Meet the owners
Meet Karim and Matt
Born out of a shared passion for beautiful timepieces, Cambridge based Beaucroft Watches is the creation of friends Karim Faisali and Matt Herd. Here Karim explains how the unique venture began
What inspired Beaucroft Watches?
I’ve always been a watch collector and have had a growing interest over the past decade. Matt and I have been friends for well over 14 years, and his background is as a design engineer, so he is very meticulous in his design, and my background is in products and branding. We have both had our own journeys as to why we wanted to start a watch company.
Can you pinpoint when your love of watches began?
There were three key points throughout my life. The first was during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. My father is Iranian, and my mother is Northern Irish, and Dad’s family was exiled during the revolution. They had to literally pack a suitcase and leave and so amid the chaos of packing, Dad grabbed his watches, as these were among his most valued possessions. He wanted to be able to pass them on to me.
The second point was when I was working in the Middle East, because out there, men don’t really wear jewellery, so their only expression is through watches. I remember the excitement when someone had a new watch!
The third point was when I had my son. I was working in London and decided that I no longer wanted to commute, and instead wanted to create a product so I’d have something to pass down to him, as my dad passed his watches to me.
How did you come up with a watch design?
We jumped on a plane and went to Baselworld, the big watch show, to pick out a few watches that we loved. Out of the hundreds of models there, we both liked the same brands and styles, so we knew our views were aligned. We wanted to create the most beautiful watch we could without compromising on quality, at an exciting pricepoint. We spent about five years designing the watch, challenging every aspect, from the buckle to the dial, then officially launched at the start of the first lockdown in March 2020.
Tell us about your first range, The Senate?
The name comes from Senate House Passage because when we were walking around looking for design inspiration, we decided that this passage is quintessentially Cambridge. From there, you can see the town and the gown, and both converge on this beauty spot. The Senate range has five different dials, is gender neutral and has a number of quickrelease straps, so you can wear a canvas strap for daytime then switch to black leather for the evening, for example.
What type of watches are they?
They are purely mechanical. That was important to us because we felt in today’s digital world, being offline feels like a luxury. Plus, there is something quite beautiful about the old techniques that go into a mechanical watch.
Tell us about your collaborations?
We’ve got some great partnerships with Cambridge ‘experience brands’. We’re partnered with The Gin Lab and have space in their Green Street store. It has been a great way to meet our customers, who would come in and enjoy a nice gin and tonic, while Matt and I would provide a watch sitting, giving a tailored service. We’ve since trained up some watch gurus at The Gin Lab, so they sell our products
for us.
We’re also partnered with Rutherford’s Punting, so you can have a relaxed watch fitting as you sail along the River Cam, which is great fun!
What are your dreams for Beaucroft Watches?
Though we sell worldwide via our website, our goal is to be Cambridge’s number one watch company. We have just signed a licence agreement with the University of Cambridge, so there are some amazing opportunities there.
We have joined 1% For The Planet, so we have launched a new watch, Eden Green, to mark that. It’s such a good vibe being an indie business in Cambridge, and it’s been great to be part of that.”
Find out more about Beaucroft Watches at beaucroftwatches.com and check them out on Green Street inside The Gin Lab