Exploring the Wax Dial BOAT Watch: A Unique Timepiece

Now long discontinued, it seems to have vanished without a trace. No discussions, no collectors reminiscing about it, no archival product listings, just silence. It’s as if the watch never existed, except for my lingering memory of. And frankly, that drives me insane. Who made it? Why? When and where was it produced? There’s almost no information to answer these questions, aside from a few remnants of old ads, the same ones that convinced me to buy it in the first place.

Old photos of myself wearing the watch across Europe in 2012 & 2013.

This watch means a lot to me. It was my fourth-ever watch, a purchase made just before my first Interrail trip across Europe in the summer of 2012 and 2013. For an entire month, it was on my wrist as I traveled from city to city, and over time, it became more than just a timepiece. It became a marker of that adventure, a tangible reminder of one of the most formative experiences of my life.

I think many of us have objects like that, things that don’t just exist as possessions but as anchors to the past, charged with nostalgia. And so, I’ve decided to embark on an unnecessary but deeply personal deep dive into this odd little watch that the world seems to have forgotten.

Official Promo images of the Sealed Watch (Source)

The Search Begins

My first step was to track down when this brand first emerged and, more importantly, when it disappeared. The earliest archived snapshot I could find on the Wayback Machine dates back to January 20, 2012. A closer look at the homepage from that time suggests the company had been around since at least December 1, 2011, as that date is explicitly mentioned.

Then, something interesting caught my eye—their logo. Somehow, despite owning this watch for over a decade, I’d never realized that BOAT was an acronym: Be Optimistic And Thankful. A clever bit of branding, and yet it completely escaped me until now.

The home page of Be Optimistic and Thankful in 2012. It definitely screems early 2010s.

Digging Into BOAT’s Origins

Fortunately, I managed to retrieve their “About Us” page from 2012, which reads:

“In the spring of 2011, we sailed out in a small boat towards a place of interest, with the aim of discovering new fresh ideas and innovative products while digging out the story and origin behind the product. We look at each detail with curiosity and see opportunities for development. We fulfill everything to the maximum potential, and in our journey of discovery, we aspire to be optimistic and thankful.”

From this, it seems 2011, likely late 2011, was when BOAT first set sail. That timeline checks out, as this was around the peak of the minimalist movement in design. Everything was getting stripped back, clean, white, and simple aesthetics dominated, largely influenced by Apple’s design language. Even today, high-end brands still lean into that stark, ultra-minimalist approach.

A fully customisable watch from 2012? The Sealed Watch was ahead of its time in many ways.

When Did BOAT Disappear?

So, when did BOAT meet its end?

Using the Wayback Machine again, I found that the last archived version of their website appeared in 2014. That suggests the brand had a brief but intense lifespan - just a few years before vanishing.

To corroborate this, I looked at old articles. At some point, the BOAT Watch seemed to experience rapid growth, likely due to going viral on platforms like Pinterest and being featured on trend-focused sites like Hypebeast and other gadget blogs. The last significant digital footprint I could find was a YouTube video from January 8, 2014, showcasing the watch i black with a blue dial. Keep The Time also have been an offiical distrubtor of the watch at some point? More cool images of a black dial with brown strap can be found here.

Meanwhile, their official Facebook page fell silent in February 2013—no updates after that. From all this, my best guess is that by 2015, BOAT was gone for good. But why? That’s the real mystery. Was it poor sales? A manufacturing issue? A passion project that simply ran its course? That’s what I’m determined to find out next.

One of only two videos on YouTube showcasing the watch. Thanks to KeepTheTime.com

A Deep Dive Into the Lost History of the BOAT Sealed Watch

It was clear that if I wanted to uncover more about this long-lost watch, I’d need to dig deeper. Finding out that this micro-brand was based in Hong Kong was easy—my original box and the case back both proudly state that it was “Made and Assembled in Hong Kong.” But if I wanted anything beyond that, I’d have to unearth old articles and information that had long since disappeared from the web.

Luckily, I have a background in digital marketing, and digging through old backlinks (which are essentially external references to a website from other sources) is part of my job. So, armed with nothing but sheer determination and an unhealthy amount of curiosity, I set off.

Tracking Down Lost Links

In total, I uncovered 24 old links related to BOAT Watches. Most were either:

1. No longer indexed by Google (meaning they still exist but are buried so deep in the algorithm they might as well not exist)
2. Hosted on websites that no longer exist at all

Of those, only one was actually archived on the Wayback Machine—a still live review from WristWatchReview.com. Interestingly, this was one of the only examples online I found with original photos taken by someone who actually owned the watch. This was a crucial discovery, as it provided insight into how the watch was received at the time. Even now, it remains a fascinating concept—no other watch before or since has used a wax seal dial.

I also stumbled across an ancient forum thread from PhilMug, an Apple user group based in the Philippines. One absolute mad lad on there—user ewe_17— purchased four of these watches in different colors. Naturally, I reached out to see if he still had them. So far, radio silence. 

Cracking the Case: Who Created BOAT?

Among the scattered fragments of the internet, a few articles dropped the names Leo Chiu and Siu Man, both from Hong Kong, as the duo behind BOAT Watches.

Finally! Progress.

And this is the point in the investigation where I may have had a few drinks.

With two beers and a bottle of sake fueling my next move, I realized something ridiculous:
The domain name beoptimisticandthankful.com was currently unregistered.

So, naturally, I did the only logical thing—I wasted £10 registering it.

The original ad that I remember seeing. The unique stamping idea fascinated me.

The Dead End

But what about Leo Chiu and Siu Man? What could I learn about them?

Apparently… nothing.

Despite searching LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and every other platform I could think of, I found no trace of them. There’s a Leo Chiu who’s a CEO and another who’s a successful accountant, but neither seemed to have anything to do with BOAT Watches.

I even went through BOAT’s old Twitter followers manually, thinking surely the creators would have followed their own brand. Nope.

At this point, desperation kicked in.

I scoured old forums, Reddit threads, and even messaged dormant accounts, hoping someone, somewhere, had information about BOAT, Leo Chiu, or Siu Man. But the trail was cold. A decade might not sound like a long time, but on the internet? It’s an eternity.

The End of the Search… For Now

For now, my obsession with BOAT Watches must rest. Maybe one day, someone will reply to my messages. Maybe ewe_17 from PhilMug will reappear with four pristine watches and all the answers I’m looking for. Maybe I’ll take another crack at this mystery in the future.

But until then, the BOAT, Prehaps the GOAT of my collection—will remain one of my favorite timepieces to date. An enigma, a relic of minimalist design, and a ghost of the internet at the start of the social media age.

(And yes, I own the domain now, for whatever that’s worth.)