WHITBY — Former NHL defenceman Jay Harrison can now use his own product to assist with his impeccable time management.
Harrison, a 36-year-old Whitby native who spent 14 years playing professional hockey, is one of six co-founders of the new Whitby Watch Company, which creates unique limited edition timepieces designed to honour historical moments of Canadian achievement.
The first watch being offered, the Intrepid Diver, pays homage to Sir William Stephenson for his efforts at Whitby’s Camp X, a special military facility for spy training during the Second World War.
Harrison and a group of five close friends — Roy Tsagris, Greg Tsagris, Chris Maly, Kevin Monsour and Duncan Fletcher — have long had an interest in watches and have created plenty of contacts in the horology industry over the years.
“Wouldn’t it be very, very cool to tell Canadian stories, to represent Canada’s rich, diverse, cultural and impactful history through the art of watch making?” Harrison said of the thought process behind the company’s genesis. “We (Canadians) don’t boast very often, but we still have a strong, inner desire to be proud of where we’re from and to represent that in a watch is a great vehicle for that.”
Harrison has kept plenty busy after retiring from hockey in 2016 with 372 career NHL games to his credit. A father of four girls living in Bowmanville with wife, Jodean, Harrison is currently also working as the director of assessment for Game Change Athlete Development Services and Consultancy, vice president and director of athlete integration for Bennett’s Choice, and a certified success finder practitioner.
Calling the new company a “passion project of sorts,” Harrison says it reflects his immense pride of both Whitby and Canada. The watches are designed in Whitby and, it’s hoped will one day be manufactured in Whitby as well, but for now are made and assembled in Germany.
“The idea is that we provide people with a very, very unique time piece, a really high quality, high standard of manufacturing and craftsmanship, which we felt was very, very important,” he explained. “We didn’t want to just stick something with a logo, we wanted to actually have something that people in the watch community would respect and pay homage to the fact that it was very well made.”
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There will be limited number of each watch design available online at whitbywatchco.com. They will come in a unique box made in Montreal, with a limited a limited edition coin and an explanation behind the design.
After the Intrepid Diver — which is currently selling for $700 and will be delivered to customers on Jan. 31, the anniversary of Stephenson’s death — there are plans to honour the Avro Arrow and Canada’s contributions to aerospace exploration.
“We will be happy to tell Canadians stories as long as there are people there to hear them,” Harrison said. “It gives us a great opportunity and platform to spread the word about how great our country is and all the great things we’ve done and the great things we will do.”
