Mutewatch Launches Vibrating Watch

STOCKHOLM - August 5, 2010 - Mutewatch launches vibrating watch with disguised touch screen!

The Swedish start-up Mutewatch is now, after years of secrets, happy to present the design of its innovative watch.

Mutewatch is a silent alarm in the shape of a vibrating wristband. This discreet device with its disguised touch screen brings structure and time back to its user. It serves as a quiet reminder that helps you to follow your own agenda without disturbing people in your surroundings.

Mutewatch is always at hand and allows you to navigate swiftly between its functions, its clock, alarm and timers, giving you the ability to set your vibrations as you go.

”We are now proudly presenting Mutewatch to the world. Mutewatch sprung from the idea of a silent, vibrating alarm clock, and grew into this beautiful watch with its concealed touch interface which works like magic when you use it”, says Oscar Ritzén Praglowski, CTO at Mutewatch AB, in an open letter on the company blog.

Words can't describe how I feel about our development team. The time spent working on this product has been a time of pure joy—with so much talent and creative energy brought together!”

When the watch is touched, a hidden screen lights up showing the time. By swiping a finger horizontally left or right, the user can navigate through the functions clock, timer and alarm. Mutewatch charges via a regular USB port.

Mutewatch is a new kind of watch equipped with a disguised touch screen and a quiet, vibrating alarm and timer.

Founded in Stockholm 2009 by Mai-Li Hammargren, Oscar Ritzén Praglowski and Gustav Hammargren, then students at the Stockholm School of Economics and the Royal Institute of Technology, the company Mutewatch AB develops, sells and markets Mutewatch to a global market.

Besides bringing the product to the market, the company is also the host of parties called Good Vibrations and shares a blog on its website, mutewatch.com, which deals with product development, time management and fashion.

Photos & text Copyright Mutewatch.

Fromanteel: A Unique Style

When speaking about their watches, Alfredo and Martijn are very explicit: “Fromanteel has a style of its own and prefers to maintain this unique style.”

While designing their first collection, the limited edition ‘Day & Night’, Alfredo and Martijn discussed extensively every considerable and small detail in the design. This proved to be a very hard, though intense and successful cooperation. “Without friction, there is no shine.” Same as the fact that without ‘Day’ there is no ‘Night’—hence the name of the collection.

The two say rarely to be guided by the will of other people. They are inspired by the modern man, but deliberately choose not to base their decisions on what others think. They design watches according to their own taste. It has to be something they would like to wear and what they think will look good on them.

A Fromanteel watch is not some trendy, fashionable watch that is easily adopted by the masses. A Fromanteel watch has a story that only the wearer can tell: the story about the history of the name, its origin and the fact it is a limited edition.

It’s also not a conspicuous watch. Fromanteel watches are subtle, stylish and only the wearer himself knows it fits his personal taste and style.

In the end, it is the contrast and connection, found in the brand, its history and the characters of the designers that make the slogan ‘History is Now’ a perfect fit for the brand.

Before drawing our first packaging proposals we decided to first study how goods were packaged and shipped in the era of Fromanteel, some 400 years ago.

We discovered that the materials, which were used at that time, were made to withstand even rougher transport conditions than nowadays found with modern cargo transport.

The 2010 Collection
While designing the 2010 Collection we stood still at what motivates the modern man when it comes to watches and style in general. We discovered that men are very different in their style preferences. The motivation behind these different style preferences is what fascinated us and drove us to design the 2010 Collection.

To men, style is something personal and cannot be compared with a fashion statement or simply what is in trendy at the moment. Fashion has always been, and always will be dynamic. But style is timeless. Fashion is largely concerned with what is cool, or what trends are at what time, etc. While just a few men exhibit true style, timeless cool and display of good taste.

In our study we found three interesting style archetypes. One is the Dandy—or as we would like to call him ‘The Cultural Creative’ man. The Cultural Creative is our informal interpretation of the Dandy. Where the Dandy is cockney and expresses a foremost English style, the Cultural Creative is not. He dress and grooms himself every day by set of formal rules but knows how to play around, expressing a creative style of his own.

The ‘Johannes’ timepiece is inspired by the lifestyle of the Cultural Creative. The man that recognizes all the efforts and contributions that a single, well interpreted, detail, does for an outfit.

The ‘Rebel without a Cause’ is next archetype we studied in detail. An important era for the ‘Rebel’ – as we abbreviate him, was the 60’s of the last century. Raised in a very formal era (the 1950’s) the Rebel saw the world differently and defined freedom as one of his highest goals. Freedom to express and to live his life the way he wants. The Rebel lives by this credo and knows that the credo also implies freedom of movement. To be, to travel and to go wherever you want to, whenever you want to. The world as he sees it, is on the palm of his hands. The ‘Vintage1607’ is our interpretation of this style archetype.

Before designing the ‘Time MachinE’ we realized that the third style archetype we based our design on is actually not a style archetype pur sang. It might be the result of a transformation of any archetype.

This sub-archetype comes out at night. We call him the ‘Nightlife Smart Casual’ man. He is the self-confident cosmopolitan man. His playfield is the city at night. The night flirts and presents many temptations. The faith hearted obeys the night, however the strong seizes it and makes the night his own. The ‘TimemachinE’ is all about reliability and precision designed to fit this style ‘archetype’ .

The result of our study is the 2010 Collection. This collection is a stylish ode to the modern man.

The Generations Series ‘Johannes’ Named after the oldest son of Ahasuerus Fromanteel and limited at 1638 pieces in black & white, this first Fromanteel watch of the Generations Series represents in its design and detail everything the modern dandy, or as we like to say; the cultural creative man would like to see in a watch.

Johannes Fromanteel was born in 1638. As the oldest son he got to spend much time in the clockmaker’s workshop learning and observing the magnificent craftsmanship of his father. After years of practice and study, Johannes eventually followed in his father’s footsteps and became a master clockmaker.

The watch ‘Johannes’ is an ode to the passionate son and the first watch in the Generations Series.

The design of the watch is inspired by the lifestyle of the Cultural Creative man. The man that recognizes all the efforts and contributions that a single, well interpreted, detail, does for an outfit.

The Generations‘Johannes’ is a watch for the man who knows that life has to be lived by a set of informal rules. The ‘Johannes’, a proud son’s story about detail and craftsmanship.

Photos Copyright Fromanteel.

Fromanteel—the Designers

“We kept it close to ourselves…”

The two young designers live in Amsterdam and met each other in during their student period. What they have in common is their similar taste for the good things in life, although the two have very different characters and backgrounds.

Alfredo Silva (30) is born in São Paulo, Brazil, as the son of a painter and an actress. As artists, both his parents are familiar with the art-scene of the city at that time - as a result, Alfredo grows up in a house where fashion designers, writers, architects and actors walk in and out. Therefore, creativity and artistic expression were encouraged to him from an early age on.

Eventually, Alfredo’s father finds it difficult to combine his parental responsibilities with his art and extravagant lifestyle. That’s why his mother, after breaking with him, entitles him as an uncle and no longer expects him to fulfill his parental responsibilities.

Years later, she marries a Dutch engineer whom Alfredo regards as his true father from the beginning. Alfredo learns the aspects of the Dutch culture and later the language, before moving to the Netherlands. Alfredo studies in Nijmegen and in Barcelona and after graduation, he finds a job in advertising. However, after three years he decides to quit and undertakes something more close to his heart – the design of watches and Fromanteel.

Martijn van Hassel (30) is born in Brabant, a province in the south of The Netherlands. At the van Hassel home, a Burgundian lifestyle is respected. Martijn learns from childhood on to appreciate the fine things in life, such as delicate cooking, family, art and photography. Although his father spends a lot of time abroad on business, the family ties remain strong.

It is his father who encourages entrepreneurship from an early age. “It’s best to show some initiative and to have an open mind about things, then to sit around waiting for things to happen.”

A study in Delft results in a degree in engineering, but this degree doesn’t represent the real passion and ambition that lies inside Martijn’s heart. Creativity runs through his veins, accompanied with the idea to one day start his own business.

His broad scope of interests is not limited to the Netherlands only. That’s why Martijn decides to move to Milan, a city where fashion and design coexist. Eventually Milan, the Burgundian lifestyle and the entrepreneurship encouraged by his father form the basis for the foundation of Fromanteel.

The two founded Fromanteel with a strong conviction to design watches that tell something about the personality of the owner. Watches with a personal touch and signature. No mass product, but unique timepieces that would make its owner proud to be wearing it.

Photos Copyright Fromanteel.
Photo top right, Alfredo Silva.
Photo bottom left, Martijn van Hassel.

Fromanteel: History Is Now

Fromanteel was a man with an enormous drive to fulfill his dreams and ambitions. His unique vision and craftsmanship helped him revolutionize our perception of time.

Ahasuerus Fromanteel was a clockmaker in the 17th century who owned a modest clockmakers workshop at the Vijgendam in Amsterdam—now the Dam Square, where the famous Hotel Krasnapolsky is located.

Back in the 17th century, during the Dutch Golden Age, Fromanteel begun to manufacture a series of revolutionary clocks, which were equipped with a new Dutch invention: the pendulum. These clocks were sold to wealthy merchants and members of the Dutch and English royal houses.

Amsterdam was a wealthy center of commerce and home of many artists, merchants and craftsmen. The city enjoyed therefore much attention from foreign Trading Companies looking for exclusive and remarkable goods.

Fromanteel’s pendulum clock was one of those goods of interest. This clock became known as one of the most accurate clocks of that time. The pendulum allowed the clocks to measure ‘seconds’, a unicum in a world dominated by only minutes.

The good location and fast trade network that Amsterdam had established over the years with other great trade hubs of the time facilitated Fromanteel into deciding to expand his operations overseas.

Ahasuerus Fromanteel’s sons were given the responsibility to run the overseas workshops and Ahasuerus himself decided to manage the affairs in Amsterdam, the city where he eventually died at the age of 85.

The name Fromanteel now lives on as a new brand of exclusive limited edition watches for men. Our timepieces apply the mastery technique of the Fromanteels to today’s modern age.

A Fromanteel watch is a contemporary designed timepiece, with an eye for the smallest detail and the highest level of quality.

The making of the Fromanteel shoot from Fromanteel on Vimeo

Photo Copyright Fromanteel.