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Watch Brand Vieren Unveils NYC Pop-up

As the world becomes ever more digitized, Vieren founders Sunny Fong and Jess Chow decided to revive a finely crafted classic from an era long gone by: the automatic watch.

“There is a whole generation out there today that relies on the clock on their phones to tell time. But we felt we could reintroduce them to the more personal, timeless feel of the automatic watch and do it in an innovative, gender neutral way,” said Vawk designer Fong, 2009’s winner of Project Runway Canada.

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Both Fong and Chow, a former Toronto-based management consultant who grew up in a family of watchmakers, wanted their bespoke watches to have a rectangular face, which is relatively rare in the industry.

To bring their vision to life the duo began collaborating with a team in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, to create sleek, monochromatic statement pieces that married modernist architecture and minimalist art with the well-crafted mechanics of their timepieces.

What emerged from this process was Vieren’s’ first OG Automatic collection — either in a matte or diamond design. Now, in celebration of its first anniversary, Vieren is launching the Black Croc, which will retail for $1,950 and is a day-to-night dress watch that takes the brand’s traditional rectangular face inspired by Fong’s high school graduation gift and updates it with black crocodile-embossed leather that extends from the band through the dial.

The style, along with Vieren’s latest timepieces, will be showcased in New York City at a pop-up in NoLIta running from Thursday to Sept. 12.

“This was a big chance for us to convey our story and reflect a new generation of luxury watchmaking,” said Chow.

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