 A small company with friendly personal service.
Minnesota; Land of Ten
Thousand Lakes. And a place with some of the most extreme temperature differences on the
planet. During winter, Minnesota often is colder than Alaska and temperatures can easily
reach -30° Fahrenheit (-30° Celsius), even without the wind chill factor. A record cold
of -60° Fahrenheit was reported in February of 1996 in Tower, Minnesota.
In stark contrast to the cold winters are the hot (and usually humid) summers.
Temperatures can easily reach +104° Fahrenheit (+40° Celsius). The hottest temperature
ever recorded in Minnesota even went as high as +114° Fahrenheit (+45° Celsius).
These kind of environmental extremes (and the fact that there is plenty of water around
with the more than 10,000 lakes and more shoreline than California, Florida and Hawaii
combined) make Minnesota a great place to test our sports and diver watches and to make
sure they'll hold up to anything that you (and mother nature) can throw at them.
But there is more. Minnesota has a rich history of watch and clock making. Today, the Twin
Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul host one of the last three remaining watchmaking
schools in the country and the watchmaking program is recognized by WOSTEP, even sponsored
by Rolex.
What better place for us to start than Minnesota?
My wife and I originally came from Germany, just like many of the ancestors of Minnesotans
living here today that came over from the old country. We brought with us a strong work
ethic and values that fit right in with the mid-western culture. As an electrical
engineer, my fascination with mechanical watches went beyond engineering and
micro-mechanics. To me, the sweeping of the seconds hand and the ticking of the movement
are reminders of a time before modern electronics and computers and what Swiss and German
engineers were able to create long before I went to engineering school (even before I was
born). I am very passionate about mechanical watches and collecting them. So I took
classes to learn more about what makes them tick and ultimately tend to them, fix them and
service them myself when needed.
One day, during a business trip to Germany, I met Marcell Kainz, founder and owner of
Marcello C. (the guy in the photo at the top left) and we got to talk. I had owned one of
his watches for a while, but had only been able to find it in a store in Germany. As a
collector on a budget, I was impressed with his creations, wanted them to be available to
other collectors here in the US, yet had a strong opinion about certain companies
importing watches into the United States that I had purchased from in the past. I found
many of the importers in it just for the money, marking up prices and providing no real
value or service. There simply was no passion for the mechanical timepieces they sold.
Something must have struck a nerve with Marcell and he offered me the opportunity to
become their US Distributor. And just like Marcel, who had worked for some of the bigger
players in the watch industry before he decided to start his own brand, I took my money
where my mouth is, invested my savings into tools and inventory and started
MarcelloC-watches together with my wife.
That was more than 7 years ago. We set out to treat our customers here in the US the way
we wanted to be treated, a novel concept in this industry (or so it seemed, given all the
positive responses by our customers). And we wanted to keep it real. Avoiding overhead and
keeping the watches affordable for collectors without taking shortcuts in quality still is
our strength; a challenge these days with the exchange rate of the Euro against the US$
climbing steadily for the past few years. We don't place expensive ads that only add cost
and provide no value to the watch (or the collector) and instead, focus on bringing you
the highest grade movements, individually regulated inside our watches and the highest
quality, fit and finish of cases, bracelets etc.. Every watch that leaves our warehouse in
Minnesota has been checked by me personally, been tested on a modern watch timing machine
and than set to your local time before my wife carefully packs and ships them to you.
Should you need gift-wrapping or have any other special requirements, just let us know and
we'll do our best to help.
Yes, We are still a small
company with little to no corporate overhead and have only been selling these watches in
the United States since the year 2002. But we have a passion for horology and aren't
in this just for the money. We make up for our small company size with friendly personal
service that goes the extra mile, and a desire to make ownership of a quality watch
affordable for our customers. Don't just take my word for it; talk to our customers, read
some of their testimonials and become part of the growing family of raving fans of these
mechanical timepieces.
MarcelloC-watches earned the right to be the exclusive North-American distributor for
Marcello C. watches. These days, we are looking to add more resellers to our family
that share our customer focus. This, we believe, will benefit our customers when they
get an opportunity to see, touch and compare our watches right at their favorite local
watch store.
Until you can meet us in person
and see what we are all about, here are some photos that help tell the story:
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