Whisky-inspired timepiece from Marloe Watch Company comes with a bottle of single-cask spirit

When Marloe Watch Company was launched in 2006, its co-founders Oliver Goffe and Gordon Fraser were operating from locations so far apart they weren’t even in the same country. Marketing man Goffe was based at the company HQ in Berkshire, while Fraser was 400 miles away in Perth, Scotland, where he created the designs for the first few models.

The unusual arrangement didn’t prevent the micro brand from establishing itself and rapidly expanding, but an efficient set-up it wasn’t – so when personal circumstances forced Goffe to make a temporary move to the Netherlands, it made sense that Marloe’s base should relocate to Scotland.

The original plan was to find premises in Perth, but a chance meeting with a husband-and-wife architect team revealed that they were about to convert a ruined, L-shaped milking shed in the Kinross countryside. And now one 2,500sq ft leg of that L is where Marloe Watch Company is officially based.

Completed during the Covid lockdown, the build married the shed’s old stone, exterior walls to a minimalist, modern interior in which Fraser creates all of Marloe Watch Company’s designs, many of which are inspired by human endeavour – including the Land Speed Record exploits of Malcolm and Donald Campbell, which have led to several special edition Marloe models.

Most recently, however, Goffe and Fraser have been beguiled by arguably Scotland’s greatest export (with apologies to Irn-Bru) – single malt whisky.

As a result, the pair have teamed-up with young West Highland distillery Ardnamurchan to celebrate its 10th anniversary with the creation of 292 numbered, limited-edition sets comprising a Marloe watch and a bottle of 10-year-old oloroso single cask whisky.

The Glenbeg Blue timepiece (named after Glenbeg, the village where the distillery is situated) features a slate-blue dial with copper detailing and a copper-framed, cask-shaped date window, both based on the copper pot stills used by Ardnamurchan.

The theme is continued on the reverse of the watch where a ‘still hatch’ caseback fitted with a sapphire crystal gives a view on to a customised, Swiss-made automatic movement fitted with a copper-plated winding rotor.

The leather strap matches the tone of the whisky that has been created by maturation in the oloroso cask, which was the 233rd to have been filled by Ardnamurchan before being handpicked for the project by Goffe, Fraser and Connal Mackenzie, the distillery’s sales director.

As connoisseurs of a ‘wee dram’ will know, rare, single-malt whiskies have become valuable commodities, so the £849 cost of the sets could prove a sound investment – and, for anyone who prefers to let their bottle mature for a few years rather than cracking it open at the first opportunity, each set is supplied with a 5cl miniature.

Buyers will also be able to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the distillery between now and the end of 2025. And if you’re not up to driving afterwards, another £150 will buy a night at Annie’s Cottage right next door.

Marloe Watch Company Glenbeg Blue, £849. marloewatchcompany.com