From Wear Your Personality to Time Reimagined

Vario began not with watches, but with straps.

On 31 March 2016, we successfully crowdfunded our first collection of graphic watch straps, and Vario was born from a simple idea: that watches should reflect who you are. At the time, so much of the watch world felt repetitive, the same designs, the same colours, the same safe choices. We believed there was room for more expression, more individuality and more character. That belief became our first tagline: Wear Your Personality.

Those early straps were about dressing up watches, giving people a way to make something personal out of something standard. But as the community grew, so did our ambition. We slowly and steadily expanded what Vario could be, adding new products to our collection, learning from collectors around the world, and eventually moving into designing our own vintage-inspired timepieces.

Over the past 10 years, we’ve launched seven watch collections, each inspired by a period when watchmaking was valued not just for function, but for beauty and purpose. We don’t copy the past, we reinterpret it. Our goal has always been to bring back the elegance and thoughtfulness of historical designs, while adding our own modern twist so they can stand proudly in today’s world.

In 2024, we moved into our own office — a milestone that reflected how far this small idea had travelled. Along the way, we’ve met countless watch enthusiasts face-to-face, shipped our products to over 120 countries, and built friendships with fellow brand owners, retailers, publishers, and content creators. We’ve organised GTGs (Unplug & Wind) to bring the brands and community together. In 2025, our VERSA was honoured with an iF Design Award, proving that small, independent brands can still make meaningful design contributions.

But what truly defines Vario is not scale — it’s intention.

We design for collectors who notice the details. The small-seconds disc on the A11-S Solar exists because many enthusiasts don’t like the visual noise of a ticking seconds hand, yet still want to see the watch come alive. There are many quiet design decisions that we've made and they are deeply considered ones. 

As our designs evolved over the past 10 years, so did our way of thinking about time itself. Vintage inspiration was never meant to be a limitation, it was a starting point. That shift naturally led us to a new philosophy for our next chapter: Time Reimagined.

Time Reimagined is not about abandoning history, it is about continuing it. We see the past not as a set of rules to follow, but as a foundation to build upon. Every era of great watchmaking was once modern, experimental, and forward-looking in its own time. In the same spirit, we study the design language of vintage watches, then reinterpret it through today’s lenses, with new materials, new movements, and new ways of expressing time.

This is where watches like the 1918Medic and the NAVI Single Hand and many of our creations come in. The Medic’s pulsometer is a feature that never existed on original 1910s medical watches. It is our way of imagining what could have been. The NAVI Single Hand challenges the conventional way time is read altogether, proving that even something as fundamental as hours and minutes can be rethought.

Time Reimagined reminds us to keep questioning what a watch can be, to keep refining the smallest details, and to keep pushing forward in both form and function. Whether it’s how a dial is read, how a case sits on the wrist, or how a complication is presented, each decision is an opportunity to rethink rather than repeat. Even when inspired by the past, our watches should never feel trapped by it. they should feel relevant, purposeful, and alive. They are designed not just to look back with nostalgia, but to move horology quietly and thoughtfully forward.

None of this would have been possible without the support of our customers, collectors, collaborators and community. You’ve walked this journey with us, from a handful of straps to a growing world of thoughtfully designed watches.

We look forward to continuing this journey together with you as we begin the next chapter of Vario.

Ivan & Judy

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https://vario.sg/