In an age when time vibrates, buzzes, and lights up our wrists, Matt and Rohan Kuttan are betting on something quietly radical: stillness.
Their Evanston-based watch brand, MADHU, launched October 1, isn’t trying to outsmart your phone. It’s trying to help you put it down.
Sleek, automatic, and entirely analog, the MADHU watch is powered not by batteries or Bluetooth, but by movement. One turn of the wrist activates a spring that keeps the watch running for up to two days. No charging. No pings. No distractions. “It connects to you, not Bluetooth,” Matt likes to say.
That philosophy—part design manifesto, part wellness credo—has struck a chord. Made in micro-batches in Evanston and sold primarily through Instagram and Shopify, the MADHU watch has already sold more than 75 watches, often in batches of just 10 to 20 at a time. Early runs sold out quickly, creating a quiet cult following among Gen Z minimalists and Gen X design purists alike.
The brand is very much a family affair. Matt Kuttan brings decades of design pedigree to the table, with a career that includes years at Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi, plus work on globally recognized brands like Happy Meal and Emirates Airlines. A lifelong watch collector, he designed what he calls “the perfect watch” during a career lull, pulling inspiration from iconic timepieces and refining them into a single, timeless form.
Rohan, fresh out of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, became the brand’s marketing engine. “My dad told me, ‘I’m going to put you in charge of figuring out how to sell it,’” he says. With firsthand insight into the 18–22 age group, Rohan leaned into grassroots marketing: campus pop-ins, posters in coffee shops, strangers trying on the watch at festivals, and an Instagram feed that favors restraint over hype.
“We’re totally going after an untapped market,” Matt says. “People think young people don’t care about time. We think they care about meaning.”
The watch itself reflects that restraint. There’s just one model for now: a bold and chunky, all-black automatic watch with a subtle red accent. It’s water-resistant up to 200 meters, tough enough for Lake Michigan, and features a twistable bezel that doubles as a tactile fidget, particularly appealing to students sitting through long lectures. The open case back reveals the movement inside, a detail Rohan believes helps demystify analog craftsmanship for first-time watch wearers.
Beyond style, there’s an unexpected wellness angle. Studies show constant screen-checking fuels anxiety and shortens attention spans. By replacing digital alerts with the physical ritual of checking the time, the MADHU watch offers a form of mental detox. Calm disguised as craftsmanship.
Scaling remains intentionally slow. Tariffs and hand-assembly mean each batch of watches can take up to a month to complete. The company has even paused advertising when demand outpaced production. “We don’t want to sell something we can’t stand behind,” Matt says.
Long term, the goal isn’t global domination. It’s something more personal: to build a Chicago-rooted brand that values simplicity, longevity and presence. A watch you wear to dinner, not the gym. A watch you pass down.
As Rohan puts it, “Simplicity can be cool. Calm can be fashionable.”
In a culture obsessed with faster, smarter, newer, the MADHU watch is content to just keep time.
For more information, head to Instagram @watchmadhu.