One of the things that draws me to shows like the Vancouver Timepiece Show is the creative independence on display. These brands get to play with colors, styles, and materials much more freely than we typically see from legacy or stalwart brands in the watch industry. For years, many see brands at these shows and the young and up-and-coming brands to keep your eye on. But for some independent brands, they are no longer a brands that are ‘growing up;’ some of them are just ‘grown up.’ Gavox Watches out of Belgium is a perfect example of that.
Founder Michael Happé started the brand in 2011, initially drawn into aviation watches after people around him started asking if he could make a watch for their squadron. Since then, Gavox has produced nearly 2,000 watch projects for air forces and aviation companies worldwide, across around 60 different models.
But the aviation roots go deeper than that. Michael’s grandfather served with the Flying Tigers as a crew chief, and even was sent to China to train the Chinese to fight the Japanese. And if that backstory wasn’t enough, Michael also has documentation that an ancestor of his, a navigator for the Dutch India Company, reached Australia in 1616, two years before Capt. James Cook. He planted a tin plate that read “we from the Dutch India Company claim this land, land of Holland.” And that story is the soul of Gavox’s watch, the Longitude.
Navigating the world of a new generation of GMT
The Longitude is a GMT built around the very concept that made marine navigation possible, that a reliable timepiece is all you need to know exactly where you are in the world. Starting with the dial, it carries that theme forward with vibes of oceans and exploration. The bracelet, with its pyramid shaped links meeting a polished center link, rolls like a wave when you tilt it in the light. It runs on a Miyota 9075 series GMT movement, features a bi-directional steel bezel, internal rehaut minute markers, a four handed display, date at 6 o’clock, and 200 meters of water resistance. All of that for €1,050.
Michael Happé- Watch Journey
For Michael his watch journey can be traced back to age seven, when his father brought home Chinese watch catalogues and a new and novel quartz watch that could show both time… and date. From there a watch he drowned, several times, then on to Seiko, Casio, Tissot, and eventually a cousin who was the master designer at Longines, who showed him how it was all done and went with him to Hong Kong Watch Fair and Baselworld to figure out the rest to create his own watches.
Outside of his own brand, Michael is a Grand Seiko aficionado. A visit to the Fukushima manufacture after the disaster there, again back in 2011, and a meeting with the director at that Grand Seiko got him hooked. The Snowflake remains his number one watch in his collection that is not one of his own.
Links and Notes
Find Gavox at gavox.com or their Instagram.
Links in the show notes. Find the Analog Explorer in your favorite podcast app or support the show on Substack at analogexplorer.com.
Fac tempus ad explorandum — make the time to explore.
