Why the brand is called Vindex

Before there was a watch there had to be a name, and the criterion was narrow: it had to mean something we could actually deliver on.

In Roman law, a vindex was the person who stood up for someone else. Not the one who promised, but the one who answered if the promise failed. That is exactly the relationship we wanted with every watch that leaves the workshop: if something fails through a fault of ours, we are the ones who answer for it.

Centuries later the name was carried by Gaius Julius Vindex, who rose against Nero and lost. We like that the name has behind it someone who stood up knowing it could go badly, but that is not where the brand comes from. It comes from the word, not the man.

Civis, the name of the first watch, comes from the same place: the citizen, the person entitled to have someone answer for them.