Becoming The Pluralist 🌏
The Problem
There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. The wrist watch industry primarily only produces watches in 3 languages. This means there are 6497 more languages which are not represented. Let’s put this in context. Bengali is the 7th most spoken language in the world with 250 million native speakers and Malayalam is a language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and has 30 million native speakers which is larger than the population of Australia. Wrist watches do not represent either of these languages. We found a massive gap in the wrist watch industry.
So, in November 2016 I founded The Pluralist Watches based out of Brisbane, Australia to solve this problem.
Mission
Our mission at The Pluralist Watches is to bring affordable timepieces that reflect the diversity of the world’s languages. Our vision is to be the world’s first truly linguistically diverse watch brand. With a passion for languages and minimalist style watches, The Pluralist brings affordable and fashionable watches that can be worn to suit any occasion.
‘’If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his languages, that goes to his heart.’’ — Nelson Mandela
Why Social Purpose Business
Being a long-time admirer of Professor Muhammad Yunus I believed in the power of social businesses to make a positive impact in society. So, very early on I decided that when/if I founded a business it would be a social business.
Therefore, when I founded The Pluralist Watches it was structured as a Social Business. For every watch sold, I donate $5 to a local Australian charity. To date we have supported The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and Refugees Welcome Australia. As we grow in the future we hope to expand and partner with other organisations tackling major societal issues like access to education, poverty alleviation & climate change.
Our Impact to Date
Over $800 donated, hundreds of conversations sparked and thousands of bridges built.
The Pluralist Watches
Currently, The Pluralist Watches Represents 3 different languages Arabic, Kanji and our newest one to be released at the end of January is in Thai. The designs are unisex, minimalistic and focus on an elegant style. We want to make sure that our watches look good, feel good and do good.
Since launching The Pluralist, we are excited to have sold watches to our home Australia and also to Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Germany, South Africa, Panama, Mexico and many more countries. It’s absolutely amazing to bring together people from many corners of the world and expand our Pluralist clan.
Moving forward our goal in 2019 is to expand on our designs, represent more languages and work towards making our supply chain more sustainable.
Join our community of Pluralists and make a difference!
If you want to join us as a partner or supporter please email us at info@thepluralist.com.au. You can find further information on our e-commerce site www.thepluralist.com.au.
Yours Truly,
Muheeb Hoque
Chief Pluralist
