A moment with…Daniel Niederer, founder and owner of SevenFriday

A moment with…Daniel Niederer, founder and owner of SevenFriday

The carpe diem approach to design

Daniel Niederer, founder and owner of SevenFriday launched his own line of watches in 2012.

With over 15 years of experience in the watch industry, Daniel Niederer launched his own brand of watches in 2012. He speaks to us about his approach to launching his own line of “affordable luxury” watches and why his wife refuses to wear his watches.

I couldn’t find an environment that I really want to work in… I’m slightly stubborn that way and in the end the logical approach was to start my own watch brand.

I didn’t have a specific design in mind (for the first P1 model)… but I have a carpe diem approach to life and that’s how SevenFriday as a watch brand was envisioned to operate. From there, the rest evolved as a natural extension of what we wanted to achieve.

My wife wears an Audemars Piguet… It’s the first expensive watch that I bought her. So, it doesn’t mean that she has to wear a SevenFriday timepiece as well. It’s too big for her and, personally, it’s not to her taste.

There’s no answer as to what’s the right watch to wear… I have my philosophy for the brand and I don’t believe in coercing watch buyers to think otherwise. Ok, maybe I do make her wear my watches occasionally [laughs].

(A Japanese movement) gives us the best arrangement… in which to lay out our components at a price point that makes sense. Our designs have certain values, just like how you’ll purchase a German engineered luxury sedan. Not everything is made in Germany, but what you’re getting is a quality car made by the best people who are able to guarantee that everything is up to scratch.

The M2-2 as you’ve probably noticed is the next progression… whereby it’s more refined like an Italian gentleman while the previous models had a rough-around-the-edges industrial look. I’m also launching a new V-series and that’s exciting, because of all the people that we’ve shown the prototype to; only two were able to read the time off the dial. I can’t reveal the shape of the dial just yet, but it’s definitely not round.