As legendary watchmakers of yesterday slowly pass away we must welcome the new era of budding watch makers and brand people who will ensure that mechanical watches not only thrive for the next 50 years, but also that they remain true to their origins as hand-made objects. Not quite at the point where he is producing the latter, but new brand Mooren was started by Mick Mooren, a 19 year old Dutch teenager.
For several years, Mick has been spending a healthy amount of his time messing around with watch movements. There’s an interesting story involving Zenith, that gave him some free NOS (new old stock) parts to help him complete a vintage El Primero restoration project. How does that involve Mooren’s new brand? It doesn’t really, but shows that Mooren is a bona fide watch nut and not some marketing guy.
His new brand’s first watches are called the “New Vintage.” Like boutique California brand Xetum, Mooren watches opt for a lugless style case. His are 42.2mm wide and 12.3mm thick. He has attempted to imbue them with a vintage look that is also modern. Has he succeed? Sure, why not. The pieces look nice enough and certainly satisfy me as a first attempt. Nice work Mick, keep it up.
The models are simple looking with steel cases and nicely legible dials. The real style point is the X style cross hairs on the dial which works nicely with the sparse gauge look and Arabic numerals. The design isn’t utterly unique, but presented in a novel way and feels satisfying. Though sometimes you might have to play “spot the seconds hand.”
For style, the hands are vintage style aviators with orange-ish lume. According to Mooren the cases are done by Ickler in Germany – which are known for quality. Inside the watch is a basic Swiss ETA 2824 automatic which is visible through the sapphire display back. Over the dial is an AR coated sapphire crystal. You can get the dial in a white or black color, matched with a black or brown leather strap with crocodile print. All together the Mooren New Vintage watch is priced at 839 Euros – not too bad. Certainly a way to get this young buck’s career as a watch man on track.