MK II WATCHES
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The Company:
The first company of our kind we have been building custom tool-watches since 2002. We began by customizing other brands with solid reputations, earning our own reputation for quality, craftsmanship and design excellence in the process. Mk II now offers an exclusive line of customizable and Swiss Made watches that embody our philosophy of utility and vintage styling. Inspired by a small group of watch collector's that modified otherwise unserviceable vintage watches into their own custom creations, Mk II was born with the goal to offer custom watches at a mass produced price. The word "custom" normally carries with it two concepts 1) premium pricing and 2) uniqueness (i.e. irreplaceable). Our difference is that our custom watches, while unique, are affordable and replaceable. We want our watches to be affordable and replaceable in order to give our customers the freedom to use Mk II timepieces for the purposes for which they were designed. Our Swiss Made Mk II watches offer the same quality found in our custom collection but without the long lead times. This collection is made available to those that prefer the traditional interpretation of our designs. These Swiss Made watches are featured at a growing but select number of dealers around the world. "Mk II/Mk 2/Mark 2" has been used by military organizations to designate the second generation or iteration of a tool, piece of equipment, or weapons platform. Our trademark, Mk II, embodies our dedication to utilitarianism, reliability, and re-styling/reviving vintage tool watch designs for modern applications (a second generation of that design, if you will). The name Mk II also summarizes our endeavor to bring the ultimate design of a personal timepiece closer to the end-user than has ever been possible. Each person relates to time differently and in those critical situations where clear/concise timekeeping is paramount we believe a timepiece should be adapted to the user, just like a quality tool is tailored to a craftsman, artisan, or marksman. Philosophy: Our collection of vintage styled products pay tribute to some of the most distinguished tool-watch designs manufactured. Each design centers around four factors: • Utility: This has always been a key foundation for our work because the one thing that vintage watches don't offer any more is utility. Vintage watches usually have several issues centering around materials, design, and their age. The materials used in watches have either seen great advancements over the years or several key materials have been replaced where experience demonstrated that they were not ideally suited to the task. A notable example is the usage of brass and Bakelite as case materials in the past. The screw-down crown was not always seen as a necessary design feature for water resistance and in many vintage dive watches it is notably absent. Now it is regarded as a required feature for a dive watch. We apply current manufacturing methods and materials with the goal in mind of producing a watch the way it might have been done if the original manufacturer had access to modern technology and the benefit of hindsight. • Cross compatibility: Our watches, dial and hand designs have been manufactured to offer cross compatibility to maximize customization. The only limitation we place on ourselves in this regard is that the final design still must be true to the spirit of the orignal design. Our current collection of custom timepieces can be configured anywhere from several hundred to several thousand different iterations depending upon how fully developed the collection of parts currently is. • Vintage styling: Vintage design is at the core of our collection because that is what I have always been drawn to in my own collecting and as a personal style. The word "styling" is important to note because we interpret vintage designs. Each of our pieces are created with respect for and to pay tribute to the original. We always add our own signature to vintage designs so that our products will not find a place in the black market for counterfeits. • Swiss and Swiss Made quality: Each of our products undergoes an exhaustive inspection regimen before delivery to our customers. Where most of our competition inspects a small sample of each batch, relying on statistics to give them an acceptable probability of failure, Mk II checks each and every watch and component individually. Each of our watch cases is test no less than 3 times for water resistance. At each stage of the assembly process the watch is checked and re-checked. Our Swiss Made watches are assembled by one of the leading companies in Switzerland using the same quality components found in our custom watches. Whether the watch is a custom piece assembled in the US or a Swiss Made piece the assembly is done entire by hand and each piece is tested individually for water resistance and timed in 6 positions. A reputation built on an unrelenting commitment to quality is why our work is favored by LEOs, soldiers, diplomatic security agents, divers, exacting collectors and others that require hard-use tool watches. It is also why our watches have been to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other equally pleasant locales. |
