The appetite for collaboration in the luxury watch industry continues to grow, as evidenced by the latest partnership between Bamford Watch Department and Goodlife Clothing, whose new GMT model has a dial made of fabric taken directly from the leisure brand’s new denim snap shirts.
The genesis of the collaborative timepiece—the second watch Bamford and Goodlife co-created, after teaming up on a Mayfair Sport watch earlier this year—was an Instagram exchange between founders George Bamford and Chris Molnar during the summer of 2019.
“I was on vacation in Greece and was checking out Bamford’s page and saw color combos I liked in that Mayfair Sport and DM’d them about purchasing,” says Molnar, co-CEO of New York City-based Goodlife. “George personally got back to me and explained he was a fan of Goodlife and offered to make us a watch, and the relationship went from there.”
Bamford x Goodlife Watches Courtesy of Bamford
The first watch was so successful — “It was our signature black and white branding with pops of neon, an awesome summer watch that sold out even during the height of Covid,” Molnar says — that the two brands reunited this fall to work on the GMT.
The automatic watch is equipped with a rotating interior bezel that can be set to a second time zone. The star attraction, however, is the dial, which has been printed with denim from Goodlife’s denim shirt line and comes in two colorways — a rinsed black denim housed in a matte black case with brown and grey accents (to match Goodlife’s macchiato-and-espresso-hued 2020 holiday collection), and washed indigo with a dark grey steel case trimmed with navy and white.
Bamford x Goodlife Watch Courtesy of Bamford
“Teaming up with another maker is just a great opportunity to share ideas and come together on a collaborative product that you would not normally consider,” Molnar says. “Collaborations that take you out of your normal product offering are always the most noteworthy and memorable…and fun to work on.”
Both timepieces come with Bamford’s cordura straps as well as a second denim strap option to match the fabric of the shirts (and dials). Each watch also comes with a co-branded hat commemorating the collaboration.
