How Geo Brings Puerto Rican Culture Into Watchmaking

Welcome to The Micro Collector, a podcast where I talk with the founders and operators behind some of the most exciting microbrands and independent watch companies. I'm your host, Justin Dorfman, and in today's episode, I'm joined by Geo Castro, founder of Geo, a Puerto Rico-based watch brand known for its colorful designs and deep connection to Puerto Rican culture. In this conversation, We talk about Geo's journey into watches, how getting robbed of a watch ultimately led him to start his own brand, the stories behind models like the Cofresí and Island Time GMT, and how surfing, community, and life in Puerto Rico influence everything he creates. If you enjoy the episode, be sure to subscribe for more conversations with the people behind these incredible watch brands. And with that, please enjoy my conversation with Geo Castro of Geo.

All right, Geo, welcome to The Micro Collector Podcast. I'm super excited to have you on today.

Thank you, Justin. Thank you for inviting me to chat with you a little.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I have to say, Geo, your watches, the company, the brand, caught my attention when I was checking out the latest version of the Microbrands Book. I think it's version number four.

I've had Giuseppe, MrWatch93 on my podcast before, so I'm a big fan of his books. And I was kind of looking through the latest edition and suddenly this beautiful, very colorful

The Island Time GMT version.

Island Time GMT popped out and I was like my eyes widened. It was such a cool watch and I went on your website, went on your Instagram and started checking out what you're doing and was just really pulled into the whole Puerto Rican sort of feel of the brand. So wanted to reach out and get you on and hear more about your story.

Thank you, man. Thank you for bringing me in. Yeah, basically everything is inspired by the beauties and colors of Puerto Rico. We started 2017 and that texture that you saw on that Island Time GMT watch, it's purely what you'll see around my brand. Know, it's how do we, since the beginning was how can we really make things different? You know, there are so many watches out there and being in that sort of magazine open up a little bit more of exposure, know, where things we I've been setting things to be things that make sense for us like you got your attention and people that are now enthusiasts, because we don't come from a lot of enthusiasm world. Like, from my point of view, I think watches should be for everyone, and that's how we've built up the community since 2017, is that, you know, from affordable people that wasn't into, like, even watches. So that's how we as a brand we've been growing for the past nine years now. So, and now I'm here talking to you.

Yeah, yeah. And maybe take me a little bit back personally for you. When did you first get into watches? Was it something that you've been interested in for a while and then sort of wanted to create your own spin on? When did sort of, yeah, your path towards creating Geo where was the sort of inception of that?

So, it is long story short, they robbed me a watch, you know. So, from that point of view, I usually take from negatives to positives. It comes with an attitude that I've had all my life. And having a glass of wine with my wife, she told me, I told her, like, hey, I think the best idea for moving forward instead of buying watches is making my own brand. And this was 2016 and I've lost watches through even surfing and I took a lot of the core things that have happened to me personally through the watch world. You know, I've been to little Switzerland. My older brother has been influencing me since I was a young kid, know, big jacket, hat, and I wanted to wear his watches, you know. So I've been into it. My dad, can really, if I go back, back, back.

I could remember that first watch I saw from my dad when they hang them up in the dresser or they put them right. I'm like, I like watches. So people that I will call myself a collector, but I've been enthused for watches my whole life. The dynamic, the engineering, the beauty behind watches in general, not a collecting items. Because more like a nostalgic product for me. Like it goes back to where I saw it for the first time. It's for my dad and my brother.

Yeah, I think it's that way for a lot of us. So actually my family comes from the watch industry. So I was around watches my entire life. But the first moment where I found that this is more than just a product, it's something that's special was when my grandpa gave me his watch off his wrist. I was sort

It is.

Of playing around with the bezel on his watch sitting on his lap and he gave me that watch off his wrist. That's sort of the moment that I was really drawn in and realized that these are items that are more than their parts, you know, there's more meaning to it and it can be a connection between people, it can be a memory. So very cool to hear how you've sort of been influenced by your family, but then you took that negative situation and created a positive by creating a brand of your own. What was that process like for creating that first watch? You're sitting there with your wife, you have this idea to create a brand. Where do you start?

Most important thing that I believe is designing something different and unique. It comes more from the perspective of storytelling. So the idea that that connection had to have with with customers in my case, my community is from Puerto Rico. Now we're big and broader. But then and but the idea at first was how can I connect this product item? With something that people will have a little bit of nostalgic feeling to it. So what we did was design, design just a minimalist watch, affordable for everyone, quartz movement. The idea of connecting a community with the colors of Puerto Rico. So there's this song that comes from the color de mi tierra, the colors of my earth.

You know, and so that was you'll see the connection of the colors that we've been designing. There are GeoShop because we have photographed things across Puerto Rico and we have implemented that color into the storytelling, you know, the culture, the rich history and the colors that you'll see around Puerto Rico. So that's how we basically connect the brand to like to create that storytelling. So you're from Puerto Rico. You want to watch you have a Geo. That's basically how it engaged and it started back in 2017. I don't know if you are aware, but we had Hurricane Maria. So Hurricane Maria was a category five hurricane and it came really close to home, bringing in colors because we were very gray, black, gray. Everyone was having a very difficult time here on the island. And it was very interesting what our brand in that Christmas.

Back in 2017, our brand was, you know, I went sold out. There was nothing around like it. Nobody really was offering affordable timepieces in 2017. Now you can find them like a lot of brands just trying to get out there. And I understand. But it's all about storytelling, you know, some people can really connect with you and your brand.

Yeah, and now it seems like you have quite a diverse catalog, right? I saw that you have a digital watch, you have that quartz watch that you mentioned, you have a digital watch, you have automatic watches, a GMT. Maybe at a very high level, you can walk us through what the catalog looks like today and some of the maybe most popular models that you think best reflect the brand.

So popular models I'll say everyone has its own character. You know, my wife says I have like a lot of wives girlfriends and all of those watches that I have designed You know, they all come from one to two years of design process. It's not just that it was it's not a catalog product It's not something that parts are catalog products. So I've taken the time that all of them had to be water resistant as a collection They all have to be water resistant because I come from an island Did the classic watch and that went into gold finish rose gold and silver finish? That is how it went like viral back then viral didn't exist. It's just that everyone had a Geo watch and But my purpose was that I do love mechanical watches, you know, and I did my version of a dive watch in 2020 I started in 2022 and I launched in 2023 2020 pandemic came And that's how I designed the square watch. It's called Square 1 because they had us in a box. That's how this square watch has 90 degree angles all around. So that's my process of design is something that usually happens to me and people could really find connection to the other one was 2022. I launched the Bio Bay So I'm very into the microbiology because my background is business, but I did study microbiology.

That's why you'll see a lot of influence in microscopic like things like the Noctiluca is a chronograph. Noctiluca is a microorganism that brights up the bioluminescence base in Puerto Rico. And then the Island Time GMT version, so that comes from the roots of my dad, because that it's inspired by a marble vinyl record, and that is a marble vinyl record from a 60th anniversary LP. It's an LP that from a salsa group here from Puerto Rico. So Fania is very known for its culture, the salsa. And my dad, that's the songs he used to hear back in the 60s and 70s. So I wanted to do a little bit of tribute with that one. It'll the, and then I have the Campo. Campo, it's the son of the Cofresí. So Cofresí is this one.

Basically Cofresí, it's sold out right now, but it's my precious one. This one marked the difference between having a dive watch and the design. And when I did the Cofresí, it came from the Bio Bay model. So it has fixed lugs, but it all have the same DNA. I designed the... I came prepared, you know?

By the way, is that the

So.

One that is the name is a pirate, a famous pirate?

Yeah, so Cofresí is inspired by the legendary Pirate of the Caribbean, Roberto Cofresí. And back to the storytelling, I wanted people to really acknowledge that you can have a noble pirate, you know? And he used to rob from the rich and give to the poor. And he used to run around the coast of Puerto Rico from south to east. And I'm from the south of Puerto Rico, so I'm very rooted to what Cofresí did.

You know, he used to hide out in between the mangroves and the bioluminescent bays. So that's why this brights up blue like the bioluminescent. It's a full lume dial and it has coordinates of Puerto Rico at six o'clock You'll see it right here

Yeah, very cool.

So then, how I come from a quartz affordable item and that one sold out. I really had like this other community saying like, that's a great product to have, but you need to remember about us. So I did the same timepiece on a 39 millimeter quartz movement for $250. And that's the Campo And the Campo was my idea to like people being able to afford it.

Because not everyone is an enthusiast paying $500 to $1,000 for a microbrand, you know. Other people paying $100, $200, $300, that's like my bread and butter. It's like from $100 to $300.

Yeah, and I think what you're delivering in terms of the style and the color of the watch, the story behind the watch, and also the mechanics of the watch, right? You have automatic watches in there, you have a GMT. It's pretty incredible for the price point. I think maybe, I don't know if I'm correct in this, but I think you might be exposing people to the world of watches, right?

I've been doing it.

It is something we've been working on for nine years. This is not about the community already established. I go out and I look for them. I go to pop-ups. I think I might be, and I could tell this freely, I might be one of those brands that I have done more than thousands and thousands of hours of pop-ups because I expose myself to anyone out there searching for watches, and they didn't know they weren't gonna find me, because I do pop-ups at malls, I do pop-ups through holidays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduations, and then I do the watch shows. You know, I'm always hustling to just... I know there's there's someone out there that still hasn't found our brand, you know, and or they didn't think they wanted a watch, and then they found something nice like our brand. And just because we're talking about my brand but there are a lot of other brands that I do respect a lot.

Yeah, I was gonna ask you about those pop-ups because I obviously had seen your brand pop-up in various shows, you know, that of other brands that I'm aware of. Started, you know, as I became familiar with Geo, I started to see your logo on these shows, but then on your Instagram, I saw you at these pop-ups in markets, in malls, like you said. Tell me a little bit about that. So do you find that that's a great opportunity not just to get your brand out there, but also do you sort of get ideas on new watches or new designs or new ways to sort of position the brand through the way that you're interacting with people at these pop-ups? Like how do you view these pop-ups as sort of feeding the brand?

Exactly. So, to today, I can say though I am the designer of GeoShop, I think my community has designed the watches, you know. I have that community, that customer that we call Geofam saying, you should design a digital watch. So here's a digital watch. And then I'm like, I'm not into digital, but I'll make it something fun, quirky for my kid. So and then they're like, I think you should design on a chronograph. And I'm like, I won't design, but I'll just say this is one of the most beautiful chronographs I've seen out there. And then they're like, I think you should do a dive watch. And I'm like, Jesus Christ, let me let me figure this one out because there's so many dive watches out there in which I don't want the bezel to look like Rolex or exposed. So basically all those people, all that feedback that have had received through the years.

I have done like the conversion rate. They're like, I think you need a mechanical watch. The only thing that I haven't done is go Swiss. Swiss. And I'll tell you what, the idea of doing Swiss watches, though it's everyone knows, but that it's a great product for my standards is that a lot of my customers, they drive like a Toyota, you know, Honda.

So it has to be durable, has to be reasonable price, and it has to be something affordable. So in that case, not everyone knows how to drive an Audi. Not everyone knows how to drive a BMW. So my community, though they will know how to manage it, they will beat it like a Toyota. And I know they will, because I've seen watches and they're like, use watches, man. They just don't put them in the drawer.

So this exposure and bringing in people that they can be able to connect with me after 9 years. I got a guy recently tell me, I have one of your watches for 9 years, I think I'm just gonna buy a new one now. And I'm like, it took you 9 years to trust me, but it's okay to buy a new one.

One other thing that I noticed about your watch designs is the fixed lugs. You kind of mentioned that. I'm curious to get your thoughts behind that. Think fixed lugs, I've seen them a lot in the past. Maybe they disappeared for a little while. And then suddenly I saw them on your website and also saw that the way that you take the pictures of the watches on your website, they don't have the straps on. You also have a vast strap collection. So I thought maybe there's a connection there.

But tell me a little bit about the thinking both behind the design of the fixed lugs and then also sort of strapless pictures.

I am a core surfer so I've surfed for 30 years now. I've lost a lot of watches out there. One of the most reliable watch I own was a Rip Curl digital watch and it came with everything. The moon, the tides and it had fixed lugs. I still own it and you know I'm like I used that one with what we call today the NATO straps and nylon straps. But then the most interesting thing happened is that with all the salt, just went out and I couldn't use it anymore. And there came the idea with the connection of losing the watch and bringing in a new brand. Like, you know, I've searched so much and Alibaba wasn't it. You couldn't find sources of straps anywhere.

Not like now that you have so many brands and so multiple. So we started out with like eight colors, giving colors to just one watch and eight and multiple combinations, you know? And we did it with leather, with silicon and with nylon straps. So that really made the business grow knowing that you could do your own. Think, and I'm going to say it also, like I might be the only one that only exposes the watch case everyone's asking usually through Instagram or any platform They're like how do I do I choose the strap does it come with the strap? You know like well, yeah, you build your own basically and that it took me a little while to get there because I was sitting down at Long Beach in 2018 with a creative director that we have grown together I call him like my grand my father I mean, my godfather of branding. Used to work with with renowned brands and he sat me down in his boat and he told me, you know, you're not listening. And I'm like, what am I not listening to? He's like, the business is not the watch, it's the strap. That is 2018. So that's where I really separated the watch case from the strap. And then that that just went like boom like I was one person will buy one case and 10 straps and then I was doing like a lot of bogos like buy one get one free buy one get one 50% off and that really make the business of straps something more part of the DNA of the brand

And you know, it's interesting is a lot of collectors that I talked to. They say that when they buy a new watch, and again, like you said, most watches that people buy from different brands come with a strap or a bracelet or already on it. One of the first things that they tend to do is take off the bracelet or the strap that it came with and put on something that maybe is more comfortable or speaks more to their personality or how they want to wear the watch. So I think, you know, that idea or that insight that you got is really, really smart. And, know, it's really interesting to hear that the way the buying behavior is that people then buy the watch and they buy a bunch of different straps, because I do think in recent years, we've seen this, sort of explosion of the strap market, right, and the sort of the interest in a collector or an enthusiast to swapped the straps, and we've seen, like, you know, quick release and all these new technologies to basically help people do that more easily. But the idea being, you know, to allow people to make their watches their own, right, and sort of express themselves through it. So that's very cool. Yeah.

Completely agree with you. Completely agree with you. But the same thing, you know, there's so many straps out there and with the DNA of GeoShop being like, so like the color of the strap had to be really tied to the colors of Puerto Rico. I am. I have I love photography. I love watchmaking and tying those things together to the color of the pantone color of the strap was purpose was really on purpose. Like so you couldn't find it on Alibaba.

If he's using find an AliExpress, you're like, because a black strap is a black strap, a blue is a blue. But when you go to the pantone colors that we've used throughout the years, we've done over 15 different pantone colors. So that's how the brand has been very diverse to the colors of Puerto Rico. And so even from the pictures I take or attach the colors to the strap, but then I do sponsor surfers, right and we were talking about strap making and what was comfortable for us in general was more silicone. Like, when we are surfing, silicone straps, it's a lot more suitable for our sport. The thing is that the pain is that a lot of this polyurethane rubber, they break. The wear and tear, they'll break, so you lose a watch. Then I'm like, so how can I make it better? It took me a year, one year, to make the strap of GeoShop, the silicon strap. The R&D is that I had to do a thin watch that will go through the lugs, right? And then I added 25 powers of torque. If you can pull on it's flexible. So you can really like surf with it. You can paddle out with it. And it's but also had to be affordable. Know, a lot of those silicone and rubber straps out there, they're like $40 bucks, $60 bucks. And I believe that my community wasn't going to pay for it at that time. So I was offering and I had a 50-50, you know, everyone loved the nylon straps. And when I launched the silicone strap, they weren't buying it. So that's where I did the bogos like buy one strap or give you one for free. And then now there's a lot of people just loving those straps. In silicon and nylon and the leather straps.

Yeah, the silicon ones definitely caught my attention. Like you said, it's different. It's the color, but also I thought about the comfort and hearing how you did all that research to make sure that it's not just comfortable, but it's also durable. I think that's a huge differentiator for you.

The idea is I had to be thin as it goes through the lugs and then the slip on so it doesn't slip.

So we added nanotechnologies that's dust free because I went through the pains. What do you don't like about rubber and nylon straps? You always have to clean them, you know, like the dust. So my straps, they it doesn't happen.

So

You

What's next for Geo? As we think of the future, any new models that you have in mind, any new strap materials or anything like that, what do fans have to expect and to be excited about for Geo?

Collaborations probably with the strap industry there might be upcoming collaborations we have More material we're doing a lot of R &D a lot of R &D for fixed lugs on bracelets, you know Like something that I'm not in I'm not a bracelet guy, but there's the customer So I always try to see if it's possible and if it's viable for our company to make, you know. The watches, man, the watches are, the upcoming watches are really cool. What I could share is that there's gonna be a lot of roots. Puerto Rico has a lot to offer from terrazzos to Creole tiles to different mother of pearl textures, sea glass. You could imagine it's a world of possibilities because in my creative side, I do explore with a lot of color, but you'll see it a lot of balance. Engineering, yes, because even for the chronograph that it took me like two years, it's more, the case had to be suitable for surfing.

You know so and usually you can't find like push buttons in water-resistant chronographs. You know it was hard enough and I talked to different colleagues and what has not been done yet. So maybe the future for GeoShop will be what has not been done yet and a lot of more color you know with the DNA of Puerto Rico in the structure of the watches.

Well, I'm super excited to follow along. If others that are listening and watching this want to learn more about Geo, maybe even see the watches in person, because I know you have the pop-ups, but you also go to a lot of events, where are the best places online and in person that they can go to connect?

So the best place will be my online shop. It's is geoshop.co If you want to see me in person, you can come to Puerto Rico and I'll do an appointment with you. And I also do a lot of pop ups across the island. But then there's an interesting thing happening is that we already signed up for Singapore for the Spring Sprang Sprung. We already signed up for the Prague show already in Europe again.

We are going to be Intersect Long Beach in July and there's going to be any other watch show that invites us that makes sense, you know, because we are in the search of more enthusiasts and growing our community slowly but surely.

Cool, cool. And also I know that your Instagram is a great place as well. I'll include all the links to your website, to Instagram on the show notes so that people can find you. And I may see you in Singapore, but if not, I'm gonna take that advice and come over to Puerto Rico and let's go surfing with one of your watches on my wrist. I wanna try that strap.

You never know when there's going to be a watch show in Puerto Rico. You'll be one of first to know. We're already on the track to doing it. So it's going to be fun. Lots of brands might be signing up. They already know about it. They know who they are. Because in general, we all talk, and that's what makes the watch show special. We've been connecting. And special thanks to my friend from Vario. I got Formex, I got Jack Mason, know, they've been really nice to us. Canuck Timepieces. So they've been nice enough to tell me about the groundwork. You know, gotta be doing more groundwork. Here we are. So a lot more people know about our brand.

Yeah, well, I can tell you that I've had some of those folks on the show and many of them have had great things to say about Geo. So I knew from seeing your watches in the Microbrands Book and then hearing from a lot of other founders that I needed to meet you. You know, it was so great hearing this story. Thanks so much for taking the time to share it with us. And yeah, looking forward to engaging with you at one of these events. But if not in Puerto Rico, it would be a great setting for a watch event. So I really look forward

Well,

To that.

If you're looking to enjoy your island time, that has been part of our platform and maybe you've seen it. Like enjoy your island time. I like to make people warm, like the warmth of Puerto Rico through the island time. That's what we're looking for. So if you're hoping to enjoy a little bit of island time, you're welcome to come to Puerto Rico and I'll take you to dinner. Don't worry.

Sounds good. I'll hold you to that. Awesome. Well, Geo, was great chatting with you today. Thanks again for your time, and we're excited to see more from Geo in the near future.

Thank you, man.