Our Story
Three initials. Three daughters. A lot of watches.
JMR started with three names that mean more to me than anything I could ever put on a dial:
Jean. Markell. Reese.
I'm a proud girl dad, and those are the middle names of my three daughters — and eventually, they became the initials on the watches I started building for myself, family, and friends.
What began as a hobby turned into something a little more interesting: a way to take people, places, memories, and inside jokes and turn them into something you can actually wear.
Because a watch can tell more than time.
Every once in a while, it can tell a pretty good story.
HOW IT STARTED
I’ve always loved watches.
Not because I desperately needed another way to know what time it was — there are about twelve devices within arm’s reach that can handle that — but because of everything that comes with them.
The design. The mechanics. The history. The tiny details most people will never notice.
But what I’ve always liked most is the connection a watch can have to a particular person, place, or moment.
The first JMR watches weren’t created because I had dreams of starting a watch company. I simply wanted to build watches that meant something to the people wearing them.
Then one watch became another.
And another.
Eventually, there were enough of them that calling it a hobby started becoming a little suspicious.
WATCHES WITH A STORY
The technical details are cool.
Movements, sapphire crystals, case dimensions, water resistance, power reserves — I can talk about that stuff all day.
But specs tell you what a watch is.
They don’t tell you why it exists.
Every JMR starts with that part.
The idea might come from a place — a trip I took, a golf course at twilight, a little childhood nostalgia. Just as often, it comes from the smaller moments: rocking a newborn at 2 a.m., sharing a drink with my wife after the house finally gets quiet, or hearing one of my kids say something completely wrong in a way that somehow makes perfect sense.
Those are the things that tend to stick with you.
And somehow, a few of them have ended up as watches.
Coffee Date came from realizing that, as a busy parent, five quiet minutes with a cup of coffee can feel strangely luxurious.
Pin High came from playing golf with my dad — when finding the time to get out on the course mattered a lot more than whatever number ended up on the scorecard.
A Yacht More came from my youngest daughter pronouncing “a lot” like “a yacht.”
The watches are different.
The idea behind them isn’t.
Build something worth wearing because there’s something worth remembering.
A TIP OF THE CAP
I’m also a watch enthusiast, which means I have a healthy appreciation for watches that have been around a lot longer than JMR.
Some JMR designs take inspiration from iconic watches and familiar silhouettes.
Consider them a tip of the cap.
The goal isn’t to pretend a JMR is something it isn’t. It’s to take a design language I admire, give it a different personality, and build something with a story of its own.
Maybe that means changing the colors.
Maybe it means giving the watch a name tied to a memory or someone in my family.
And every so often, it means taking a very serious-looking watch and naming it after something my kid said wrong.
Watches can be beautiful without taking themselves too seriously.
JMR certainly doesn’t.
BUILT IN SMALL BATCHES
JMR isn’t a giant watch company.
It’s just me, a late-night obsession, and an unreasonable amount of time spent tinkering with very small parts.
That’s kind of the point.
The watches are produced in small quantities, and some are built specifically when someone orders one. That gives me the freedom to experiment, change things, and make a watch simply because I think it would be fun to wear.
I don’t really know what will come off the workbench next.
There’s no five-year product roadmap.
Just more ideas, more memories, and hopefully a few more stories worth turning into watches.
WHY JMR?
At the end of the day, the name comes back to my daughters.
That’s a pretty good reminder of what this whole thing is supposed to be about.
Family. Experiences. Places you’ve been. People you love. Things that make you laugh.
The stuff you want to remember.
And, occasionally, knowing what time it is.
Welcome to JMR.