20(SOMETHING) Launches Split Watches' First UK Collection
As the country once again prepares to embrace Mental Health Awareness Week, this year’s theme of ‘community’ is an extremely fitting one for new brand Split Watches, as it drops its first collection in the UK.
Where most watch brands cling to heritage and tradition, Split breaks from it. The team behind the brand are not interested in echoing the past, they’re here to champion the present. Real, beautiful, vulnerable, together. Split is for the wearer who craves something more expressive than excessive, who understands that confidence isn’t about polish, but about honesty, curiosity and challenging norms that no longer serve us.
Split Watches exist to tell a new story.
Founder Ed Margulies, a third-generation watchmaker, has seen it all. Having completed his training in Switzerland as a teenager, he took what he had learnt from Vacheron Constantin & Longine and joined the family business, before going on to lead UK distribution for some of the world’s most prestigious watch brands, brands including Hublot, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille. Few know the industry more intimately, or more critically.
For Ed, who has been on his own journey of acceptance and forgiveness, there’s never been a more pertinent time to rethink what choosing a watch can say to the world.
And there’s no better way of expressing that than through contemporary design, a disruptor’s attitude and modern materials to match.
Ed Margulies, founder, Split Watches said, “Having worked across every facet of the luxury watch industry, I came to understand the unique power a watch has to spark conversations. But when childhood trauma resurfaced after I had children, it pulled me far from both the watch world and life itself. It took over a decade to find my own path back.
"With new energy and a deeper sense of purpose, I felt compelled to create a watch brand that stood for something different and that, I hope, gives Split customers the opportunity to start a different kind of conversation.
"I learned the power of vulnerability, transforming it from a weakness into a strength. Sharing my own hidden struggles with those around me opened my eyes to a simple truth: every one of us carries our own stories and battles.
"Split is about modern watches for a modern world – watches made to bring people together with meaning”.
With brand positioning, identity and design conceived by London studio 20(SOMETHING), and imagery shot by David Clerihew through CRXSS Agency, the visual world of Split is intentionally fractured. Images have been physically distorted through hand-crafted post-production processes – ink rollers, scrapers, crumples, rips and scalpels – creating a tactile rawness that reflects the real-world flicker between the challenges of individual experience and the power of collective connection. A world that comes in and out of focus, much like our own existential journeys.
Rory Stiff, senior designer at 20(S) said, “Creating a brand that lives on someone’s wrist every day meant approaching the work with both sensibility and sensitivity. The idea of moving in and out of focus became central to the identity, inspired by early conversations with Ed and brought to life through Federico Parra Barrios’ typeface Exposure.
"This theme runs through everything from packaging and photography to print and 3D, reflecting a constant interplay of light and shadow and clarity and obscurity”.
At its heart is a vision for a more empathetic, colourful, connected world. It’s about redefining what a timepiece can represent: the courage to be open, the choice to support one another and the quiet strength in asking for help. Split Watches aren’t about signalling wealth or power, they’re a statement of intent and a more conscious choice. A stylish statement of something deeper: togetherness, support and encouragement.
Andrew Barnard, managing partner at 20(S) said, “In a culture built on endless noise, Split doesn’t shout. It starts quiet conversations. Even in 2025, mental wellbeing and connection need championing. Our connection to one another should be a daily conversation.
"Split is more than a watch brand, it’s a signal, a push back against outdated ideals of prestige, tradition and self-reliance. Above all, it’s a reminder that time is all we have and we owe it to each other to look out for one another”.
In partnership with the Anna Freud Foundation, Split Watches will donate 1 hour of therapy for a youngster experiencing trauma for every chronograph sold.
The limited drop is available here from the 12th May, with plans for other limited edition collections being made available throughout the year.
