Introducing MILENEAL Watches

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mileneal_official

Discussion Starter · Aug 28, 2019 (Edited)

6

Hello Everyone,

I'm Wilson, founder of MILENEAL (miˈlenēəl) Watches, based out of Malaysia. Pretty sure most of you haven't heard of us so here's a brief introduction!

MILENEAL Watches launched less than two years ago on Kickstarter with the Classic Collection. On hindsight, yes! it's cliche indeed! But it was the one that got us started. The Classic Collection was a minimal looking watch but what we would like to think separates us from the other minimalist watches is our multi-layered dial with a raised dome lens. Thanks to about 250 backers, we were able to bring our brand to life.

After receiving multiple feedback and also working internally on a new collection, we launched our second campaign offering both quartz and automatic versions on our new collection - The Prestige. With the Prestige, our focus was still the same as our initial project which was to create affordable watches with quality specs. We realized the Classic was a bit off the track because of it being available in quartz only. The Prestige, on the contrary, was made available in automatic version as well (powered by a Miyota 9015). And fair enough, the Prestige Automatic was the one that was more popular among customers, mainly because of the specifications it has to offer.

These are the specs..
- Miyota 9015
- 316L Stainless Steel Case
- Sapphire Coated K1 With AR Treatment
- Top Grain Leather Straps
- 5 ATM Water Resistance

We received compliments mostly on our fume dial, the raised dome lens and the movement it uses... But with such small customer base, we believe there's more feedback we could gather and that's what we hope being present on WatchUSeek Forum would bring us.

Sky Clock Cloud Atmosphere World

Having said that, as of now, we are now at a point where we are introducing the Prestige 2.0 version. A newer Prestige with some upgrades and improvements. Yes, of course we wish we could dough out more designs and wider offering of products but being a new small microbrand, I have to say that it's not easy at all working with a small team and budget. So for now, baby steps is all we are taking. We hope to introduce more products in the near future. But for now, let us hear you. We wanna know what you have to say!

P.S. Here are some photos of the latest Prestige Collection! Do check out our Instagram page for more photos!

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Watch Analog watch Green Watch accessory Fashion accessory

Cheers,
Wilson

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1 - 20 of 122 Posts

Disguise

· #2 · Aug 28, 2019

Hi Wilson,

Nice looking watches indeed, I especially like the silver fume dial - it has a very classic look. My only pet-peeve would be the length of the hands. There is not that much visual distinction in length and shape between the hour and minute hands. If you would lengthen the minute hand a couple of mm so it almost lines up with the furthest extent of the hour markers, that would make it much more legible at a glance. And of course you'll want to make sure your seconds hand is the same length or it'll look a bit silly.

Good luck with 2.0!

Avo

· #3 · Aug 28, 2019

I agree on the hand length.

I would prefer date-at-6 or (even better) no date. But I am probably in the minority on this.

An exhibition case back would also be nice, especially if you can customize the rotor.

torquemada

· #4 · Aug 28, 2019

I like fume dials, and the silver one looks great. But I am not in the boat for a fashion watch without lume. Maybe you should try a version without the date, will look even cleaner.

And one thing: I am german, and I am a member on another american forum, a car forum, and over there "millennial" is used in a very pejorative and insulting way, just saying.

Reactions: 1

Perdendosi

· #5 · Aug 28, 2019

Hello Mileneal--
Thanks for sponsoring WUS. I'm sure it needs good sponsors to keep the lights on, and I'm glad for that.
This watch isn't for me, for a few reasons.

I don't like automatic watches without minute markers, even on dress watches, because it's so hard to set. (Maybe any sort of minute marker wouldn't work with this design. I'm not suggesting you change your design in this case, but I'm just telling you why it's not for me.) It's also not for me because it's too close of an homage to the H Moser & Cie fume watches.

Even though the watch is not for me, I have a few suggestions that might make me like the design a bit more. I don't love the "automatic" at the bottom. I agree that the minute hand is too short. The case seems too pedestrian and not dressy enough -- I think I'd polish the whole thing. I think the indices would look better if they were beveled or faceted in some way. I generally only like watches with date windows, but here, I think it's a distraction and interrupts the design -- especially on the grey.

Good luck!

But I know that there's a bigger market than me

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Perdendosi

· #6 · Aug 28, 2019

torquemada said:
And one thing: I am german, and I am a member on another american forum, a car forum, and over there "millennial" is used in a very pejorative and insulting way, just saying.

Yeah, I wasn't going to comment on the brand, because I guess that ship has sailed -- it appears they have a number of watches already branded with that name. But, as with Torquemada, it doesn't do much for me. The odd spelling (at least for an American English speaker) gives me pause-- is it supposed to be pronounced like "Millennial" or not? If so, then what's the accent aigu over doing the "e" doing? Making it more French? Making it sound like Mill-ay-nee-al?? It feels like you have an Oneders problem.

If the brand is supposed to be Millennial, I wish it were just spelled that way. It's not an awful brand name (even though Americans talk about "Millennials" as a generation pejoratively). But even as it is, it's not the worst one out there...

Reactions: 3

redhed18

· #7 · Aug 28, 2019 (Edited)

Perdendosi said:
Yeah, I wasn't going to comment on the brand, because I guess that ship has sailed -- it appears they have a number of watches already branded with that name. But, as with Torquemada, it doesn't do much for me. The odd spelling (at least for an American English speaker) gives me pause-- is it supposed to be pronounced like "Millennial" or not? If so, then what's the accent aigu over doing the "e" doing? Making it more French? Making it sound like Mill-ay-nee-al?? It feels like you have an Oneders problem.

If the brand is supposed to be Millennial, I wish it were just spelled that way. It's not an awful brand name (even though Americans talk about "Millennials" as a generation pejoratively). But even as it is, it's not the worst one out there...

The name needs to be commented on, because everyone is thinking it.

There are people who would never buy this, solely because of the name...

This is the website,
because most of the links provided in the first post don't work for me.

https://mileneal.com

Millenials click here: https://www.instagram.com/mileneal_official/ ;-)

According to the brand, their name is derived from millenials / youth:

"One of our main goals is to provide a solution to the young working class - the millennials.
Hence, the inception of the name Mileneal."

You can read their own words here

https://mileneal.com/blogs/story/our-name-logo

https://mileneal.com/blogs/story/the-beginning

It's good to have this understanding, because there is another brand with a similar name that confused people too.
(In that case... "Míleata" ... means "military" in the Irish language ... who knew!)

Anyway the Mileneal tagline could use ... tuning

#BeCompleteNow

The designs are attractive, but I'm holding out for watches from Gerry Hattrick & Co.

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redhed18

· #8 · Aug 28, 2019

On the technical front, I would be interested to know more about the crystal

The website says

- High Dome Hardened K1 With Anti-Reflective & Anti Scratch Treatment

and the first post here says

- Sapphire Coated K1 With AR Treatment

I admit to not understanding how one coats a mineral crystal with sapphire, how well that holds up, etc.

https://navysealwatch.net/what-is-t...his-an-important-factor-in-purchasing-a-watch

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pinkybrain

· #9 · Aug 28, 2019

Looks nice but why the ugly date window and how big is it?

36 to 38 mm with a no-date Miyota and I would sign up yesterday.

mileneal_official

Discussion Starter · #10 · Aug 29, 2019

Disguise said:
Hi Wilson,

Nice looking watches indeed, I especially like the silver fume dial - it has a very classic look. My only pet-peeve would be the length of the hands. There is not that much visual distinction in length and shape between the hour and minute hands. If you would lengthen the minute hand a couple of mm so it almost lines up with the furthest extent of the hour markers, that would make it much more legible at a glance. And of course you'll want to make sure your seconds hand is the same length or it'll look a bit silly.

Good luck with 2.0!

Hi Disguise,

Thanks for your feedback. The new Prestige would actually come with longer hands. The photos you see from our post are taken mostly on some of our prototypes.
Here's the visual of what we intend to have the minute and second hand length at for the bulk production of the new Prestige.
View attachment 14429109

mileneal_official

Discussion Starter · #11 · Aug 29, 2019

Avo said:
I agree on the hand length.

I would prefer date-at-6 or (even better) no date. But I am probably in the minority on this.

An exhibition case back would also be nice, especially if you can customize the rotor.

Hey Avo,

Thanks for your feedback. We've had a few suggested a no date version too so you're not alone.

mileneal_official

Discussion Starter · #12 · Aug 29, 2019

Hey Torquemada,

Thanks for your comment. Tbh, we recently had more people commenting on the brand name than the watch itself. We didn't get such comments in our first campaign during the introduction of the Classic series. I guess we were not so "known" back then. Anyhow, my team and I have definitely thought of re-branding when we introduce new designs in the future.

Thanks again.

Reactions: 3

mileneal_official

Discussion Starter · #13 · Aug 29, 2019

redhed18 said:
The name needs to be commented on, because everyone is thinking it.

There are people who would never buy this, solely because of the name...

This is the website,
because most of the links provided in the first post don't work for me.

https://mileneal.com

Millenials click here: https://www.instagram.com/mileneal_official/ ;-)

According to the brand, their name is derived from millenials / youth:

"One of our main goals is to provide a solution to the young working class - the millennials.
Hence, the inception of the name Mileneal."

You can read their own words here

https://mileneal.com/blogs/story/our-name-logo

https://mileneal.com/blogs/story/the-beginning

It's good to have this understanding, because there is another brand with a similar name that confused people too.
(In that case... "Míleata" ... means "military" in the Irish language ... who knew!)

Anyway the Mileneal tagline could use ... tuning

#BeCompleteNow

The designs are attractive, but I'm holding out for watches from Gerry Hattrick & Co.

Thanks for providing the links. I've fixed the links in the initial post too. Yes, when we first created this brand, we were looking at using the phonetic alphabets miˈlenēəl. Honestly, we thought it would look cool but we decided to go for a more elegant looking font. Hence, MILENEAL. Anyway, on hindsight (plus the recent comments we have received on the brand name), I will definitely contemplate on coming up with a remedy to this with my team.

As for the tagline, we meant to convey a message that we should all do that one thing that we've wanted to pursue or even a simple thing we would want to try, to "complete" the dream. Metaphorically, owning a watch of good quality is completing that missing piece.

Reactions: 2

mileneal_official

Discussion Starter · #14 · Aug 29, 2019

pinkybrain said:
Looks nice but why the ugly date window and how big is it?

36 to 38 mm with a no-date Miyota and I would sign up yesterday.

The Prestige comes in a 40mm case diameter

Reactions: 2

NC_Hager626

· #15 · Aug 29, 2019

A nice looking watch model and they appear to be well executed. Do like the domed crystal and both the Winter Silver and the Autumn Red are both interesting colour choices for a dial. All the best with your launch of the Prestige Collection.

Reactions: 1

vintorez

· #16 · Aug 29, 2019

I saw a video of one of these before and like the look of them, but wouldn't buy one because of the name (and I am a millennial). I know that's not a very helpful critique at this late stage.

Reactions: 2

Sebast975

· #17 · Aug 29, 2019

Like the watches, hate the name.

Reactions: 2

Earthjade

· #18 · Aug 29, 2019

Another vote for a watch collector that wouldn't buy one because of the name.

Reactions: 2

mileneal_official

Discussion Starter · #19 · Aug 29, 2019

Appreciate the honesty guys. Hard pill to swallow but will definitely find a way out of this in the future.

DD

Reactions: 2

Cosmodromedary

· #20 · Aug 29, 2019

I've seen these on Facebook a few times and thought they looked like a very nice Moser homage, with a solid movement at a decent price. Why didn't I buy one? Honestly, mainly the name. I'd doesn't make me dislike the brand, but it's unfortunate enough to turn me away from a purchase. Just a heads up, calling the brand Boomer wouldn't be any better

Reactions: 1

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