on the trip highlighted on many occasions how the ice covering the mountaintops was clearly diminishing, and also how the melting of just a few glaciers would cause significant sea level rises and changes to global weather patterns. To see this close-up was certainly an eye opener.

Lastly, the other big lesson learnt is that penguins really, really, really stink. Cute, but stinky!

We’ve pored over your photos and wondered what it must be like to stand in that environment, what Captain Scott must have felt with, by modern

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Do you think that you’ll head off on any more trips of a lifetime?

Absolutely! Once global travel is actually possible again the next big trip for me will be to Africa which is the last continent for me to visit. I’m looking at going on a gorilla trek in Uganda followed by a safari in Kenya. I remember watching some of the David Attenborough series in the early 2000s on the Masai Mara and the great wildebeest migration. If I can visit Kenya and see it with my own two eyes I’ll be ecstatic!

There is also a slightly more unusual trip I’m considering which is dog-sledding in Mongolia across a giant frozen lake, where you have to take care of your very own husky pack for 8-10 days. It looks both insane and incredible, so that’s also on the to-do list.

----Paul mentioned climate change and the reduction of snow and ice in the Antarctic. It’s such a hot topic and one that demands addressing, yet for some reason doesn’t get a justified reaction to combat the effects of global warming. It’s such a frightening prospect to consider the impact we’re having on environments

thousands of miles away from our daily lives.

As we trudge through the Coronovirus pandemic and assess, in real time, the worldwide impact of the lack of air traffic, city pollution and ocean crowding, we are seeing that nature is already starting to repopulate areas long since devoid of nature - canals in Venice suddenly have fish swimming in the watery streets and dolphins are making their way to shores previously deserted. It’s incredible to think how quickly mother nature retakes her planet if humans, and their destructive ways of living, are removed. There must be positives in such a negative time, and we can only hope that the stark reality of the pre and post COVID-19 world makes the biggest offenders of global warming take note, and more crucially, take action.

Paul was chatting with Gordon and graciously provided some incredible photos of his trip. His travelling companions, Scott Schenkelberg and Alvaro Coullaut, took the photos included in this article. We would like to thank them all for contributing to this edition of MWCQ.

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MAINSPRING

POWER INPUT FROM CROWN

MAINSPRING BARREL

MINUTE WHEEL

2nd WHEEL / CENTRE WHEEL

HOUR WHEEL CANON PINION

3rd WHEEL - INTERMEDIARY

4th WHEEL - SECONDS

ESCAPE WHEEL

PALETTE FORK / LEVER

BALANCE WHEEL BALANCE SPRING

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EDUCATION STATION

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hat do all those cogs do? It’s a common question, especially with the Coniston, from customers who are seeing a mechanical movement for the first time. We designed the Coniston to make the case-back as impressive as it could be, with a carefully chosen crystal for its magnification properties, and a construction that promotes the movement, visually, from the case. We think it worked out beautifully and the Coniston caseback is a design we’re very proud of.

But, what do all those cogs do?

A mechanical movement is a feat of engineering and skill. To simplify things, as illustrated opposite, we’ve shown a linear version of everything that’s inside your standard 3-hander mechanical movement, like the Coniston, Haskell, Morar, Cherwell and Derwent. The Lomond and other movements with “complications” as they’re coined, have a few more moving parts to control these additional functions.

So let’s start with the power, the main source of what makes your watch work. The power for a mechanical watch is stored inside what’s called the mainspring barrel. This is a capsule inside which rests a length of spring steel… Born in the USA! No, spring steel, which is called the mainspring. This is wound around a central core which, when coiled tightly, provides the potential energy to power your watch. But what happens when you release that potential energy and convert it to kinetic energy? Without anything to stop the mainspring barrel from spinning, it would whizz around uncoiling itself within a few seconds and come to a stop. Not very useful for telling the time in the afternoon. So what the other wheels attached to the mainspring do is regulate the release of the mainspring’s energy, with a very strict set of parameters and calculations to allow it to keep time accurately as the energy is released. So, as you see, the mainspring barrel has the 2nd wheel meshing with a pinion on its underside. The 2nd wheel in turn has the 3rd wheel meshing with it, and so on.

Every wheel has a set ratio to allow each wheel to

turn at a specific rate. Where this gets interesting is when we attach hands to these wheels, allowing us to see these set ratios and rotational rates as visual indicators. The 2nd wheel has some other wheels attached above it, which allows us, through the use of a few more wheels and pinions, to attach the hour and minute hands centrally on the watch dial. As the mainspring unwinds, and with it the turning of each of these subsidiary wheels, we can see visually the hands rotating and thus know what the time is. Very nice! But, how do we make sure that these wheels are all turning at a rate that matches up with the internationally recognised standard of time!?

At the bottom of the illustration you’ll see the balance wheel - this is the most visually striking component of a watch movement, for it is bouncing back and forth very fast. It looks spectacular, and is the area of the movement that regulates the release of the mainspring’s energy. It does this using a palette fork and escape wheel, or together what’s called the “escapement”. The palette fork is swung back and forth by a small peg on the underside of the balance wheel, which in turn meshes either of the palette fork’s 2 jewels (the small pink blocks) with the escape wheel’s teeth. As the palette fork swings, the jewels hit one of the escape wheel’s teeth, moving each wheel in turn all the way back to the mainspring barrel. Each swing of the palette fork is incredibly small, but when you consider that the palette fork swings back and forth 8 times a second, this tiny rotational movement soon adds up. This interface between palette fork jewels and the escape wheel teeth is what gives us the beautiful beating noise we so love about mechanical watches.

The final part of the watch movement is the powering up of the mainspring barrel’s energy, and that is where you come in. By rotation of the crown, which in turn, through the keyless works, turns the mainspring barrel, you impart your energy into the watch allowing it to burst into life and show you the time of day. How absolutely wonderful is that?

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MAINSPRING BARREL

KEYLESS WORKS

POWER INPUT FROM CROWN

4th WHEEL

3rd WHEEL

PALLET FORK / LEVER ESCAPE WHEEL

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MIYOTA 8N33 USED IN THE CONISTON RANGE

BALANCE SPRING BALANCE WHEEL

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WHAT’S NEXT ?

CERTAIN UNCERTAINTY If one thing is for certain when it comes to next steps for Marloe, it’s uncertainty. The climate that the global pandemic has created is one of unknowns - for us, this means production and assembly lines being put on hold indefinitely, events and exhibitions being delayed or cancelled, and our best laid plans being rescheduled, monitored, and continually assessed.

However, even with uncertainty looming over us, we’ve never been more excited about what’s to come.

In 2017 we launched our first ever Chronoscope in the Lomond, and this year, best laid plans pending, we will be releasing its successor - the Atlantic. With final prototypes winging their way over to us we’re on the verge of signing off what is to be one of our most exciting collections to date, featuring the magnificent Seiko NE88 automatic movement, and two distinctive styles across four models, the Atlantic has the presence and purpose of the Lomond’s older brother.

Meanwhile, we’ve been busily working on a very unique project. When it comes to designing a case, we always endeavour to produce something different, individual, exciting - and we believe we’ve done just that. A case that will run across multiple collections

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but take a different form in each - with multiple sizes, finishes and design elements. We can’t give away too much more just yet, but watch this space.

We’ll also, hopefully, be attending some events this year in a new and rather exciting guise - more to come on that in the next edition - and we’ll let you know as and when these events, if these events, are confirmed. We’d love to meet you there and chat watches, and John Muir! We might even be able to show you a prototype or two, if that would be of interest?

And finally, something that we’ve been quietly squirrelling away on for a while now. Even before we launched Marloe, we’d been eager and determined to bring elements of manufacturing and assembly to the UK, and we’re now on the verge of taking our first step into that world. If all goes well, and there are many ifs and buts, especially at this delicate time, we will be assembling one of our new collections here in Perth, Scotland. Bringing such a traditional and skilled process to British shores has been a huge goal of ours, and by the end of this year the fruits of our labour should hopefully be available to you all.

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t the turn of the year we hit the ground running - by the end of January we were already moved and settled into our new premises in Perth, Scotland. Granted, the new record player hadn’t arrived, and the coffee table was still being cut, smoothed and waxed, but we were in. Henley-on-Thames had treated us fantastically well for the first three years and we’re already reflecting on what a beautiful spot we had, but this is only outweighed by the excitement of building the Marloe brand here in Perthshire.

Little did we know in January that our move north was going to be followed by what we now know is a global pandemic. A hugely dramatic turn of events that has impacted all of us. Thankfully, having run MWC remotely from one another for over four years now, we’re experienced in making it work as effectively as being in the same room as one another. Marloe has continued to operate throughout March, and fully intends to keep doing so.

Just like any other business, we’ve had to put strict guidelines in place to create a safe working environment, and to ensure we abide by the new social distancing recommendations by the

government. We’ve reduced daily contact with the outside world - for example, we now only ship on a Friday, and thus daily interactions with our courier partner are now weekly - and we’re developing our supply chain to overcome production and assembly delays. We have hurdles like every other business around the world, but we are determined to clear each and every one of them.

As per the theme for this, the 2nd Edition of MWCQ, adventures come in many shapes and sizes - you don’t need to climb Everest to go on one. We’re on an adventure of our very own - navigating a rocky environment, overcoming difficult and challenging conditions, and enduring an ever-changing climate, but we won’t buckle and we won’t fold, as Ernest Shackleton once said “Difficulties are just things to overcome.”

Keep safe and well everyone, and from all of us here at MWC, thank you for your support.

To the future, and whatever it may hold.

Oliver, Gordon & Stephanie

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QUARTERLY - EDITION 02

Photos courtesy of Tom Hills & Laura Andre - @traveltwo_