16 years ago, Andy Laats and Chad DiNenna founded a company that quickly became a favorite among fans of retro design and style conscious: Nixon. The reason for the formation of the company was, as it often is, a personal one: For a long time, DiNenna had been looking for a watch meeting his preferences, but couldn’t find any.

Laats, a former product manager for Burton snowboards, was preparing for his MBA title at Stanford when he met DiNenna. Together, they rustled up nearly a million US dollars for their newly-founded company. The first catalog was published in 1997 and featured six watches.

In 2006, Billabong International (a surfer brand) bought Nixon for approximately 55 million US dollars. Six years later, Nixon became an independent company again, with not quite half of the stock still held by Billabong. Its current market value is about 464 million US dollars.

Nixon offers a huge variety of analog and digital watches, both for men and women.