Blok Shows That Children’s Watches Don’t Have To Be Toys

Luxury fashion aimed at children is odd. In some ways, it’s amusing; in others, it’s deeply depressing.Last year, during the run-up to Christmas, I was walking through the famed London luxury department store Harrods and passed a girl — who could be no older than 12 years old — donned head to toe — shoes, socks, dress, puffer jacket, handbag, and beanie — in Burberry plaid.She obviously had no connection to Burberry. No awareness of its wonderful, contradictory history of wartime practicality, British luxury, and football hooligan status symbol. Ralph Lauren’s children’s range is beautiful, but this was anything but. For public attention, her parents had cast her as a billboard for their tasteless affluence.When you hear about Blok — maker of $179 Swiss-made children’s watches — you might dismiss it in the same vein. Children grow up with the time always at their fingertips, in their smartphones and smartwatches. An analog watch aimed at children seems fundamentally contradictory, like something designed to appeal to the worst watch collectors looking to accessorize their children in more items to flaunt their riches with. Yet it is not. In fact, it is the exact opposite of everything logo-mania childrenswear represents.The watch start-up was founded in 2019 after Neil Ferrier and his wife Meg tried to buy a watch for their two children, Isla and Lennox. Mr. Ferrier is a professional designer — through his firm Discommon — and a passionate watch collector with a taste for vintage Tag Heuer. But the search was fruitless.As future cofounder James Walker summarized, “everything was fairies and princesses and spider man and bubble gum, and so on.” They aren’t really watches; they’re knick-knacks that display the current time but lack any connection to the craft of timekeeping. The two men would meet at an event in northwestern Italy that year — Mr. Ferrier noticed that Mr. Walker was using a wallet made by a Discommon client— and got talking about the idea.As Mr. Walker recalls, “He threw the idea out to me” — of a proper children’s watch — “and said, ‘Have you ever thought about this’? And I said no, but it sounds — famous last words — like something we ought to try and fix.” Years of work later, and Blok is the result.And from the first impression — unwrapping the 33 from its recycled denim and cardboard packaging — it’s clear this isn’t just another toy. It’s unquestionably a proper watch, just one made for children. And achieving that was no small task.Aside from its child-friendly lightweight and small size — the titular 33 is in reference to its millimeter diameter — there are a range of clever design and manufacturing touches designed to make it easier for children to tell and learn the time on it. There are the 12 titular ‘blocks’ on the dial, which help demarcate which hour the hand is on, and give a broader sense of the current time; but most importantly, communicate to children that time can be broken up into measurable chunks.It also means that it’s surprisingly readable, despite its diminutive size. My particular review sample uses contrasting golden yellow for the details, meaning the minute hand, and even the small minute markers, remain easily legible.Though phones allow children to quickly check the current time, it doesn’t teach them about its passing, the notion that time is finite, measurable, and to be used. To check the time on your smartphone also opens you up to the temptation of endless social media feeds and flickering distractions, whereas a timepiece, mechanically providing one function, feels purposeful and refreshingly simple. Perhaps this is why mechanical watches are having a resurgence in population with my generation — Gen Z — who grew up on the internet.Blok currently has two models on offer. The new, smaller, cheaper ‘31’ costs $89, is powered by a Ronda Quartz movement, and is intended for five- to seven-year-olds. Then you have the ETA-powered 33, aimed at up to twelve-year-olds — and me, apparently.Though they share the ‘block’-centric design language, they have different intentions. As Mr. Ferrier summarizes, “We think of the 33 as a time management watch, but we think of the 31 as a time telling watch.”To that end, the 31 has a simpler design and loom for easy legibility, whereas the rotating bezel of the 33 allows children to easily measure and track the passing of time. Turn the gently ratcheting bezel, and you can line up a five-minute, ten-minute, 15-minute, or half-hour marker with the minute hand and track the passing of time.On my wrist, this is a fun detail. Yet, for a child, it’s a wonderful aid in understanding that time is a resource to be measured and managed.The 33 also has some features that are unnecessary for a children’s product but attest to it being a quality watch. It has 300 feet of water resistance, courtesy of a screw-down crown seal, and uses a sapphire crystal lens for added durability.And then there are the color choices, which range from Valentino fuchsia and Tiffany aqua to Rolex GMT navy blue and a subtle blended gray. My black and gold variant is charmingly reminiscent of John Player Special racing car liveries.Blok WatchesFor those of us who truly love them, timepieces are not symbols of affluence but beautiful testaments to intricate engineering and design, and the appeal of a watch is often in the purpose behind that.A Richard Mille easily conveys you have millions in disposable income, but its design comes from trying to make complex, detailed movements within a light case, able to endure the physics of their sportsman wearers. That’s what originally attracted watch lovers to them.On the other end of the price spectrum, the metronome feature of my Seiko SMW006, and its purpose as a musician’s tool, is why it’s so charming and beautiful, even to those of us who will never use it.Blok fits perfectly into that spirit. For a parent, it’s a beautiful way to introduce your child to analog time; but long after it was necessary for this piece, the 33 remains on my wrist. It’s such a purposeful design, and friends with far more expensive watch collections than my own love it.As such, it’s not surprising that Blok has received requests to make an “adult” watch, which they’re toying over. As Mr. Ferrier notes, “Having sorted 31 and 33 millimeters, 37 is like being given an extra two acres to build your swimming pool on.”They’re also going to play with more movements, which bring function to the children’s watch. As Mr. Walker tells me, “There’s some fun potentially to be had with a chronograph. I think that would be cool for kids.”In the meantime, the 33 will stay where it belongs, right on my wrist.

Blok Shows That Children’s Watches Don’t Have To Be Toys

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