After two years of planning, the watches are in

In 2020 we began to think about the concept of Matter of Time. We wanted to create a purpose-driven group to bring people together in both a virtual environment and often in a physical environment to share experiences and goodwill with one another. We would use a common interest of horology and work with independent watch companies on collaborations that can stand the test of time. We would design a charitable component and add a twist related to the ownership of the watches themselves.

The goal would be twofold:

1. Create an ongoing member driven giving function where members would recommend good causes that they felt were truly deserving of a portion of the funds we would donate from the existing collection. Over time we determined that 50% of the proceeds from every collection would be given to good causes. A subset of members would serve as the final voting board of the recipients of the donation(s). This board would be reset every Collection though people could serve on the board repeatedly.

2. The watch would be "owned" by the buyer but within two years, they would give it away. But the first owner doesn't simply wear the watch nor keep it in a safe. Rather they record experiences and share those on a Time Capsule page that is accessible by members as well as the future custodians of the watch. We envisioned that after five, ten or twenty years, a string of owners would establish the provenance of the watch. Ultimately the value of the watch is in the experiences that it has endured with the custodians along the way.

After several years of planning, designing and working with our first collaborator, Astor & Banks, we have received the watches that make up the "Founder's Collection". We see the first group of members that will be around 40 people as the founders of this club.

So here we are now. We have our watches. Most of our website is created. We have a few friends and family who have been following the project for some time and wanted to be involved and we are just about ready to take this live through a few local events. Let's get ready for a fun ride!!!