IB Watches
About Us
Our Story
Founded On A Love Of Timeless Design
IB Watches began with a simple observation: the most enduring style is rarely the loudest. Our founder, then several years into a career spent designing products for other people's brands, kept returning to the same frustration — watches that looked remarkable in a photograph but felt disposable within a year. Bold complications, seasonal colourways, cases built to be replaced rather than repaired. She set out instead to design a small collection of watches and accessories that could be worn every day for years without ever feeling dated: minimal cases, considered proportions, and materials chosen to age gracefully rather than simply photograph well.
The first pieces were drawn on a kitchen table in London, sampled in small batches, and tested for months before a single one was offered for sale. There was no marketing budget to speak of, only a conviction that people were tired of buying watches twice — once for the look, and again a year later when the finish had worn through. Early customers found us through word of mouth and a handful of independent stockists, drawn by a case shape that resisted trends and a price that reflected honest materials rather than a marketing premium. Those first sales funded the second collection, and the pattern has repeated, carefully, ever since.
What began as a single watch style grew, collection by collection, into a considered wardrobe of watches, straps and accessories, each one held to the same standard the first pieces set. We opened our first boutique doors to meet the customers who had, until then, only known us online, and we built a small in-house workshop so that finishing and quality control never left our hands. Today IB Watches is worn far beyond the London studio where it started, but the brief has never changed: design something quietly, deliberately good, and let it earn its place over years of wear rather than a single season. That is still the only ambition behind everything we make.
Our Founder
A Life Spent Looking Closely At Things
Isabelle spent the decade before IB Watches designing objects for other people's brands — cutlery, lighting, small leather goods — always drawn to the pieces engineered to outlast their maker's attention span. Watches were a late discovery. It was her grandfather's own timepiece, an unremarkable watch kept running for over forty years through nothing more than regular servicing and evident care, that convinced her a well-made watch was less an accessory than a small, private form of engineering — one she wanted to design herself.
She trained across product design and industrial engineering before spending several years in workshops learning how cases are machined, how dials are set, and how a mesh bracelet is built to move with a wrist rather than against it. That hands-on grounding still shapes every decision at IB Watches: nothing is approved for production until Isabelle has worn a working sample for weeks, not days. "A watch has to disappear onto your wrist," she says. "If you notice it for the wrong reasons, we haven't finished the job." It's a simple standard, applied without exception, and it remains the clearest description of what the brand is trying to do.
Our Philosophy
Designed To Last, Not To Trend
Timeless Design
Restrained silhouettes that never chase a season.
Quality
Precise movements and finishes built to be worn daily.
Craftsmanship
Every detail considered, from clasp to case back.
Everyday Elegance
Pieces meant to move seamlessly from day to evening.
Milestones
A Brand Built Year By Year
IB Watches is founded in London, built around a single minimal case design and a promise to make watches worth keeping.
Our debut collection launches in three finishes, sold in small batches directly to early customers and a handful of independent stockists.
We open our first London boutique, giving customers a place to see, try and service their watches in person for the first time.
IB Watches passes a significant customer milestone, with pieces worn and passed down by a growing community around the world.
We introduce the Ashfield collection, our most refined release yet, built on everything a decade of daily wear had taught us.
Quality & Craftsmanship
Made To Be Handed Down
Each case is finished by hand, each dial checked individually before it leaves our workshop. We work with Japanese quartz movements prized for their accuracy and longevity, and mesh and leather strap suppliers chosen for consistency, not cost. Every movement is cased and tested for accuracy over a minimum of seventy-two hours before a watch is approved for sale, and cases are inspected under magnification for the smallest inconsistency in a brushed or polished finish.
Our workshop team follows a build sheet for every reference, checking water resistance, crown action, clasp tension and bracelet alignment by hand rather than relying on automated sampling alone. A finished piece passes through at least four sets of hands before it reaches its box — case assembly, movement fitting, quality control and final polish — each stage signed off before the next begins.
It's a slower way of making watches, and it costs us more in time than a mass-produced alternative ever would. But it's the only way we know how to make something worth keeping — a watch you service rather than replace, and one that, with proper care, should comfortably outlast the box it arrived in.
Sustainability & Responsibility
Built To Be Kept, Not Replaced
The most sustainable watch is the one you never need to replace, and that belief sits behind every material decision we make. Our stainless steel is sourced from suppliers who meet recognised responsible-sourcing standards, and the leathers we use come from tanneries independently audited for both environmental and labour practices. We favour finishes and movements proven over decades rather than novel materials with an unproven lifespan, because a watch that fails within a few years is never truly good value, however little it cost to buy.
Durability is, in our view, the most meaningful form of sustainability a small brand can offer. A case built to be serviced rather than discarded, a strap designed to be replaced on its own rather than sending the whole watch to landfill, and spare parts kept in stock for years after a collection retires — these choices matter more, over time, than any single material claim.
We've also worked to keep our footprint modest where customers rarely look: packaging is minimal, printed with soy-based inks on recycled card, and designed to be reused rather than thrown away. It's a small gesture, but one in keeping with everything else we make.
Why Choose Us
Timeless Design
Considered silhouettes that suit every wardrobe, every year.
Premium Quality
Reliable movements and finishes, tested for everyday wear.
Carefully Selected Collections
A tightly edited range, so every piece earns its place.
Customer Support
A dedicated team, reachable by phone or email whenever you need us.