THE STORY OF MARCH LA.B
The story of March LA.B is a story of encounters.
Two friends who cherish the crazy and irresponsible idea of entering the hushed circle of Swiss watchmakers.
A simple idea at first, reflecting their life philosophy.
The idea of wanting to offer beauty at the best price and for the greatest number of people.
An intimate, ecumenical project of absolute sincerity.
A path of life.
A STORY OF ENCOUNTERS
The story of March LA.B is a story of encounters.
Two friends who cherish the crazy and irresponsible idea of entering the hushed circle of Swiss watchmakers.
A simple idea at first, reflecting their philosophy of life.
The idea of wanting to offer beauty at the best price and for the greatest number.
An intimate, ecumenical project of absolute sincerity.
A path of life.
THREE FOUNDERS
Alain Marhic and Joseph Chatel, friends for 35 years, racked their brains over this irrational idea that they could add a new French piece to the highly coded and locked global watch puzzle.
With his watchmaking experience at the most beautiful surf brand Quiksilver, Alain returned to the Joux Valley to refine his knowledge of timepieces.
He asked Jérôme Mage (creator of the sublime eyewear brand Jacques Marie Mage) to join the adventure as creative director and his friend Joseph to oversee the financial strategy of their new entity.
It was 2009. March LA.B was born.
March for the month of March, so dear to the founders, and LA.B as an acronym for Los Angeles and Biarritz, the cities where the three founding partners reside.
CHAPTER 1 & 2...
Two years of R&D later, the first March LA.B watches, aptly named AM1, JC1, and JM1, corresponding to the initials of the three founders, appeared on the market in 2011.
Refined watches with a raw style infused with 70s inspiration, at a more accessible price than major manufacturers. These were watches that were not a "photocopy" of the past, but rather contemporary objects with proven modernity.
Five years later, in 2013, the shift towards French manufacturing began with the assembly of watches and the production of straps in Franche-Comté.
...CHAPTER 3
For the past two years, the Swiss movements used have been assembled from A to Z by highly qualified watchmakers in Besançon before being cased in March LA.B watches.
The brand's philosophy is respected: to be as French as possible, whenever possible...
Today, fourteen years after its creation, March LA.B can boast recognition from its peers, being represented by the best watchmakers in every major city in France.
This is a pride we claim, and it's thanks to our unique style combined with impeccable quality, our iconoclastic approach to watchmaking, and the genuine closeness tinged with great humanity that we share with our long-standing reseller partners.
The adventure continues...
THE LA.B
March LA.B's roots are both French and Californian.
LA stands for Los Angeles, where our founding partner and creative director Jérôme MAGE resides.
B stands for Biarritz, Alain MARHIC's adopted city and a vacation spot for Joseph CHATEL, the two other founding friends.
LA.B is an Atlantic journey through space and time.
Los Angeles, the quintessential "cool" city, birthplace of board sports cultures (surfing and skateboarding) and witness to the design revolution of the 60s/70s, found in mid-century houses, Eames furniture, and Ford Mustang fastbacks driven by Inspector Frank Bullitt...
Biarritz, a French city steeped in history that has seen Napoleon III, Eugenie de Montejo, Coco Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin, Wassily Kandinsky, and other influential figures come to enjoy the sea bathing on the main beach in this pleasant and chic seaside town.
The LA.B that we add to our name is a subtle amalgamation of these two cultures.
It is the spirit of March.
Simply elegant and invariably cool.
THE GREEN THREAD
The "Green Thread" from March LA.B is a ubiquitous green signature found in subtle details. The number 3 in green on the customized date display, reminiscent of the founders' favorite month. The green lining of the straps, topstitched with an emblematic green bar tack. The "skeleton" back in a luminous green on the automatic versions.
The emerald green interior of the travel case...
This "Green Thread" extends the "design grammar" we have developed to identify our timepieces through precise and redundant aesthetic codes: The crown or winder always at 4 o'clock and its guilloche pattern of interlaced lines of the brand's M, the dials without numbers with chiseled or serrated indexes, the seventies typography of the date display, the raised domed glass, the omnipresent angles on invariably polished and brushed cases...
All of these aesthetic and chromatic codes, to be discovered intimately, shape the common thread of March LA.B watches that leads straight to the heart.
MORE WITH LESS
Our "More with less" is a twist on the famous maxim of the BAHAUS school, which revolutionized the world of architecture and furniture in the 1930s.
A school of thought that changed the aesthetic approach to things, arguing that simplicity remained the true strength of creation! The famous "Less is more."
Like the BAUHAUS, our "More with less" was born from this intimate desire to offer you more with less;
More strength with fewer frills.
More beauty with less complexity.
More quality with less budget.
And above all, more emotion with less ostentation...
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in "Wind, Sand and Stars" about the fuselage of the Aeropostale planes he flew;
"It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away."
Indeed, we have nothing to add...
NOS ICONIQUES
THE MARCH LA.B MANTRA
« L’amour est une chose si puissante qu’on peut le laisser derrière soi quand on quitte ce monde. C’est aussi puissant que ça.. »
John Fire Lame Deer
“Love is something that you can leave behind you when
you die. It’s that powerful.”
John Fire Lame Deer.