Business of Fashion

Although my voice and article content is not influenced, this is a sponsored post.

If you follow my blog or instagram, you know that I am a fan and collector of watches—mostly Rolex. Of course, cool watches are not exclusive to well-known luxury brands.

Wooden Watch Review

Recent Instagram post showcasing some of my Rolex watches with a colorful new addition c/o JORD.

Allow me to introduce you to a cool watch company: JORD watches are unique and luxe.

JORD is a watch company that offers men’s and women’s wood watch lines. And although one of my Audemars Piguet watches runs on a battery, I am partial to watches with automatic movement.* So I was pleased to discover that this eco-friendly, sustainable fashion watch company carries automatic watches.

My experience with my new cool watch

My watch collection was missing a watch with a skeleton aperture. So I am glad to have gotten the opportunity to fill this need with such a unique watch. Although I got this watch for free c/o JORD, it is something I would have purchased on my own. It is an excellent choice for an affordable skeleton watch.

Enter my JORD giveaway for your own cool watch or unique gift for Father’s Day. 😉

I am pleased to report that this wood watch has held up to my non-prissy wear. Sweat has not dulled it. It seems to only get more beautiful with wear.

Me wearing my JORD wood watch on a water taxi in Chicago

This watch is more lightweight than I expected. I am accustomed to heavy watches so I find myself constantly checking to see if it is still on. I have not had any problems with the watch unclipping, getting caught on a garment, or opening during wear.

The crown is stiff and sturdy and features the engraving of the JORD J logo.

Wooden wrist watch fashion law

I have previously discussed eco-conscious fashion—but eco friendly wooden watches?

The watch I have is made of Purpleheart wood. Purpleheart grows in Latin American rain forests. Over-harvesting has caused several species to become endangered in areas where they were once abundant. In Costa Rica and Panama, purpleheart wood is an economically valuable tree; however, purplewood harvest is prohibited by law. Naturally fallen trees and sustainable farms provide legal wood.

How is using trees to make jewelry “good” for the environment?

JORD utilizes wood that would otherwise end up in the waste cycle. A great majority of the wood comes from furniture remnants. They are also mindful of not being wasteful during the manufacturing and production of their wood watches.

Enter my JORD giveaway

This deep purple hue is natural, as with all JORD watches, no dyes or hazardous materials are used. All of these wood watches are treated with natural substances. Only natural tung oil is used to treat the wood.

Cool watches make unique gifts and great additions to professional wardrobes

Cool watches are a fun addition to all wardrobes. They make unique gifts too.

The chronograph sidney maple watch with rose gold face is adorable. It retails for less than $200 and comes with keepsake wooden watch holder. This watch comes in more masculine wood and watch face colors.

A wood watch would make a great father’s day gift for men who like watches or sustainable fashion. Although the watches I pictured are quite girly, many JORD watches are unisex.

JORD also makes watches for men. Check them out for cool watches and unique gifts.

Brand protection

Jord means earth in Swedish. I read this on the live registered trademark application of a prior user of the mark. The prior user claimed and holds rights to categories of unrelated engineering services. Since JORD watches are in the fashion field, they were also allowed the trademark to the JORD mark.

Similar or same word marks may be owned by different parties when the goods or services are not deemed to be confusingly similar to the consumer. The original user did not create secondary meaning for the word mark nor is the secondary user trying to piggyback off of fame created by the first mark.

Enter my JORD giveaway by June 16, 2016 for your own cool watch or unique gift in time for Father’s Day.

The JORD watch company uses its name and a decorate J logo for its branding. Brand protection and anti-counterfeit measures are only by-products of JORD’s marketing:

“As far as brand protection/anti-counterfeit goes, we don’t have to really deal with that a whole bunch. We’re still super young” … “It’s pretty easy for us to keep a close eye on where our product is going, and how it is being presented”

It is dangerous for a company to wait until they are a popular brand or manufacturing at a large scale to consider brand protection. Although it is not necessary for JORD to also trademark their J logo, it would be a good idea to prevent others from using similar markings on their watches.

Of course, their use of the J gives them common law rights. And if a Chinese manufacturer were to copy them, it’d be an uphill battle to enforce rights, particularly trademarks rights that do not cover another country. Although JORD closely manages their manufacturing facilities in China, even Apple has fallen victim to loss of its IP rights in China.

Enter my JORD giveaway by June 16, 2016

JORD wood watch unboxing video

I am sorry for the low lighting. I did a last minute unboxing video for my JORD watch before heading out on a red eye flight.

*In case you don’t know, watches with automatic movement are watches that do not run on batteries. Instead these watches are self-winding: the mechanical watch movement is wound by the motion of the wearer’s wrist.