AV86

AV86 — known until 2025 as About Vintage — was founded in 2014 by childhood friends Thomas Andersen and Sebastian Skov, whose origin story begins not in a workshop but on a beach in Mexico. In 2013 the two were on holiday with their girlfriends, sitting on a white-sand beach with a bucket of cold Coronas, when their conversation — as it had drifted so many times before — turned once again to watches: which piece they would love to own next, and what they would have to sell to afford it. Something about the holiday feeling, or the endless horizon, shifted the conversation from dream watches to a bigger dream entirely: building something of their own, doing things differently, and making design part of daily life. That idea became the seed of what would become About Vintage, and later AV86. From the outset the vision was specific — to create watches with the look, feel, and soul of a classic timepiece, but made to be worn every day rather than locked away in a safe: a kind of 'affordable dream watch' blending Scandinavian design, vintage detailing, and lasting quality, the sort of thing a person could buy to mark a single moment and then keep for the rest of their life. The brand's renaming in 2025 reflected an evolution rather than a departure: AV stands for About Vintage, preserving the origin and design philosophy the brand was built on, while 86 marks the birth year shared by both founders — a small, permanent nod to the personal foundation the whole company still rests on. The brand's mission statement captures it plainly: AV86. Mark your moment.

Several early milestones shaped the company's identity and continue to echo through its model naming conventions today. The 1564 Concinnus, launched in 2014 under the original About Vintage name, was the very first watch — its clean, timeless design setting the tone for everything that followed, and its model number retained ever since as a quiet tribute to where the whole project began. The 1815 Chronograph, launched in 2016, became a defining early model and introduced what would become a lasting naming convention: it was the first AV86 watch named for a milestone in watchmaking history — 1815 marking the year the chronograph itself was invented — an idea that has shaped how the company names nearly every subsequent reference. Also in 2016, the brand opened its first permanent retail store on Gothersgade in central Copenhagen, giving the growing company a physical home where customers could experience the watches in person and receive personal guidance. The 1844 Chronograph, launched in 2017 and named for the year the chronograph was upgraded with a reset function, went on to become the brand's all-time bestseller, prized for its clean lines, practical subdials, and precise reset timing.

AV86 builds its collection around four material and mechanical commitments stated directly on its own website: 316L surgical-grade stainless steel sourced from Finland for cases, with genuine ISO-certified gold plating on gold models; scratch-resistant sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating and Japanese-precision manufacturing on every model; carefully selected Swiss and Japanese movements from Miyota, Sellita, and TMI, chosen specifically as proven, real-world-tested 'workhorse' calibres rather than for novelty; and production exclusively through A-grade factories and suppliers, extending down to the feel of case edges, bracelet weight, and dial detail. The current collection spans divers, chronographs, dress watches, GMT references, moonphase watches, and both automatic and hand-wound mechanical pieces, with the 1904 Chronograph (the brand's first non-round case) and the 1956 Marine diver among its newer additions. Every watch includes complimentary personal engraving on the caseback, allowing a purchase to be turned into a specific, dated marker of a life event — central to the brand's stated belief that a watch should be more than a way to track hours and minutes.

AV86 has built an extensive roster of collaborations and partnerships, including limited editions with WWF Denmark (the Earthrise Automatic, donating 25% of every sale to WWF conservation projects), the Turtle Foundation (supporting the Sustainable Sea Turtle Conservation Programme in East Borneo, with every Turtle watch purchase funding the protection of 20 turtle hatchlings and including an official donation certificate), Frederique Constant, Seconde/Seconde/, and football and sporting partnerships with AC Milan, FC København, Crystal Palace, and the Danish Football Association (DBU), alongside ambassador relationships with F1 broadcaster Will Buxton, actor Pilou Asbæk, and Olympic sprinter Justin Gatlin.