“Necessity is the mother of invention.” And so it was with the invention of the BlumSafe – when the theft of a cherished watch led to the creation of a US-manufactured line of watch and jewelry wall and cabinet safes that allow for up to 18 watch winders and other accessories, keeping watches secure, accessible, and ready to wear.
The Backstory.
In 2017, one of Rob Blum’s favorite watches disappeared from the top of his dresser (perhaps a housekeeper gave in to temptation?). Rob, a lifelong tinkerer approaching retirement from a career in finance, concluded that a better way to keep his watches had to be found. He understood that desktop watch winders were convenient, but offered no protection – not just from anonymous burglars, but from the people he invited into his home (property theft occurs in more than one out of 10 US homes annually, and 80% of those thefts are committed by people invited into the home by the owners). Reasonable “peace of mind” was the objective.
So Rob went shopping for a watch safe, but he thought it was overkill to pay $10,000, $20,000, $50,000 or more for a luxury watch winder safe — money that could instead be put toward purchasing his next watch(es). He knew that he didn’t require expensive “cosmetics,” but rather sought functionality and reliability in a good looking, reasonably secure, easily concealable and upgradable package – to allow the safe’s functionality to grow with the addition of more winders as his watch collection grew. He wanted a modular design that would allow him to easily create his own custom safe. And Rob thought it was important that the safe should fit into a convenient location, such as a bedroom or dressing room.
Such a safe did not then exist, so Rob set out to build it. His company’s first safe, the original BlumSafe of 2017, led to the Display Door BlumSafe two years later. Both are built-in safes (i.e., for mounting between studs inside walls or in cabinets) with capacity for up to 12 Mabuchi-motored watch winders and a range of jewelry drawer and shelf options. Both use the same digital keypad and fingerprint sensor lock. The display door safe permits owners (and their friends) to view their well-lit watches while the door is locked.
