I was approached a couple weeks ago by Ben from AsoRock Watches, an African luxury watch brand. But before I tell you about the watches, let me tell you what interested me in this company in the first place. It’s not just a watch company. The two young men who began AsoRock Watches have a higher mission than just profits. They want to improve the world. They want to show larger companies that they can be both profitable and socially conscious. They’re using proceeds from sales of their watches to build free public libraries in parts of Africa that desperately need them.

The company’s mission statement is “Manufacturing premium quality watches as leverage to build free libraries across the African continent,” and their vision statement is to “have various free fully functional schools and free hospitals built in Africa by 2035 with an ASOROCK COLLECTIVE store in the famous shopping districts of the world.”

So when you purchase an AsoRock Watch, you’re not just getting a quality watch, you’re also (and more importantly) improving the life of an African child.

And now let’s talk watches! Their watches are crafted from the same top-quality components as other premium watch brands that sell for $500 to $3000, but they’re using a direct to consumer sales approach (similar to popular jewelry company, Mejuri), which eliminates the middleman and inflation of the final sales price.

Last year they produced a line of luxury men’s watches. They’re currently crowd-funding through Kickstarter.com to raise funds to produce a limited quantity of their first line of women’s watches called “TheFirstLady.” All their watches are covered by an industry-leading 2-year international warranty.

I was asked to do an unboxing video for YouTube, but due to (aggravating) technology while I was away in California, I just won’t be able to make that happen til I get back to NY on Friday. I’d love for you to see the watch “in real life,” and I’ll post a link as soon as it’s live later this week.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of last year’s men’s watches.

They’re very rugged and modern looking. And I got a little peek of the women’s watches for this year and they’re classic and modern at the same time – which is totally my jam!

This is a paid sponsored post. At first, a men’s watch company seemed pretty unrelated to my usual content. But when I saw pictures of the women’s watches, I was intrigued as I have been looking for a watch for over a year (have I told you the sad story of how I lost my beloved 1940s Hamilton tank watch AND my mother’s wedding band in one fell swoop many years ago? THE DEVASTATION!). AND you can’t ignore two socially-responsible men trying to do good things in the world.

So, please do take a look at their website and kickstarter. If you make a pledge of $75 you will get one ladies’ watch with mesh strap band. These are the ones I really like as a dressy watch.

If you make a pledge of $320, you get four different watches, two watch bands, and their Collectors Box to hold all of the above. This could be a great gift plan for the coming year!

This entrepreneurial pair feels Africa needs more brands that sell worldwide and are proud to have sold over 1,000 watches worldwide and only 10% of those to buyers in Africa. But most importantly, they have charitable hearts and want their watches to help empower African youths.