The Business of Watches [034] Inside Lorier Watches' Acquisition With Lorenzo Ortega And Blake Malin

This week on The Business of Watches, a breaking news story, of sorts. Our friends at Worn & Wound have acquired Lorier Watches. It's a story of success for the New York-based boutique brand that started way back in 2017 with a mission to make vintage-inspired watches, designed to be worn every day, at an approachable price. In a way, it's a tale of too much success.  Lorier co-founders, the husband and wife team Lauren Ortega and Lorenzo Ortega, struggled with the rapid growth of the small company, and the inability to meet demand for their products took a toll on the two-person operation. They considered winding up the brand, as it were, but a talk with Blake Malin, the co-founder of the well-established content, retail, and watch event company Worn & Wound, also based in New York, set them on a different path.  The acquisition of Lorier is the first time Worn & Wound has acquired a watch brand. Malin and Lorenzo Ortega join us to talk about how the deal came about and what's next for both Lorier and Worn & Wound. Though Ortega spent his formative years in Geneva until he was about 18, it's a decidedly American business story in the watch industry.  Show Notes:  1:11 A New Chapter for Lorier 1:48  Handsome Mechanical Watches For Less Than $500? Look No Further Than Lorier (Gear Patrol) 3:00 Worn & Wound 3:39 Windup Watch Fair 6:10 Grand Central Watch collaboration 8:02 The Lorier Hydra SIII (Hodinkee) 11:05 Windup Watch Shop 23:30 Art Deco vs. Art Nouveau (Rise Art)