I
first met Dick Sijmons and his partner and lifelong friend
Kees de Bruine in Basel about 8 years ago at the Basel-
world fair. No, they were not exhibiting, but were taking the
duced me to his new “babies” shown here.
Symons (a homonym for Sijmons) & Panchenko (his wife
Anna’s Maiden name) follows the ethos developed in his previous
guerilla marketing approach of schlepping a case full of their designs - without copying or looking backwards these watches
new watch line and showing it to willing buyers and press. That are offered in sizes ranging from the more modest 40mm diam-
line was called Kyboe and focused on big and bold looks with a eter all the way up to the extra large 50mm sizes, with options
wide color pallet. Clearly those watches were not designed for at 43mm and 45mm for certain models. Each variation can be
the timid as they definitely did get noticed. worn day to day and are water resistant to at least 10atm and
Fast forward to 2015 and the partners found an advocate
house Japanese quartz movements inside rock solid stainless
with assets and they ended up partnering with what was at first steel cases. While you can see from these examples Sijmons
one of their customers. And like most partnerships, this one still likes to play with color, there are also dressier variations in
came to an end. And like so many watch-mongers before them, monochromatic or two-tone effects. Held in place by a hypo-
the founding partners ended up leaving the brand they had cre- allergenic silicon strap with a suede feel, prices range from right
ated. The “why” doesn’t really matter but in any case Mr. Sijmons around $175 to just under $400 depending on the series and
was not done with his foray into watches and he recently intro- model. www.symonspanchenko.com
AboutTime Magazine | 97