From Montrose to Hollywood, Scottish watch brand making waves in LA

A premium Scottish watch brand is rapidly becoming a hit in Hollywood as celebrities line-up to be seen wearing one on their wrist.

JJ.Monaghan watches are the new ‘must have item’ on the market after several well known names including actors, musicians and sports stars were pictured wearing them.

Hollywood actress, and star of numerous films including Blue Mountain State: Rise of Thadland, Some Kind of Beautiful with Pierce Brosnan, Jessica Alba and Salma Hayek, and How to Make Love Like an Englishman, Lyndsey Sporran posted a picture of her wearing one the watches on her social media pages.

Lord Of The Rings star Dominic Monaghan has also endorsed the watches as has Canadian model Kelleth Cuthbert.

Scottish actor Martin Compston personally requested one of the watches for the filming on his hit BBC Scotland series The Nest.

The timepieces were the brainchild of Montrose born Jason Monaghan who runs the whole operation from designing the watches and running his website to packing and sending orders and everything in between.

He explained his journey: I attended high school and college where I went on to study design. Men’s fashion and grooming have always interested me and I had always dreamed of having a business in one of these fields.

“I have always had a passion for watches and felt I could bring something new to the watch market. I saved up money from my full-time job and placed an order for my first collection. When my first collection arrived, I went about photographing them, building our website, creating all marketing material and reaching out to celebrities to see if they would like the brand as much as I hoped they would. Luckily, lots of them did! Big shout out to my brother for helping me fund my second collection.

“While the brand is growing, all the profits go back into the company so I can improve and grow it even more.”

Its new Rival Collection comes in Green or Blue and is tipped to become a popular Christmad gift for football fans this year.

Costing £120 they have already been endorsed by football stars including Celtic’s Josip Juranovic and Scotland star Lyndon Dykes.

Jason continued: “Being one myself, I know what young professional guys in their 20s and 30s are looking for and want to wear – this really helps when looking at possible new collections and how I want the brand to feel.

“Another strength is how fast we’re able to introduce new collections and watch designs. Whereas most watch brands may take up to a year to release a new collection. We are able to turn around a new collection in a couple of months; from designing, to receiving the samples and putting in the order for the finished product. People are always looking for something fresh, so being able to create new products quickly is really important.”

After the recent success and rise in popularity of the company Jason is now hoping to see them on sale in independent shops soon.

He said: “Receiving a call that Martin Compston wanted to wear our watches for the new BBC show The Nest and finally seeing it on screen this year was a monumental milestone and I had felt it was such an absurd dream that it had never been one of my goals.

“That being said, one goal I’ve always had for JJ Monaghan is to get our watches into an independent store. I often receive calls from customers wanting to check out our products in person, so having a store where they could physically see and feel our watches would help our customers make decisions on our products.”

The watches can be ordered online here.