Santurce Collection: The Little Watch Brand in Puerto Rico with a Big Heart

If you’ve spent time wandering through niche corners of the watch world: forums, group chats, RedBar meetups, you know there’s a special joy in discovering a brand before the rest of the world catches on. Santurce Collection, the husband-and-wife microbrand run by José and Anita out of Puerto Rico, is built entirely around that feeling.

In fact, the brand literally started as an inside joke. “When we would sell among friends our watches at ‘friend prices,’ we would say ‘#SanturceCollection,’” José says. “Best example I can give is a Seiko Turtle for $150 is a #SanturceCollection.”

It was never meant to become a company. It was just a nickname for good deals among friends, and it began, as many great stories do, with a drawer overflowing with watches José wasn’t wearing. “We decided to sell them at a great discount so others could enjoy those watches,” he says. Then Anita chimes in with a detail only a spouse can deliver: “Also, I had asked for more drawer space in the closet.”

And just like that, a microbrand was born, accidentally, organically, and very appropriately, as a couple.

If you follow the brand online or run into them at a watch meetup, you quickly realize José and Anita operate as a united front. “As cliché as it sounds, we do everything together,” José says. “Starting the watch brand has given us the opportunity to work together also.”

Anita agrees: “We’ve always shared hobbies, but since we’re both collectors and true watch enthusiasts, this one hits differently.”

When they met, Anita already had her own budding watch collection. “I always joke that it’s one of the ways I conquered him,” she says. Whether or not that’s true is between them, but what is true is that watches became a shared language, tying them together from the very beginning, and continue to shape their lives as partners and business owners.

When you ask most microbrands about their design influences, you’ll get references to historic models, military cues, architectural mumbo jumbo, and whatever else the mood board they’ve built from has pinned up. Ask José and Anita, however, and the answer is far more intimate, centered on their identity.

“To us, Puerto Rico is everything,” José says. “We were born here, lived our whole lives here. There’s no José and Anita without Puerto Rico.”

Their life is their inspiration because their island is part of who they are as individuals and as a couple. Living in Santurce means walking past art deco buildings, street murals, cathedrals, dive bars, and high-end restaurants, all in a single day. “A few blocks from our house is the place we had our first date over 15 years ago,” José shares. Even their dogs’ walk route along the Condado Lagoon has shaped design elements.

The culture doesn’t appear on their watches as a gimmick; it’s part of their every breath, and so, it belongs on the watches. 

A perfect example? The brand’s upcoming pilot watches. Anita explains them: “One model is based on the Pitirre, a small but fearless bird, and the other on the Guaraguao, a powerful hawk.” The two watches will come in different sizes, each subtly mirroring the spirit and physicality of their namesake bird.

And yes, the dials proudly carry Spanish names. “It’s a deliberate choice to honor our language and identity,” she says. “It’s our way of translating Puerto Rican nature, attitude, and spirit into watchmaking.”

If Puerto Rico is the brand’s soul, then humor, community, and sincerity make up the rest of the brand as a walking, talking, whole.

“We want people to see a brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously,” José explains. “We have fun, but we back it up with high-quality customer service and our love for the watch-collecting community.”

It’s rare to find watches that are joyful yet uncompromising, or both playful yet precise. And at the center is their own identity as collectors.

“We’re not another watch brand—we are collectors,” José says. “We want to give our customers the service we expect from our favorite brands.”

This is why Santurce Collection doesn’t see itself as another watch brand pumping out SKUs. They see themselves helping others build memories. “We form emotional bonds with timepieces,” José says. “When you buy into the brand, you’re part of our community.”

The Santurce Collection began to evolve with the Picúa and Tiburón projects, the first watches they fully designed rather than selecting from a private-label catalog.

“Some details needed improvement,” José admits about those earlier models. “We don’t want to be 90% there, we want to be 100%.”

So they went hunting for the right manufacturing partner, one who understood their obsession with proportion, feel, and functionality.

Two non-negotiables?

• A modern, wearable tool-forward case

• And an oversized crown

“Those who have the Picúa or Tiburón will immediately realize the crown is oversized, comfortable, and smooth,” José says. “That is and will be a non-negotiable element to our watches.”

Then come the specs that made enthusiasts, myself included, raise an eyebrow, especially when partnered with their prices. 

“We wanted 300m, we wanted a Sellita, and the best lume we could get,” José says. “Specs that are almost unheard of in that price range—well, Santurce Collection has them.”

Launching a watch brand is difficult anywhere. But launching one on a Caribbean island adds a few extra hurdles.

“Living on an island immediately presents a logistical challenge,” José says. He and Anita, both lawyers in their professional lives, place a huge value on face-to-face communication, so they travel frequently to meet with manufacturers.

Then there’s the reality of small-community dynamics in Puerto Rico. “If somebody doesn’t like what you’re doing, you’ll hear about it quick,” José says. Negativity echoes loudly when everyone knows everyone. “Believing in yourself, product, and knowledge is essential to stay the course.”

But the secret weapon, he says, is doing this as a couple. “Having each other’s back has been the defining factor of our brand’s success.”

Before they became brand owners, José and Anita founded the RedBar chapter in Puerto Rico. That alone tells you everything about their priorities.

“RedBar has brought a new dimension to watch collecting,” José says. “We just feel honored and privileged to gather collectors in hopes of making new friendships.”

Running a brand hasn’t changed that mission. “Our approach to design is still influenced by us being collectors more than anything,” he says. The melting pot of watches at each meetup, modern, vintage, affordable, and rare, ignites creativity constantly.

“RedBar is a blessing to the community,” José adds, “and we’re very happy to be able to have it running in Puerto Rico.”

If you’ve never attended a watch meetup in Puerto Rico, José paints a picture that would make any enthusiast salivate.

“Collectors here travel all over the world hunting for their next timepiece,” he says. “Every watch meet is a world-class display of pieces in every price range, category, and rarity.”

How many people show up?

“Sometimes it’s almost 100 of us gracing a local sports bar on a random Wednesday.”

The community is active, tight-knit, and committed. Group chats hit their maximum capacity. Friendships form instantly. Through it all, José and Anita humbly acknowledge the obvious truth:

“It’s not without thankfulness that we say, Santurce Collection exists in a large part because the community supports us.”

Ask each spouse what the other brings to the brand, and you’re looking at the watch nerd equivalent of writing love letters. 

“I consider Anita to be Santurce Collection,” José says. “Her work ethic, charisma, and knowledge makes her indispensable.” His design approach is raw, toolish, bold, and her touch adds refinement and harmony. “My raw design language gets softened with her more delicate touch.”

He recalls how the Picúa began as his vision, inspired partly by the Blancpain Barracuda, but Anita shaped that energy into what became the Tiburón. “Looking back, you could say both were designed by the same person, but to me it shows how in sync we are.”

Anita, meanwhile, sees José as the spark. “He’s the one who dreams big and sees what doesn’t exist yet,” she says. “I may refine the ideas, but he’s the reason they’re born.”

But it’s his depth of horology knowledge that astonishes her. “He doesn’t guess what collectors want; he knows, because he’s lived and studied this world his whole life.”

Ultimately, “he imagines the concept, and I help turn it into something real… He ignites, and together we bring the watch to life,” Anita summarizes. 

“Initially I want them to feel they got a deal,” José says. Santurce could charge more, everyone tells them so, but that’s not who they are. Instead, they want collectors to experience “that long-gone feeling of ‘I discovered this before anyone else.’”

Their slogan captures it perfectly: el que sabe, sabe — “if you know, you know.”

They want people to feel joy, quality, surprise, and a sense of insider delight that leads them to dig deeper into the brand and into Puerto Rican culture.

“We want our community to grow beyond our island,” José says. “If our watches bring more people into the community, then it’s all been worth it.”

Santurce Collection isn’t slowing down. In fact, they’re building the next waves of releases.

“We are here to stay,” José says. “We want to bring fun, original designs to our offerings.”

And yes, there’s a dream goal.

“We would like to impact and impress enough people with our watches that one day we can throw a great party on the island to celebrate the watch community in Puerto Rico and welcome people from all over the world.”

After all, as José puts it: “A watch is nothing without a story, and the story we want to tell is one of friendship, connection, and belonging.”

The watch world is overflowing with microbrands and independents duking it out for space in the industry. Santurce Collection stands out because it’s built out of love, community, and identity. And all of it fueled by the joy of two collectors who genuinely want you to have a great watch and a bit of their home. 

So when you finally take ownership of one of their watches, what you’re really holding is a piece of Puerto Rico, a piece of a partnership, and a welcome invitation to a joyous community. Because, as they love to say…

El que sabe, sabe.