Monceau Watches Erupt from the Sands of Time: An Interview with Simon Ryan
Photo of the Model 01 provided by Monceau Watches.
If you’re itching for a new watch, there’s no shortage of emerging brands out there vying for your coveted wrist time. Some are entirely new ventures, while others are phoenixes rising from the ashes of the Quartz Crisis. The 1970s were, after all, the Thanos snap of the mechanical watch world—a disruptive blip that dusted more than a few beloved brands for decades (if not, for good). But like any good Marvel arc, many have returned: Fears, Nivada Grenchen, Vertex, Doxa, Vulcain, Aquastar, and even Universal Genève are back in action.
Enter Monceau—a Swiss watch brand that first surfaced in the 1950s before quietly fading into obscurity during the ‘70s. Its comeback story is unlike the rest, and its Kickstarter launches tomorrow. With a hazy lineage and little documentation, Monceau’s rebirth hinges not on archives but on the passion and curiosity of one man: Simon Ryan. Equal parts enthusiast and brand whisperer, Ryan is Monceau’s modern-day Doctor Frankenstein, breathing new life into a forgotten name.
Photo of the Model 01 provided by Moceau Watches.
Who Is Simon Ryan?
Simon Ryan is a lifelong watch lover and a veteran of design, with three decades of branding experience under his belt. You might know him from Escapement24, his YouTube channel where he reviews watches, shares commentary, and interviews some of the industry’s most creative voices.
Photo of Simon Ryan provided by Monceau Watches.
But his horological origin story is far from typical.
It begins with a box of digital watches packed into the back of a family car.
(Buckle up, folks—because this one gets friggin nuts.)
In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Simon’s father traveled often for work—mostly to Eastern Europe. The nature of his business was vague, at least to Simon as a child. “What exactly he did, we didn’t really know,” Simon recalled. “As we understood it, he brokered deals for various types of machinery.”
Work trips often doubled as family vacations. By age nine, Simon had visited most of Europe and made no fewer than six trips to the U.S. Whenever the family drove, his father always packed the car meticulously—and on one trip, Simon noticed a box of digital watches loaded on top of the luggage.
“What are you doing with those?” young Simon asked.
“They’re just gifts,” his father replied.
Turns out, they weren’t just gifts. His father would offer one to customs agents at border crossings—just a friendly gesture, of course. As a kid, it all seemed perfectly normal. Years later, after his parents divorced and his father moved to Australia, Simon learned the truth: his dad wasn’t a machinery broker—he was an arms dealer, brokering secretive deals between government entities across the globe.
Photo of Simon Ryan and his father in 1977, provided by Monceau Watches.
Looking back, Simon sees those early trips through a more complicated lens. But that memory of the box of watches never left him. As a teen, he bought himself a Casio World Time. When he started his own marketing agency, he marked the occasion with a grown-up purchase: an Oris. Then another Oris. Then some Omegas. And by 2019, he was toying with the idea of starting a YouTube channel inspired by the likes of Adrian Barker and Teddy Baldassarre.
He recorded a first video… and hated it. Deleted it.
Fast forward to 2021. The world was in lockdown, and Simon decided to try again. This time, he followed through. Escapement24 was born, and it quickly earned a following for its mix of thoughtful reviews and candid interviews—like his emotional chat with Sylvain Berneron of Berneron Watches shortly after Sylvain won a GPHG award for the Mirage, or a fun sit-down with Max Büsser of MB&F at the M.A.D. House in Geneva.
Photo of Simon Ryan and Max Büsser during an interview for Escapement24, provided by Monceau Watches.
The Revival of Monceau
Simon’s day job has always been branding, but eventually, his love of watches and his professional background intersected in a meaningful way. He began work on launching his own brand, starting from scratch and brainstorming names. Around the same time, his collecting habits shifted toward vintage—particularly while searching for a birth-year watch as he approached 50.
One night, deep in an eBay scroll, he found something unexpected: a vintage Monceau chronograph.
“Because I didn’t know the name, I was curious. I thought, ‘Who are these guys? How come I’ve never heard of them?’ I couldn’t find much info, and that just made me more curious.”
Monceau turned out to be something of a mystery. Simon eventually connected with a collector in Spain who owned several new old stock pieces and could fill in a few blanks. But even this die-hard fan knew little about the brand’s origins. What was clear is that Monceau specialized in chronographs, many powered by the Valjoux 7734.
Vintage Monceau Chronographs.
“There was a moment when I thought, here’s this brand that made some beautiful watches and just vanished. It felt unjust. And I thought—what if I could bring it back?”
That idea took hold. Despite the perception that reviving a Swiss brand would be prohibitively expensive, Simon discovered—through calls with manufacturers and suppliers—that it was more feasible than expected. The timing was perfect. His branding instincts, his vintage collecting phase, and his fascination with Monceau all collided to create a unique opportunity.
So I asked: Given Simon’s background, did the lack of a clean, well-documented history for Monceau appeal to him?
“From a marketing perspective, sure—it would’ve been great to have a richer backstory. Collectors love heritage. But I didn’t want to invent something fake. Instead, I can create a new story, starting now.”
Photo of the Sellita Calibre SW210-1 manual winding movement in the Model 01, provided by Monceau Watches.
Enter the Model 01
Simon’s first release under the revived Monceau banner is the Model 01, and it's deeply symbolic. The dial’s grainy, sandy texture is a visual nod to the brand being “lost to the sands of time.” Rather than recreate a specific vintage Monceau design, Simon designed the Model 01 as a watch that could have existed—had the brand survived and evolved naturally.
Photo of the Model 01 provided by Monceau Watches.
“It’s a mix of my preferences,” he admitted, smiling. “There’s some vintage and modern Zenith Defy in there, a bit of Czapek, some Christopher Ward, a little Tissot…”
And yet, despite the melting pot of influences, the Model 01 feels cohesive and original. It’s a product of Simon’s imagination, experience, and reverence for the past—not bound by it.
Monceau may not have the tidy historical arc of its resurrected peers, but in Simon Ryan’s hands, it doesn’t need one. It has something else: a second life, a new identity, and a compelling origin story unfolding in real time.
Where the Past Ends and the Future Begins
Monceau’s revival isn’t about nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake—it’s about possibility. What happens when someone with a deep love for watches, a sharp eye for branding, and just enough obsession stumbles across a forgotten name and says, “Yeah… I can do something with this”? You get the Model 01: a watch that doesn’t just honor the past, but reimagines what could’ve been—and dares to ask what’s next.
Simon Ryan didn’t just resurrect Monceau; he rewrote the rules for how a vintage brand can come back to life without clinging to the past or faking the future. And with the Model 01 launching on Kickstarter May 30th, he’s not just inviting collectors to buy into a watch—he’s inviting them to be part of a new chapter. One that’s just getting started, grains of sand and all.
The Monceau Model 01 hits Kickstarter on May 30th and runs through June 15th, with early bird discounts available during the first 48 hours.
Transparency:
I know the brand owner personally and was happy to interview Simon and write this piece. While we’re friends, Simon had no influence over the direction or content of the article. He did give me permission to include some of the more personal anecdotes, and I sent him a draft for fact-checking purposes only. He had no edits or suggestions.
Photo of the Model 01 provided by Monceau Watches.
REMEMBER, nerds…. to keep the comments clean. Please don’t make me pull out ole Antoine-Louis here.
