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The Business of Watches [034] Inside Lorier Watches' Acquisition With Lorenzo Ortega And Blake Malin

Published on Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Lorier Co-Founder Lorenzo Ortega and Worn & Wound's CEO Blake Malin join us to chat about their recently announced deal.

Synopsis

In this episode of The Business of Watches, host Andy Hoffman announces breaking news: Worn and Wound, the influential watch media company and event operator, is acquiring Laurier Watches, an independent micro-brand founded in 2017. Blake Mallon, CEO of Worn and Wound, and Lorenzo Ortega, creative director and co-founder of Laurier, discuss the details of this acquisition.

Lorenzo explains how Laurier was built from a passion for vintage watches, aiming to make that aesthetic accessible and affordable. Despite financial success—producing 5,000-6,000 watches annually—he and his wife Lauren were overwhelmed by the operational demands of running the business alone, handling everything from QC and photography to customer service and fulfillment. Blake describes how the two companies developed a friendship over years of collaboration through editorial coverage and Windup watch fairs, and how the acquisition emerged organically from conversations about Laurier's future. Worn and Wound's existing infrastructure in e-commerce, fulfillment, and customer service will allow Laurier to scale while Lorenzo focuses on creative direction. The discussion touches on maintaining editorial independence, serving existing brand partners equitably, and the vibrant, growing American watch community that has fueled both companies' success.

Transcript

Speaker
Andy Hoffman Welcome to the Business of Watches, the Hodiki podcast, where we go behind the scenes and talk to the executives and the players who are making things tick. I'm your host, Andy Hoffman. Today we have some breaking news and interesting transaction in the watch world. We are joined by Blake Mallon, who is the co-founder and CEO of Warn and Wound. As well, we're also joined by Lorenzo Ortega. Lorenzo is the co-founder and creative director for Laurier Watches. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us on the business of watches. Thanks
Blake Mallon for having us. Thank you so much for having us. And
Andy Hoffman so our news here is that Laurier, which is a brand that's been around since I think about 2017, is being acquired by Warren Wound. So this is, I guess it's fair to say, sort of a first for both of you. Lorenzo, let's start with you. I mean, tell us about Laurier and the journey that that uh that brand has been on and then how we got here.
Lorenzo Ortega Sure. Uh well we started out we started out of a love for vintage watches. And when we started they had already that market had already exploded. And we had this idea that well the the idea of a vintage watch should be something more accessible. Something that doesn't require, you know, five figures to enter and something that should be enjoyable. And so the idea it was to make a watch that felt like it came out of the time machine and that you could use like a watch that people used back in the sixties. Just like unpretentious, and you could just, you know, like people know but they're submarinors and that was cool. And so now you can do that with a Laurier. And uh thankfully we were uh quite financially successful, and uh yeah it it it took off and uh here we are uh a few years later and it was me and my wife operating the whole thing. And uh it logistically it just became too much for us. And uh yeah one of our kind of stepped in. I don't know if Blake can step in here, but we we we already knew each other and we desperately needed the help. So
Andy Hoffman yeah, I mean well let's just situate ourselves. I I'm in Geneva, you guys are both in the United States. Tell me what where you are and then tell me how you got to know each other over the years. Worn and Wound, obviously legendary and well known watch website, also obviously an event operator with the various wind up watch shows.
Blake Mallon Yeah. So d maybe I could sort of
Blake Mallon jump in. so yeah, so Laurier, you know, will remain sort of a New York-based brand and Warnerwound has always been based in New York. We've been in Brooklyn. Our offices have always been in Brooklyn, so we're really we like to say we're a Brooklyn based brand. Right.
Blake Mallon And uh yeah, we we got to know Lauren and
Blake Mallon Lorenzo, uh you know, Lauren Lorenzo's
Blake Mallon wife and co-founder of Laurier and just through Warn and Wound,
Blake Mallon through you know, writing about them editorially
Blake Mallon and then them coming to the fairs and you know, per sort of
Blake Mallon Lorenzo's description of the brand and sort
Blake Mallon of what the thesis is, that resonated quite closely with me and my partners and with the one- toon- oneone audience at large. So, you
Blake Mallon know, it was an it was a natural fit. Like
Blake Mallon they were always received very well on the website and they
Blake Mallon fit right in at Windup. And just in sort of over
Blake Mallon the years, getting to spend time with them, you know, sometimes I'm sure you've experienced this handy, like you kind of meet your people in the
Blake Mallon crowd and uh sometimes you kinda get on, sometimes you don't. We just got on really well with Lauren Lorenzo and, you know, all the partners here, Zach
Blake Mallon Weiss and James Helms, we've been friends with Lord Lorenzo for some time. I was
Blake Mallon you know, fortunate enough to kind of develop a friendship
Blake Mallon outside of the company. We've, you know, hung out a few times, connected over a mutual interest in like MMA and kickboxing and things
Andy Hoffman like that. I don't want to put you on blast Lorenzo, but
Blake Mallon Lorenzo's like uh I guess uh like a
Blake Mallon kickboxing enthusiast, I would say.
Lorenzo Ortega Amateur competitor. Amateur competitor. I've
Blake Mallon seen the cuts. Um but he he you know I,'ve
Blake Mallon been to like fights with him and stuff like that. So we've
Blake Mallon been very friendly for some time uh with him and his wife. Aaron Ross
Andy Hoffman Powell So you guys are you guys are buddies and and you share some hobbies, pursuits, enthusiasms outside of watching. Yeah, for sure.
Blake Mallon And you know, the genesis of sort of the
Blake Mallon partnership was really, you know, me catching up with Lauren
Blake Mallon at Wind Up New York in 2025.
Blake Mallon I hadn't seen Lauren Lorenzo in some
Blake Mallon time, about a year and I was kind of blaming
Blake Mallon myself, but then upon talking to them, I think they were kind of preoccupied as well, kind of sort of
Blake Mallon wrestling with what to do with the business. And
Blake Mallon you know, Lorenzo, you can describe it better than I can, but they kind of gave me a rundown
Blake Mallon of, you know, where they were and the challenges they were facing and that they were basically looking to transition one way or the other, either continue the
Blake Mallon business with the right partner or maybe even some said
Blake Mallon it. I know Lorenzo, do you wanna kinda speak
Blake Mallon to that? yeah. No, I mean yeah,
Lorenzo Ortega you you told the story very well of uh of how we arrived to where we are and I realized in my explanation I skipped all those steps. And so yeah, that was awesome. Yeah, uh this was uh this was in twenty twenty five and we were basically you know struggling to stay afloat not as a business but you know the the business had done so well that you know we we no longer had personal lives and you know Lauren and I are married. And uh yeah, it was you know it it it was a tough time and this was Wind Up New York, October 2025. Uh, we had a project with Grand Central Watch and we had told ourselves, Okay, like this is this is gonna be the last one, at least for a while. Like we're we're at least gonna take a sabbatical and see like where we land and then uh yeah the you know Blake comes and checks in and you're like, Yeah, it's been so long, like sorry we haven't been around. Like sorry we haven't been like texting you because you know it's been it's just been business all the time. It was like like when are we gonna have a weekend? Right? Like even this weekend, like we're at wind up doing wind up. Right. So yeah, and so it was just that's kind of what started the talks of oh let's let let's see where where we can go together.
Andy Hoffman I'm interested before because I'm very interested, Blake, in in why and what it means for Warren Wound to acquire an actual brand. But um Lorenzo, I mean, you know, you talk about sort of, you know, you'd sort of pushed it as far as you could go business wise, it was a success. But you know, what was the issue in terms of, you know, either having to to sell or to to sunset the business, was it you know, I guess you would have had to hire people or they're just simply, you know, you you just didn't have the hands and the manpower to sort of do what you needed to do or explain that a bit more.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. I I I'd say it was all of the above. And uh yeah, we we would have had to hire people, but uh managing people is not something that we I mean it's not something we know we can do. Yeah. Uh yeah, we we just don't have those skills and uh Warnermount already like I I know Blake has those skills, just knowing him. And I know that Warnermount also had that infrastructure to where we can make Laurier like what it's really meant to be, which is you know an affordable, accessible brand. And we had gotten up to the point where it was kind of difficult to obtain our watches just because you know we we were limited in how much we could handle in in our production capacity. So, you know, that that doesn't really make for an accessible brand. And so we weren't fulfilling the the mission that we had set out for ourselves to do. And yeah, here here comes one and mound like, okay, like they they have this infrastructure. They have the people.
Andy Hoffman Right. And yeah, we we thought that, okay,
Lorenzo Ortega yeah, this this is kind of a perfect partnership because you know, we know you know Blake and the guys and we trust them and they we we kinda think the same way and share the same tastes. So yeah.
Andy Hoffman Cool. and Blake then let's talk about, you know, Worn and Wound and and that business. Give us a d you know, for those who don't know, give us some history, how long it's uh Worn and Wound has been around and then you know, obviously I think uh it's my impression from the outside, but I I I d don't know this. That I I guess the event side of the business, those wind-up watch shows, I mean that's the biggest part of the business now. But I mean talk about how the the company and the and born and wound has has evolved over the And then why acquire you know, even though you and Lorenzo are are buddies and friends and have these great mutual interests, why acquire a watch brand?
Blake Mallon Sure. So 101's been around for this
Blake Mallon is our 15th year, May of 2026. Was 15 years since we first published an article
Blake Mallon uh on the web. And you know, we
Blake Mallon started, you know, this is a familiar story, especially
Blake Mallon for the folks at Hodinkee, right? Like we started as an
Blake Mallon editorial publication. You know, I think that we saw
Blake Mallon opportunities in the retail space, starting with making straps and then moving on to selling watches, offering, you know, those partners like a pretty sizable platform, and
Blake Mallon really tapping into the enthusiast market.
Blake Mallon Uh, and then as you noted, we started the Wind Up Watch Fair in twenty fifteen. So that is about an eleven
Blake Mallon year old franchise. And, you know, our whole approach to what we've chosen to pursue in the watch space has always been
Blake Mallon about, you know, where we feel like there's
Blake Mallon a gap and I know that, you know, everybody says that, but also something
Blake Mallon that feels very authentic to us. So,
Blake Mallon you know, when we first started the shop, you know, we
Blake Mallon were really into learning more about like heritage
Blake Mallon wear and, you know, materials and things
Blake Mallon like that. So we wanted to work with like American tanneries and and like learn about building straps in the garment district in Manhattan, that kind of a thing. And with the events, you know, we were going to watch events, but then we were also going to more casual events like the pop-up flea or American Field. And
Blake Mallon you know, we'd go to the watch events and feel totally out of place. And then we'd go to these other events and felt
Blake Mallon supernatural and in our place. And we
Blake Mallon said, this needs to exist for watches. We
Blake Mallon want to like dial down the exclusivity and dial up
Blake Mallon the inclusivity and community and approachability.
Blake Mallon And so that's what we did. And yeah, we're
Blake Mallon very fortunate that the fair has really, you know,
Blake Mallon taken off quite a bit. You know, we have it's in four cities now. You know,
Blake Mallon we're always in discussions of potentially taking it elsewhere. It's interesting. We get that feedback a lot
Blake Mallon that the fair is the largest piece of the business. And I would say from like an optics and sort of marketing perspective, it certainly is, and that's like a really wonderful piece of
Blake Mallon it. I would say from a financial perspective, it's successful, but it's, you know, our e-commerce
Blake Mallon is just as successful in terms of just like raw numbers. So
Blake Mallon we have a real expertise in that in that.
Blake Mallon And it's always been in-house, you know, fulfillment customer service, logistics,
Blake Mallon you know, creative production, that kind of a thing. So we have some real
Blake Mallon know-how there that we're really proud of that we've been able to develop. So, you know, I
Blake Mallon think that for us, you know, when
Blake Mallon the opportunity with Laurier came up,
Blake Mallon you know, partially I just, you know, when I initially was talking to Lauren, I just kinda hated the idea of Laurier going away.
Blake Mallon Like that sucks. And you
Blake Mallon know, we talked to a lot of smaller independent brands that are sort of in our in
Blake Mallon in our sphere who sort of struggle with some of the similar issues of like you begin to scale and then you realize that there's all
Blake Mallon kinds of, you know, systems and people and other
Blake Mallon things that need to be put in place. And maybe that's not what you want to do, you know.
Blake Mallon And also, you know, to Lorenzo's point, like
Blake Mallon we feel like we have the know-how to be able to really kind of power a brand like Laurier.
Blake Mallon And you know, it was also important for us to know that Lauren Lorenzo still wanted to be involved. They're
Blake Mallon still, you know, they're minority owners in the business, as noted, you know, Lorenzo staying on as creative director, we don't want to change anything about Laurier. Um
Blake Mallon what we want to change is our ability to produce watches at a greater scale and provide like a really great experience for customers. So, you know, for us it was really we just don't want this great great brand to go away. And I think, you know,
Blake Mallon obviously it's something that I think financially would be very beneficial to the business. But
Blake Mallon and it also it just kind of sounds fun. I don't know. I
Blake Mallon like, you know, it's one of the it's one of
Blake Mallon the fortunate positions that we're in at Worn and Wound. Like we've always been fully independent. So we've kind of been able to do things the way we want to do them and this sounded like a really fun opportunity to work on a really exciting project with friends. You know, sometimes it's
Blake Mallon that's as simple as it is. Yeah.
Andy Hoffman And am I right to think that obviously yeah, you've got lots of brand partners and you and you sell their product on the retail website. Laurier is generally online only in terms of sales.
Lorenzo Ortega Yes. But this is the
Andy Hoffman first brand that will be outright owned by by Warren Wound, is that right? and you know, what does that mean for all your other brand partners
Blake Mallon Yeah, no, I think that's a really good question. Yeah, this is
Blake Mallon definitely the first brand that Warnerwound
Blake Mallon has acquired. We've sort of developed
Blake Mallon brands internally, like we have our Adept
Blake Mallon brand, which is you know very small and never really quite got off the ground partially because we didn't have the creative energy to put into
Blake Mallon it. So sort of the opposite issue.
Blake Mallon And yeah, I mean, I think that, you
Blake Mallon know, navigating the watch industry and whenever you're working
Blake Mallon with, you know, at this point, like a few hundred
Blake Mallon partners at any given time, it's always going to be a challenge
Blake Mallon of making sure that everybody feels like
Blake Mallon they're getting the treatment and consideration and care
Blake Mallon that they deserve. You know, one thing I'll say is that
Blake Mallon Laurier is an independent business, so it's owned by Warren Wound but it will operate as its own LLC
Blake Mallon and it has its own general manager. Actually
Blake Mallon we're very excited we hired uh Warren and Wound's first employee Ilya Riven who left for a period to go work at Grand Seco. We hired him uh
Blake Mallon and he's going to be general manager of Laurier, which is really exciting because he really gets the brand and the more than one audience and he'll be able to work, you know, independently.
Blake Mallon But you know, honestly, like for us, I always say like the proof is kinda in the
Blake Mallon pudding of like how we operate.
Blake Mallon You know, we've been working, we doing limited editions, we've been selling watches, we've been doing the show, and the show has various tiers of
Blake Mallon sponsorship. They're lead sponsors who pay considerably more than, you
Blake Mallon know, uh a standard sponsor. And, you know, I think we've always been able to, I think, kind of walk
Blake Mallon the walk of, you know, equitable treatment of all the
Blake Mallon different brands that we work with.
Blake Mallon And certainly it'll always remain that editorial is
Blake Mallon fully independent. I guess that's the other leg
Blake Mallon of it. You know, editorial here, like
Blake Mallon I have no say over, you know, what the
Blake Mallon blog says, what they choose to write about, what they choose to say about those products that they're writing about and neither does like really anybody at the business that Kazan or our editorial director has full control. So you know as with everything,
Blake Mallon you know, in this world, especially you know, you look at the watch industry and like I think everybody's looked for creative ways to sustain that business,
Blake Mallon right? Like whether you're an influencer, you're an editorial
Blake Mallon outlet, like everybody's been experimenting.
Blake Mallon And I think that at the end of the day,
Blake Mallon all you can really go on is like, how are people
Blake Mallon actually behaving? How are people actually continuing to operate. And I think
Blake Mallon that we've built a lot of equity with our partners and a lot of trust from
Blake Mallon our audience. And I hope they'll continue to give us that trust as we move forward. Um I don't
Blake Mallon know if you think that's a a good answer or a fair answer
Blake Mallon or a cop out. You
Lorenzo Ortega know, like I I myself would not want Laurier to be in a position of favor. And I think one of the reasons, one of the core reasons why we chose to partner with Blake is that, you know, we've always operated along this ethos of well, I mean, and this show is very much in how we started and how uh Warren Mount started. We very much operated under this ethos of, well, we're just gonna do what we think is good for ourselves, like what we think would be to create those spaces where we belong and to make the products that we ourselves like. And maybe there's a gap in the market for it. If there's not, well, we tried. But if there is, then great. Yeah. So like w when we first started, right, like Blake will say the same thing about starting mind up back in twenty fifteen. When we started, we reached out to all these manufacturers and they said, Are you sure you wanna make a watch in thirty nine millimeters? 'Cause we don't think this is gonna sell. Right.
Andy Hoffman Too small. And so we said but yeah,
Lorenzo Ortega it's too small. Yeah. it has it has to have that four as the first digit. Right? And so but but we said but this is what we want to do. Right? This is this is what we can find in the market and so we want to trade it for ourselves and word and wound has always operated in the same way
Andy Hoffman and tell me as much as you can in terms of I mean how big is Laurier, how many watches do you basically produce andor sell per year? What does that production process look like? And then have you already identified you know ways that the business is going to change in terms of growth or distribution or or those kind of things.
Lorenzo Ortega So at our peak, we were making five to six thousand watches a year.
Andy Hoffman That's not insignificant. that's a pr that's as many as uh longa makes. Yeah so
Blake Mallon yeah for for two people and
Lorenzo Ortega we were we were doing everything. I was doing all the QC.
Andy Hoffman Wow. I I was doing a lot of the repairs
Lorenzo Ortega I was doing all the photography. We made the website. Uh we were answering every customer email. We were doing all the fulfillment. You know, we would manually pack every watch, you know, write a little personal card. So all those things uh we would handle and uh yeah for for us to continue to grow we reached you know reached a point of well we wouldn't really know how to bring someone else on to do this with us and uh yeah.
Blake Mallon And I think from our perspective, you know,
Blake Mallon like Lorenzo was saying, we have infrastructure,
Blake Mallon I think, to address a number of those needs.
Blake Mallon Like we existing customer service teams, we have, you know, a warehouse with existing fulfillment
Blake Mallon folks who are, you know, coming in to
Blake Mallon uh ship product, pack product, process inventory as it comes in, that kind of a thing. We have the know-how
Blake Mallon in terms of managing, you know, scaling Shopify stores,
Blake Mallon things like that. So, you know, a lot of the burden of that is sort of taken off the business and will allow us to
Blake Mallon scale. I think, you know, for us,
Blake Mallon really the biggest, I think, hurdle we're
Blake Mallon trying to get over and the thing we're really trying to deliver is just consistent
Blake Mallon availability of inventory. You know, I think that,
Blake Mallon you know, hopefully in sort of freeing up Lorenzo to kind of focus on the creative side of things and working with manufacturers and our teams,
Blake Mallon being able to help sort of logistically like sort of work on that process. You know, that's really our primary objective. Not really
Blake Mallon much is changing about, you know,
Blake Mallon the watches, you know,
Blake Mallon moving forward. If anything, we're
Blake Mallon looking to improve them in certain ways. But yeah, for us, like the real thing we're trying to tackle right now is just availability.
Andy Hoffman And what does it I mean, you know, we just uh in June last month we just had the EPHJ here in Geneva, which is, you know, where all the suppliers and and people come together and I always sort of think of it as if you want to make a watch, this is the place you go and you can talk to everyone and and make a watch. What does production look like for Laurie? I presume there's parts and components from Europe, from Asia, um not sure where the the manufacturing is. And then it sounds to me like what's going to change and hopefully improve is you know sort of distribution and sales side that Blake's team can handle out of one wound.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, that's exactly right. So the the watch supply chain is uh already very complicated. Right? So you know, you could have ninety nine percent of parts ready, but if one part is missing, then you can't even start assembling a watch. So ninety nine percent complete is actually zero percent complete in practice. So that that's its own thing. But really the bottleneck for us was it was just me and Lauren this whole time.
Andy Hoffman Which I think it's interesting 'cause like to kind of give
Blake Mallon Lorna Lorenzo their flowers a little bit, you know, you could call
Blake Mallon it a bottleneck or you could also call it like
Blake Mallon a Herculean feat to be able to process
Blake Mallon six thousand, five, six thousand watches in a given year
Blake Mallon between between two people, especially knowing like the
Blake Mallon way you QC them and things like that.
Blake Mallon But I think that, you know, like where we can step in, you know, through various projects
Blake Mallon we've worked on with you know doing limited editions or other interesting projects, like we have sort of a little bit more knowledge
Blake Mallon about different manufacturers
Blake Mallon and different suppliers that may exist that we might have relationships with.
Blake Mallon You know, we've already added a European service
Blake Mallon center to like the roster, so European customers will be able to send their watches locally rather than having to send them back to the US. You know, things like that.
Blake Mallon I think um yeah, but uh yeah, not not to like really oversimplify, but to
Blake Mallon Lorenzo's point, I think just like pouring some fuel on the fire is really going to help, you know, scale things. Aaron
Andy Hoffman Powell And what will this mean for you and Lauren? How is it going to change things in terms of your life, in terms of your output, in terms of your work? Are you gonna look now to other projects as well, or because yeah, you've been basically a a creative director, a watch designer, and producer for the last decade. Uh yeah, what's what does this mean then for you professionally and personally, I guess. Uh
Lorenzo Ortega I don't know if I'm uh in a space to answer that yet because we're still, you know, building the transition. And, you know, that's obviously you you wanna give it the time and the energy that it's due. So well what one thing that we say is that we we'd rather not exist than exist badly. And so we're we're trying to, you know, give respect to that
Andy Hoffman Do you have ambitions to have new model? I mean you've got a you do a chronograph, you do a GMT, you do uh a field watch, you've done a bunch of other stuff over the years. I mean do you have ambitions within the Laurier line to to do new stuff, new creations at this point?
Lorenzo Ortega Yes. Of course. I mean th there's always that, right? As a creative person, like you always want to do more. the focus is really just re-establishing that core collection and making it more available. Because right now if you go on the website, you know, none none of the core collection is is available. And you know that that's kind of antithetical for what we want a core collection to be. Right? you you want something that's like readily available that you can buy and can wear immediately. So uh working on the availability of that is my first priority. And then past that, yeah, I I I've got many uh lots of things that I want to explore. Lately I've been kind of obsessed with Ar Nouveau. So yeah, if if you look at the history, there there aren't really watches that are uh designed along that aesthetic. Like there are many Ardeco watches. But Art Nouveau is is kind of like this unexplored territory and something I'm kind of obsessing over right now, but yeah. But I I don't know what that looks like concretely
Andy Hoffman yet. But it's a certainly a spark of an idea and inspiration at this point. And then Blake, from the Warn and Wound side, I mean, is this the first of uh many brand acquisitions for Warn and Wound or is this a sort of special kind of one-off situation where there was a connection there and uh it was the right thing to do or d or does does Wern and Wand as a company have an ambition to be a brand conglomerate like uh our friends at Richmond or Swatch Group or something?
Blake Mallon Yeah, they better watch out, you know. We're coming
Blake Mallon for them. Um no, I I f I think for now this is uh this is a one off, but you know, we never really want to close the door on anything and kinda like I was saying before, it's really just
Blake Mallon what kind of feels organic and authentic to us.
Blake Mallon I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if there were opportunities
Blake Mallon that, you know, came down the road, but, you know, to be perfectly
Blake Mallon honest, like I think we have to show the world we can do this first, right? Like we have
Blake Mallon to, you know, twelve, eighteen, you know, twenty-four months from now, you know, if people can tap into the Laurier core
Blake Mallon models, pick one up whenever they want, they can see them in person at various events. We've got new products coming out and customer service and fulfillment is great. You know, then we can start talking about, you know, potential other opportunities. I think for now we're really,
Blake Mallon you know, focused on this one and,
Blake Mallon you know, giving I'm excited,
Blake Mallon you know, to your question previously to Lorenzo,
Blake Mallon like I'm excited for like his creative juices
Blake Mallon to continue to flow and you know to contribute in that
Blake Mallon way. I don't want to put words into your mouth, Lorenzo, but like from being in sort of the thick of business, like there are just so many emotions and kind of anxieties and frustrations and all kinds of things that come out of it. Anybody that tells you they're running a business is like a cakewalk that's all about you, know, like fancy cars and all kinds of money is full of it. And I think that like, you know,
Blake Mallon we've definitely gone through our crunchy times of
Blake Mallon the business as we've as we've been growing and been like, okay, I don't know if we can handle this. I could imagine it's gonna take some time for you guys to
Blake Mallon really kind of decompress and like yeah, you know, refocus your minds to just like purely the creative side.
Blake Mallon Yeah. Yeah. So and the last thing,
Andy Hoffman you know, you guys are both in New York, you're both American because of you know the the various uh shifting um political and uh trade policies over the past little while, we've been thinking about the idea of you know, American brands, American watchmaking. Hodinkee is an American company, obviously as well. I mean, talk about, you know, how being American, being based in the US as influenced and will continue to sort of influence and inform what you do in business day to day and i in a in an industry of watches, which is traditionally based here in Switzerland or Japan or Germany, um other parts of the world. Aaron Powell
Blake Mallon I mean I can just speak for you know, worn and
Blake Mallon wound and you know, our experience like you know, uh when you talk to brands, all you hear about is what a growing market
Blake Mallon the US.. is. And I feel like I've been hearing that for the whole 15 years we've been involved in the business. And you know,
Blake Mallon whereas in Europe and other parts of the world it
Blake Mallon feels like watch culture is much more established.
Blake Mallon It just feels like there's so much excitement and opportunity
Blake Mallon in the US, you know, whether it's, you know, from the editorial perspective or the events or retail or, you know, on and on and on. And, you
Blake Mallon know, the watch community is like so vibrant
Blake Mallon and so passionate, I think, just kind of never-endingly hungry for new things, new interesting things. And, you know, we see it all the time at the wind-up
Blake Mallon shows, just like the outpouring of, you know, appreciation
Blake Mallon and excitement for, you know, bringing watch culture, you know, to
Blake Mallon various different cities. So for us,
Blake Mallon I think like, you know, sort of uniquely American part of our experience has been sort of living in this kind
Blake Mallon of like burgeoning watch, you know, community
Blake Mallon and this uh culture that just like seems to like constantly be
Blake Mallon growing every year. It like never seems to slow down,
Blake Mallon you know, uh regardless of kind of what sales numbers
Blake Mallon look like, the enthusiasm and the and the presence at shows
Blake Mallon and you know at, our showroom and on the blog, like it just never really slows down. So I think that's been kind of a uniquely American
Blake Mallon experience and maybe contributes to like our enthusiasm and optimism and eagerness to kind of jump into projects like this, you know?
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. All that is true. I think it is niqually American to say, well, I'm gonna make something that hasn't existed before and try that out and see how that goes. And so yeah, we'll we'll we'll just keep doing that. I mean, yeah, to to to echo back to like earlier questions, you know, like how much is gonna change and you know I think not to speak for Blake but I think we would we would like it so that we just become more of who we are and I think that's kind of the American dream like come here and like you can be who you want to be. So on on either side I think that's that's kind of the goal.
Blake Mallon Yeah. Nice. Well I think that's a
Andy Hoffman um a great place to leave it. Congratulations to you both on this um interesting transaction and this new era for both of your companies which are now coming together. Blake Mallon, the co-founder and CEO of Warren Wound and Lorenzo Ortega, the creative director and co-founder of Laurier Watches. Thank you both for joining us on the business of watches.
Lorenzo Ortega Thanks so much for having us, Andy. Thanks so much, Andy. Real pleasure.
Blake Mallon Thank you. And
Andy Hoffman that's the business of watches for this episode. We hope you enjoyed. Please head on over to Hodinkee.com where you can join the discussion and leave any comments or questions about this episode or the business of watches in general. Who knows? We might even answer your question on a future episode. Thanks for listening and see you next time.