Hey, Jon here.
You ever get in one of those reflective moods when you start thinking about all the things you missed out on? Seeing Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969, flying in a Concorde, buying a certain cryptocurrency in 2010…
… The opportunity to be part of a scene, a movement, something that is taking off and going places doesn’t come around a lot. But right here, in our little corner of the watch world, I could not be more certain that we are in the exact right place at the right time.
You may not have gotten to be
there,but you get to be
here. Here when travelers’
GMT movements climbed down from their four-figure pedestal and became accessible to a greater range of enthusiasts. Here when the designs of the ‘50s and ‘60s are given new life and rendered in resilient steel for you to wear with confidence while
hiking or
diving. Here as independent brands — yes, TRASKA, but also our many wonderful peers — innovate, re-invent, and strive to bring about a new golden age of watchmaking.
Every scene is given life by those who are a part of it. You push us forward through
iteration after iteration. And you have our backs. When we were approached to donate a piece unique watch for a
charity auction at Christie’s alongside Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet, you rallied behind the piece and drove it to $3,780 (6X the retail price of its
Oxblood Summiteer cousin) making sure TRASKA could not be ignored even at the biggest of tables.
We could rest now. Iterate and refine, keep mixing up colors, and let our five models carry us through. We have already traveled further than I ever thought was possible, thanks to you, this strange, bold, risky experiment has worked. We could steady the course, ease up on the throttle, and cruise into the sunset.
But that wouldn’t be any fun, would it?
In the same way that we have to be ruthless to ‘kill our darlings,’ tearing down a beloved iteration of a much-loved model to make room for something better, it’s time to apply that same process not just to our watches, but to TRASKA itself.
Our brand is changing. Part of that is the normal process of growth. For the first couple of years, it was just me. Now, we have
Chandler making sure that our QC process is as rigorous as the bouncer at Berghain, Gabrielle (you can call her Gabby) being first-line-of-defense in our inbox, Dylan hustling to make sure every order is shipped like lightning, and Nathan helping to bring it all together.
The changes don’t stop there, however. The TRASKA you will see in 2025 will be different than the one many of you have traveled with since 2018. Why? Because something that I’ve been cooking up for well over a year is finally coming to life.
They say that in order to achieve things you’ve never achieved before, you have to do things you’ve never done before. So far, all TRASKA watches have been designed by me with input and feedback from this community. For the first time in our history, we’re partnering with an external designer — I’m contractually prohibited from saying the name, but they spend most of their time working with mysterious Swiss brands that make around 50 watches a year (with six-figure price tags). Pretty wild stuff!
Together with [Name Redacted], we’re pushing TRASKA into new territory. Our first new release will take place, optimistically, in… March? No, April. Realistically, it could be even later than this. I know it’s agony not to be able to share any details, but I don’t want to paint too vivid a picture until we know that everything is moving forward according to plan. The designs are already signed off. Prototyping is about to begin.
In the meantime, I’m working to keep our
core collection (mostly) available and at full strength. Many of our pieces are now sold out and will be restocked in the coming months. Others are in stock and available now. More limited releases, like our rapidly sold-out Meteorite Commuters, are likely to happen, some will be announced here, others might not.
If you own one or more of our pieces or if you’re just following the journey and biding your time, thank you. None of this would happen without you. You have allowed us to turn a strange experiment into a movement that, we hope, brings joy and a little bit of magic to discerning people around the world. Together, we get to be part of a special moment in watch history. You are here in the early days, right where you are supposed to be. And that makes me very happy indeed.
That’s all the watch news for 2024,
Jon