This Black-Owned Watch Company Is Now Launching Limited Editions Watches With NFTs

Timeless London-based watch and accessories company, Vitae, reached two major milestones last year securing $1million in sales and distributed 5,000 solar lamps to Sub-Saharan school children.

The solar-powered lamps were distributed in partnership with Pen to Paper Ghana, a Ghanaian non-profit that works to deliver lamps to students so that they can complete their school work with efficient lighting.

But now its founder William Adoasi has just announced that the brand is launching each limited edition watch with an NFT.

Talk about innovative!

In a video, Adoasi said: “It’s William Adoasi here, founder of Vitae London Watches. I’m pleased to let you know our latest collection is here – Capsule 002.

“Each watch is numbered, it’s issued with an NFT so you can verify it on the Blockchain for many years to come and with all our watches – each watch supports a child through education across sub-Saharan Africa.”

Since the company’s launch in 2015, Vitae London has focused on creating high-quality, sophisticated watches for fashion-forward men and women at accessible prices while also adopting a conscious-capitalist business model.

With this focus, the brand has experienced great success over the past six years and has seen its watches featured on the wrists of some of the world’s most influential individuals, including billionaire business magnate Richard Branson, and American filmmaker Ava DuVernay and Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo.

The journey

Born and raised on a south London council estate, British-Ghanaian William earned a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school after having the importance of education instilled in him by his father.

After beginning his first company aged 19 – a sports academy called Starlight Academy – Adoasi then worked as a recruitment consultant, before launching Vitae.

William launched the brand with £7k that he and his wife saved up in 2016 and then he managed to secure a small startup loan and mentoring from Richard Branson. That funding turned into over £150k of sales and soon after he received a place on Backstage Capital’s London Accelerator program and £82.5k funding.

This was used to increase the number of watches from 4 to 18 and bring in others to help with other areas of the business whilst he focuses on driving growth.

In addition to the funding from Backstage William launched a Seedrs campaign for £75k. The firm raised £109,536 from 572 investors.