Stylish Kids Watches - A Short Story
This is the well-travelled story of a mum who couldn’t find the perfect watch for her son so decided to design it herself.
A seed was planted
In Barcelona in 2018 Isabelle Gavray's son Leo wanted to know when he was going to be collected from school. Isabelle thought that a watch would help him to visualise the passing of time. So they began to search for kids watches. But the options were limited and they couldn't find a watch that they really liked.
The big dream
They forgot about watches for a while and in early 2019 the family packed their bags and set off to live their big dream - travelling the World.
Their adventure took them through the Americas.
And it is just there on that long road leading down to the beach in Palomino, Colombia that Isabelle had a sudden visualisation - four cute children's watches!
Isabelle kept thinking about those watches. Strolling the streets of Cusco, Peru, she asked the universe to send her a sign - should she make stylish kids watches?!
The universe said YES! Five minutes later she came across this street vendor selling watches surrounded by kids waiting to buy them.
Designed on an adventure
From a tropical terrace in Costa Rica Isabelle set to work designing four children's watches - what would be the first Mini Kyomo collection.
The watches would have easy to read faces for learning to tell the time, washable straps for the muckiest of littlies and a mix and match palette with pops of colour and muted tones.
They wouldn't just look the part, they would be made with sustainable materials, equipped with a shock-resistant Japanese movement, robust mineral glass and be waterproof too.
Crossing Continents
In early 2020 the family were in India, where the first samples of the Mini Kyomo Friendship collection arrived.
Isabelle flew to France just in time for the brand to make its first appearance at Playtime Paris. After a successful show the family decided to return to Europe and soon moved back to Spain.
And then...
Covid
...the factory producing the watches had to close. Stock was delayed by two months.
But it did arrive! And at Antipoda Co we were instantly in love. We knew we had to bring Mini Kyomo watches to Australia, so of course we placed an order.
Thankfully the pandemic hasn't stopped this great little brand expanding. They have recently launched a new seashore inspired collection, La Mer.
Stylish Kids Watches in Australia
And that is the cute story of how a small need turned into an idea, into a plan, into a product and into our hands last week at Antipoda Co.
You can shop both the Friendship and the La Mer collections here
