About us · A personal beginning
For a life
you make
your own.
I could not find the watch I wanted to live with.
So I decided to build it.
01 · The search
I was looking
for my watch.
The question that started
FRITZ MENDEL.
I looked at the watches I was supposed to want. I kept coming back to the life I actually lead.
Rolex, Hublot and the Omega Speedmaster were all part of that search. I looked at new watches and considered buying preowned. There was plenty to admire, but I kept feeling that I was choosing someone else’s idea of the right watch.
Some designs felt too traditional for me. Others carried an image of status or spectacle that did not feel like my own. The Speedmaster was a serious option, but I wanted something less familiar and more personal.
I admired A. Lange & Söhne. The watches that drew me in were far beyond the budget I had in mind. Buying preowned offered another route, but it still left the central question unanswered.
What would the best new mechanical watch for my everyday life look like if I could spend just under €5,000?
That question became FRITZ MENDEL.
02 · The whole of everyday
One watch.
The whole day.
My life moves between children, work, sport and time with the people I love. I want a watch that feels right through all of it.
Beautiful under a shirt cuff. Comfortable when I am active. Distinctive enough to feel personal. Something I reach for each morning and keep on wearing.
- Picking the children up from school.
- Getting things done in the garden.
- Walking into a meeting in a three piece suit.
- Going rowing.
- Taking the helm under sail.
- Training at the gym.
- Going out for the evening with my wife.
This is the life we are designing for. Comfort, resilience and suitability for those settings are goals that the engineering, prototypes and testing must prove.
The attitude behind the watch
For people who
make things happen.
I want to build for people who take their lives into their own hands. People who start things, take responsibility, look after their families and keep going when the obvious route does not work.
A watch can mark the moment you decide to back yourself. It should then belong to the life you are building, through the ordinary days as well as the milestones.
That is what Elegance with Purpose means to me.
03 · The ambition
The best watch
we can build.
Under€5,000Target retail price · A new mechanical watch
The first watch has to earn your belief in the brand.
Our ambition is to put as much of the price as possible into the watch itself: the movement, the case, the dial, the bracelet, the finishing and the experience of wearing it.
For the first standard model, the intention is to cover the cost of making and delivering the watch, the applicable taxes and a modest organisational allowance. We are not aiming to earn a product profit margin on that model.
We intend to build profitability through later models. The first one is our opportunity to establish what FRITZ MENDEL stands for and to create exceptional value for the people who believe in it early.
This is our commercial intention and development target. Final pricing and specifications will be confirmed as the watch develops.
04 · An open invitation
Let’s build
this together.
I am now looking for people who share the ambition and want to do the work with me. People with the skill to improve it, the judgement to challenge it and the commitment to help bring it to life.
Watchmakers & engineers
Help turn the design into a watch that works beautifully. Movement integration, case construction, prototyping, assembly and testing.
Designers & makers
Challenge the proportions and solve the details. Dials, hands, cases, bracelets, materials and finishing all have to work together.
Creatives & entrepreneurs
Help tell the story with conviction, find the right partners and build a business capable of delivering on the promise.
Future owners
Bring your experience of wearing watches. Tell us what earns a place on your wrist, what gets in the way and what you still cannot find.
Tell me what you could bring.
Build FRITZ MENDEL with meEmail Paul directly at mendel@fritzmendel.de
The watch is in development. Product and lifestyle images are design visualisations; details may evolve.