Three friends and a idea
Montjuïc Watches began to take shape after an informal conversation back in 2018. This idea matured over the course of many months and Rosendo Rabat, Tendu Rabat and Edu Méndez decided to get behind the idea/project and move it forward.
Watchmaking and motor sports were the two themes that united us and helped create a common vision of our project.
Professionally, we come from different industries. The Rabats contribute experience as part of a family with many years of experience in watchmaking – while Edu comes from the motorcycle industry, where he has worked with some of the best brands in the world -for example MV Agusta- for over 30-years.
Collectively, these experiences and a true passion for motor sports is what clearly set the Montjuïc Watches compass right from the beginning.
The Brand
Montjuïc is a brand inspired by the world of motorsport, created and based in Barcelona. That is why, right from the outset, we focused on looking for a name that would identify with our city and that encompasses both an enormous tradition with respect to the motor industry and competition, as well as an undoubted avant-garde vocation when it comes to design.
It was from that objective … to unite motor sports and design that the idea arose. Unanimously, we decided that the Montjuïc name was perfect since it represented competition and motor sport, culture and the avant-garde, aside from being one of the most emblematic and well-known areas of Barcelona throughout the world.
It also helped knowing that the name sounds similar in any language when pronounced, facilitating recognition and memorization.
Our Inspiration
As fans of both the watch industry and motor sports, we couldn’t identify any brand or type of watch that bridged those two worlds in the way we imagined. A very high quality brand, made in Europe and with defined and clearly distinguishable design elements.
To define that distinctive design, Montjuïc (“the magic mountain”), is undoubtedly our most important stylistic and inspiring reference. Our watches’ shape, dial color and strap combinations are all inspired by competi- tion and with a special nod to the Formula 1 and motorcycling races that were held on this Barcelona track for more than fifty years.
We were also inspired in a special way by how drivers with more talent than financial means, fought in 24-hour races – combining hard work, grit and risk in equal measure, to prevail in this extremely taxing event.
And all of this backstory, influence and inspiration is now projected into the future. Montjuïc, a “racing inspi- red” brand, also incorporates cutting edge design – daring to mix historical elements of the Montjuïc circuit with more avant-garde and contemporary design.
The Logo
Montjuïc’s image is represented by its logo, with a concept that synthesises the brand’s inspiration in the world of motorsport and competition.
The initial of the brand, “M”, has a double meaning. The first is to partially represent the shape of a speed circuit layout. And the second, by adding the two upper lines, synthesise the shape of a piston, the piece that can be considered the heart of an engine and from where its strength is generated.
Furthermore, in following Van der Rohe’s famous phrase “less is more”, its lines are as simple as possible, making it an easily recognizable and scalable logo. As such, it can easily be reduced to the size of just a few millimeters in certain parts of a watch and continue to be perfectly identifiable.
