A New Voice at Tempus Fugit

This year marks ten years (in July) for Tempus Fugit.  And truthfully?  Ten years is really more than enough to listen to just one point of view.  And owing to this, I am particularly pleased to announce that you will soon also find the insightful opinion of another industry veteran - Francis Jacquerye.

Francis comes from Belgium, the other chocolate "making" country, and broke into the watch industry after contacting several companies with a design and being hired on the spot by the Sector Group. He worked on a dozen fashion licenses in Italy before completing a lengthy recruitment process with Longines in Switzerland, where he was promoted to Head of Design within 4 years.

Before opening his own agency and giving a little push to friends who were launching Tsikolia, Gavox and Gorilla watches, Francis released limited editions under the brands Techné and Tärnan. He relocated with his family to southern Sweden in 2015 to help put together and launch Kronaby.  He also was working to personally relaunch Siduna. When Kronaby filed for bankruptcy in Spring of 2019, he helped the Festina Group to preserve a dozen jobs from the software division.

Having been on both sides of the curtain as a watch collector and an industry professional, Francis has been trying to foster a honest dialogue between brands and consumers, but he is not afraid of calling his peers when they are bluffing. Before the rise of social media he curated WatchProjects.com to try and give visibility to more than 200 micro-brands, and in 2009 he inadvertently helped to uncover the Seiko roots of the TAG Heuer calibre 1887.

Francis likes to challenge preconceived ideas about the past, present and future of watchmaking; and in 2013 he published "The Speedmaster Standard", which compared the price of watches, wages and cost of life across several decades.

Francis borrows from economics, social science and marketing to explain the dynamics of luxury and watches, and he was nominated a Top Writer 2018 by the knowledge sharing platform Quora.com, where he has been garnering more than 3,000,000 views.

I am thrilled to have Francis join me here, and know that you will truly enjoy and learn from what he has to share.

Tärnan - October Rerun

TÄRNAN

I just received this from  - Tärnan

The genesis of Techné (and revived brand Tärnan) dates back to 1991, when Franck J. became a watch collector. He kept searching through boutiques and vintages stores while undertaking studies in design and gold smithing. In 2001 he was awarded first prize for a watch design, which encouraged him to pursue a career within the horological industry. Eventually, the young man ended up in the product department of a watch company that patented and produced one of his own case designs.

Franck J. has always enjoyed developing and designing for other brands, but he was also longing to launch a "homebrew" signature that would offer watches with a great fun factor. The business model comes from entrepreneurs like Messrs Ken Sato, Eddie Platts and Bill Yao who succeeded with "word of mouth" marketing and have inspired a generation of watch enthusiasts.

In 2007, Franck J. decided to register the brand Techné and 2.5 years later the very first watch designed with complete "carte blanche" was released - the Sparrow Hawk. The design of the Sparrow Hawk was 100% original and played with visuals codes from avionics to evoke vintage aviation chronographs. After one year, sales radically soared. One explanation to this recent popularity might be the resemblance to a big name watch that was released 6 months after the Sparrow Hawk.


Techné will keep expanding their model range and it will remain an "utilitarian" brand. The Sparrow Hawk collection is currently sold out, but an upgraded version is under way.

In 2010, Franck J. and his wife applied for the right to use the defunct trade mark TÄRNAN. Being herself from Sweden, Mrs. J. is an essential advisor on budgeting and aesthetic matters.

Little information is available on the brand TÄRNAN, but the trade mark was signed on watches imported in Scandinavia during the 50’s and the 60’s. There are earlier silver pocket watches but vintage classical, military, sports and diving TÄRNAN watches often appear in auctions or vintage stores throughout Sweden and neighboring countries.

The identity of the revived TÄRNAN is yet to be defined, but the duet decided to launch the brand with a model inspired by experimental diver’s watches from the 1950's.

The first timepiece, Oceanographer, is Swiss Made and celebrates the technological breakthroughs of the 1950’s in underwater exploration. The history of diving watches is tied to the invention of the revolutionary Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus and the breakthroughs they both allowed in Oceanography. Rolex was one of the few manufactures that tried to build reliable timepieces for assisting scientists in their exploration of the underwater world.

Photo courtesy of Tarnan

Win a Watch!!!

Make a Donation - Win a Watch!

Leave it to the very, very kind folks at Tärnan!

Simple deal for all of the individuals out there who would like to participate in this year's Tempus Fugit Initiative -

Make a $25 donation to aid the Syrian refugees with humanitarian relief - food, water, medicine, and you will be placed in a draw to win not just any Tärnan watch - 

but serial number 1!

Here is the watch -

And if you're ready to lend some aid to people who need it, take $25 from your watch budget, or give up that afternoon coffee for one week ; )

And make your donation here:

https://www.mercycorps.org/people/tempus-fugit/syria


Then - send an email to me at:
henkitime (at) gmail (dot) com
with your name and email address so that I can cross match it to thedonations.


We will then have a raffle, and select a winner for this watch (and 
other prizes that are being donated as I write this).
A closing word - the goal here is to help people who need BASIC 
things - water, food, medicine.  
PERIOD.


I am in, the Lonville Watch Company is in, Wendy is in, and 
Georg of Germany is in.  And now the wonderful folks at Tärnan 
are in.


Who is with us?

Make a Donation - Win a Watch!

Leave it to the very, very kind folks at Tärnan!

Simple deal for all of the individuals out there who would like to participate in this year's Tempus Fugit Initiative -

Make a $25 donation to aid the Syrian refugees with humanitarian relief - food, water, medicine, and you will be placed in a draw to win not just any Tärnan watch - 

but serial number 1!

Here is the watch -

And if you're ready to lend some aid to people who need it, take $25 from your watch budget, or give up that afternoon coffee for one week ; )

And make your donation here:

https://www.mercycorps.org/people/tempus-fugit/syria

Then - send an email to me at:

henkitime (at) gmail (dot) com

with your name and email address so that I can cross match it to thedonations.

We will then have a raffle, and select a winner for this watch (and 

other prizes that are being donated as I write this).

A closing word - the goal here is to help people who need BASIC 

things - water, food, medicine.  

PERIOD.

I am in, the Lonville Watch Company is in, Wendy is in, and 

Georg of Germany is in.  And now the wonderful folks at Tärnan 

are in.

Who is with us?

Watch Auction for World Cancer Day

This just in from Techne -

Courtesy of Techne

In anticipation of World Cancer Day, Techné is auctioning a brand new Tärnan Oceanographer with serial number 001.

TÄRNAN

I just received this from  - Tärnan

The genesis of Techné (and revived brand Tärnan) dates back to 1991, when Franck J. became a watch collector. He kept searching through boutiques and vintages stores while undertaking studies in design and gold smithing. In 2001 he was awarded first prize for a watch design, which encouraged him to pursue a career within the horological industry. Eventually, the young man ended up in the product department of a watch company that patented and produced one of his own case designs.

Franck J. has always enjoyed developing and designing for other brands, but he was also longing to launch a "homebrew" signature that would offer watches with a great fun factor. The business model comes from entrepreneurs like Messrs Ken Sato, Eddie Platts and Bill Yao who succeeded with "word of mouth" marketing and have inspired a generation of watch enthusiasts.

In 2007, Franck J. decided to register the brand Techné and 2.5 years later the very first watch designed with complete "carte blanche" was released - the Sparrow Hawk. The design of the Sparrow Hawk was 100% original and played with visuals codes from avionics to evoke vintage aviation chronographs. After one year, sales radically soared. One explanation to this recent popularity might be the resemblance to a big name watch that was released 6 months after the Sparrow Hawk.


Techné will keep expanding their model range and it will remain an "utilitarian" brand. The Sparrow Hawk collection is currently sold out, but an upgraded version is under way.

In 2010, Franck J. and his wife applied for the right to use the defunct trade mark TÄRNAN. Being herself from Sweden, Mrs. J. is an essential advisor on budgeting and aesthetic matters.

Little information is available on the brand TÄRNAN, but the trade mark was signed on watches imported in Scandinavia during the 50’s and the 60’s. There are earlier silver pocket watches but vintage classical, military, sports and diving TÄRNAN watches often appear in auctions or vintage stores throughout Sweden and neighboring countries.

The identity of the revived TÄRNAN is yet to be defined, but the duet decided to launch the brand with a model inspired by experimental diver’s watches from the 1950's.

The first timepiece, Oceanographer, is Swiss Made and celebrates the technological breakthroughs of the 1950’s in underwater exploration. The history of diving watches is tied to the invention of the revolutionary Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus and the breakthroughs they both allowed in Oceanography. Rolex was one of the few manufactures that tried to build reliable timepieces for assisting scientists in their exploration of the underwater world.

Photo courtesy of Tarnan

As experts may identify, the main source of inspiration for the TÄRNAN Oceanographer is the reference 6200. The very concept of homage timepieces is not new: Messrs Ken Sato and Bill Yao both tapped in the rich pool of vintage Rolex watches. There is something quite unique about those prototypes that never made it into mass production.

This first collection is released as a limited edition, and Franck J. and his wife will be adding original designs to the brand.
www.tarnan.ch