Twenty-four-year-old Jabulani Mabuza is breaking township stereotypes. Born and raised in Tsakane, 50km southeast of Johannesburg, Mabuza has built and established his own watch brand: Honour Watches.
The message behind his brand, Honour Watches, lies in his humble upbringing in Tsakane with his parents and three sisters. “The family observed a lot of values and respect which still help me navigate through life with respect for people,” he said, in an interview with SM Digital.
“My upbringing was typical of a township boy – I loved playing soccer a lot. I was generally an adventurous young boy,” he said.
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Watchmaking
The idea to start his own watch brand stems from his adoration for classical analogue watches. Initially, Jabulani Mabuza, in 2021, imported watches as he tried to materialise his dreams of owning a watch brand.
This backfired when a customer returned with a broken watch. That’s when he decided to learn how to fix watches. Slowly, he grew interested in building watches from scratch.
“That’s when I started studying horological books; that’s when I learnt that in order to make a watch you need to understand astronomy, which I found very interesting.”
Despite knowing absolutely nothing about watchmaking, Mabuza set out to learn all he could about the art of horology. He successfully assembled his first watch in January this year.
“That was a major milestone in my business,” he said.
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The Honour Watch legacy
Jabulani Mabuza’s brand, he said, was inspired by the legacies of Steve Biko, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm Luther King and Malcolm X. As such, its slogan proudly encourages people to “define yourself.”
“Beyond their charismatic leadership style, there is a call for human beings to recultivate their fundamental convictions around life, to encourage them to be responsible and take charge of their own lives,” he said.
Mabuza is currently studying in his final year of BCom at the University of Free State. His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to find their passion and work hard. He said this was important because entrepreneurship is a tough space that demands resilience.
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