Skip to content

PoCo watchmaker ticks in proceeds for charity

A Port Coquitlam company that makes handcrafted wooden watches will donate 100% of its online sales this weekend to Dress for Success.

A Port Coquitlam company that makes handcrafted wooden watches will donate 100% of its online sales this weekend to Dress for Success.

Tense Watches is reaching out to customers to support the charity during its World Humanitarian Day campaign, Aug. 17 to 19.

It’s also giving six of its wood watches to clients of the non-profit group, which helps Metro Vancouver women get into the workforce by providing them with professional clothing, career services and skills training.

It’s the first time Tense Watches has partnered with the organization, said marketing co-ordinator Taryn Liebholz who recently brought the cause to the attention of the company founder, Ken Lau, and his two daughters.

Still, it’s not the first time the PoCo business has collaborated with a charity: In the past, Tense has also worked with the David Suzuki Foundation, creating watches with a green face to raise funds for the environmental charity.

“We strongly believe in giving back to our community,” Liebholz told The Tri-City News last week during a tour of the office. “I reached out to [Dress for Success] because I could see the impact it was having locally.”

Started in PoCo in 1971, Tense Watches currently sells about 22,000 units around the world each year.

Its customers tend to be style conscious and eco-friendly, Liebholz said, showing some designs in a variety of reclaimed or recycled wood — such as walnut, maple, olive, teak, butternut, olive and bamboo — that retail from $150 to $1,000. (Its koa wood models can only be found in Hawaii through Martin & MacArthur.)

The scrap wood — for straps or watch faces — is crafted at a PoCo factory, which employs about a dozen workers, then are assembled by hand at its Broadway Street office by another dozen staff, using Miyota (Japanese) or Swiss movement; Tense also employs five sales reps to distribute to wholesalers, she said.

The wood watches are particularly popular in U.S. southern states, Liebholz said.

“They get people talking because they are so incredibly unique.”

jcleugh@tricitynews.com