The Founder
Hello there, my name is Kieron Walsh. I'm from a small town in Greater Manchester called Stalybridge. My love for watches started in 2020 - like most of us during the pandemic, I found myself with ample time to explore new hobbies. My obsession first began on YouTube, watching legends like TGV, Ben's Watch Club and Jody from JOMW. They got me hooked and I found myself looking for a good watch at an affordable price. I haven't looked back since.
The Origin
In April 2025 I attended 'Time To Watches' in Geneva - my first watch show outside of the UK. Although Switzerland was beautiful, I was rather disappointed with the selection of watches at the show. On my last day in Geneva, sat at the Grand Duke pub, Area Nostalgia was born (at least the idea for it). Born from the lack of exciting watches at the show; I wanted to see something different, something unapologetically niche.
The Idea
Sat at the pub, I thought to myself; I'd love to see a watch based on a British clocktower. After all, they are works of art from a time that no longer exists. Most modern architecture is soulless, created not with beauty in mind, but budget and longevity. That was the light bulb moment. I love my home city of Manchester. The Manchester town hall clock is an area of nostalgia for me, and the Manchester cathedral is a masterpiece. I worked to combine both of these classic clocktowers into one watch, borrowing elements from both.
The Reality
After months of design work, technical drawings and 3D prints, my dream became a reality. Samples had landed for my first watch, the Clocktower. I launched the Clocktower on December 1st, 2025, and received over 300 pre-orders during the 2-month window. All orders shipped to customers in April/May. I also launched our first limited edition, the Clocktower Manchester Bee, which sold out just a couple of months after launch. But in the background, I was quietly working on what's next.
The Concept
I got lucky knowing what Area Nostalgia is about straight out of the gate. I knew that my second watch had to be just as eye-catching and unique as the Clocktower. The Mantel was born from two separate ideas - a watch that was fit to sit above a mantelpiece & a dial that was inspired by the mantle of the earth. Thus I combined the two inspirations with the name 'Mantel', and got working on the design. The first sketch had the general idea - but this took months and months of tweaking to get all of the elements to work together.
The Process
The Mantel was much harder to design than the Clocktower because it was a completely unique idea. I didn't have an actual clock tower to fall back on, so I had to think out of the box. No other watch had combined two semi-precious stones with a full luminous centre before, so it really took some work to get it right. This process took over 5 months of intense design work to get to the stage where it was ready for sampling. Here is one of the very first renders of what would eventually become the Mantel. The idea was there - but it needed a lot of work.
The Mantel
Receiving the samples for the Mantel might just have been the most nerve-wracking day of my life. Thankfully, not only did the design look incredible in person, but it wore brilliantly on the wrist too. The dial elements work better than I could have ever imagined, with each section having enough space to breathe but still offering something visually interesting. It was official: Area Nostalgia model number 2 would launch on the 28th of August 2026 (the date of the blood moon / lunar eclipse). The Mantel, my take on an everyday watch, will be available to pre-order in 3 lunar-inspired colourways.
