Just after having arthroscopic surgery due to being hit by a car in the busy town, he had an idea. The surgery and idea came on Friday the 13th. One piece of the idea came weeks ago, another piece came days before, on this Friday the 13th it mostly came together. He started writing, bouncing ideas around with his wife, gaining additional insights through hours and hours of research. He took action to better understand the industry his idea was associated with and started taking action. All of this in a weekend.
He contacted designers, manufacturers, brand managers, and other industry insiders. He didn't get overwhelmed the more he learned, he became more and more excited which spurred him on even more. In three weeks he had a website, a blog, designers, designs, suppliers, and began working towards building an audience.
Over the past few weeks, he's finalized designs, developed a collection, named the collections as well as the individual timepieces, and still feels he's moving slow.
He is me, the founder of The Harlem Watch Company, Dwight Richards. For decades I've been an admirer of watches, loving some, admiring some, and overall loving them all, (for the most part). But nonetheless, I've always been interested in having and taking a look at fine timepieces whenever they're in my presence.
As I am a third-generation Harlemite, who has come back home, I have a newfound respect and admiration for the city within a city I grew up in. The history, the people, the places, and its overall allure. COVID has given most of us an opportunity to slow down and think through what's really important in life, change what we're doing and take action towards that important something. Over the past few years, I've lost my grandfather, my dad, my brother, and others.
So for me that something was moving back to Harlem to be close to my 80-year-old mom, (don't tell her I told you), and my 98-year-old grandmother, the matriarchs of our six living generations of family who are here in Harlem.
That's my story, I'm sticking to it, and there's more to come. Take a moment to subscribe to our email list for more insights associated with The Harlem Watch Company. And you can go to our contact page to drop me a line, it would be great to hear from you.
- Dwight Richards, Founder
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