News / It's Break Time!

It has been a great 2017 season, we loved meeting so many new people and making so many new friends, in our shop in Split (which received the Certificate of Excellence from Trip Advisor this year), and also in our new shop in Dubrovnik (which we opened in February 2017 and it quickly became as popular ar its "big brother" from Split).

As we have already announced on our Store Locations page, both our Croatian brick-and-mortar shops will be closed from 30.10.2017 until 25.03.2018. But - wait for it!!! -  for the last three days of the 2017 season we have prepared a massive 40% sale on all our items.

The sale is available exclusively in stores. So, if you happen to be in Dubrovnik or Split on 27-29.10.2017, make sure to stop by and get yourself a treat! Here is where you can find us:

Split, Croatia - Trogirska 8, close to Riva (Old Town) - GET DIRECTIONS

Dubrovnik, Croatia - Antuninska 5, close to Stradun (Old Town)  - GET DIRECTIONS

If you ever visited our Instagram page (which, btw, went through a name change and is now called @breaktimecroatia instead of @breaktimenautical) you have probably noticed that it does not really follow the "rules" of having an unified style, same filters etc.

And that is because we believe in diversity, because our fans are also really diverse. People of all ages, occupations, hobbies, styles, from Croatia but also from dozens of world countries, love our handmade nautical bracelets and send us photos with them. Me and my husband - he makes the bracelets - we are as happy as kids every time we receive a photo from you, guys. Your love means a lot to us, it really does! So we publish as many as we can on our Insta page (I apologise if it happened that you tagged us and I did not reply and repost your photo - pls send me a DM, it was unintentional :)

In the photos above we have just a very small part of our amazing customers. I loved the energy of the ladies from Quebec, Canada (first row, left) who visited us in Dubrovnik, and the fact that three generations of a fun German family got nautical bracelets from our shop in Split (first row, right). I was very moved by the South-African couple who were married only 9 days and he chose to get her one of our anchor bracelets as a honeymoon present (second row, left). I am a sucker for people in love, actually, so I loved also meeting this local couple from Dubrovnik (second row, middle). And I am now following the Insta adventures onboard a cruise ship of the cool lady in pink (who is a badass DJ, by the way!). 

What I want to say is that we see our Facebook and Instagram pages as a place where our fans are gathering and exchanging cool photos with their Break Time nautical bracelets. So it actually came naturally to us the idea of YOU, our fans, the people who believe what we make is cool enough to spend your money buying one or more pieces, taking over our Instagram account for a day and post stories of how your day goes, and also photos on the main page, as if it was your own Insta page. You do not have to be an "influencer" (meaning that you do not have to have hundreds of thousands of followers). All you have to be is in love with our bracelets and to like taking photos and sharing them with others :)

Today we had a first such experiment! Dijana Kocic aka @ambiciozna was the boss of @breaktimecroatia page. She posted stories from Rovinj (Istria region of Croatia) and she also posted three photos on the main page. She had complete control over what stories she posted (she basically took us with her through the day) and we only asked her that two of the photos for the main page should feature a Break Time bracelet, while the third photo can be anything she wants from Rovinj. And this is what she posted (thank you for sharing a day with us, Dijana!):

Here are also a few stories that Dijana posted throughout the day:

Bottom line is that we want to repeat this. So - if you are our fan (meaning that you own one or more Break Time nautical bracelets) and if you would like to be in charge of our Insta for a day and show us around your town, your home, your workplace, your school or your holiday - send us a DM on our Instagram page! 

Two main things happened in the last 24 hours that made us feel proud and happy. First, last night, was this article published by Total Croatia Sailing - if you read it, you will understand why :)

Second, this morning, was waking up to find an email from Trip Advisor, announcing us that our Split shop was awarded the Certificate of Excellence, for constant good reviews. Cannot wait to receive our personalised award, to frame it and showcase it in the shop. And we are grateful to all the media love and to all of our customers who took the time to write such nice things about us on Trip Advisor or on our Facebook pages (we have yet to receive a bad review, which is amazing).

 It is a great feeling to have your work appreciated and rewarded. We love these moments and they make us keep wanting to do better and to be better. So keep on letting us know when we succeed and when we fail. Thank you!

The absolute winner in terms of popularity amongst our male customers, the black compass bracelets are back with a vengeance!

The new Dubrovnik Collection of nautical bracelets with decorative compass is made with stainless steel shackles. The collection using silver colour compass shackles was launched last month and now we are preparing to launch the black compass shackle version. Check it out below - doesn't it look crazy good? Watch our blog, follow us on Facebook and Instagram - and we will let you know when you can finally order yours online or get it in our Croatian shops in Dubrovnik or Split!

We are sometimes asked what age group are we targeting our handmade nautical bracelets towards. And - in a world that segments people on age, sex and many other variables - we found ourselves (the Break Time nautical bracelets) being loved without discrimination by grandchildren and grandparents alike. Maybe because we all love the sea, no matter the age or the sex or the language we speak, and our little handmade jewellery pieces are a beautiful reminder about the freedom and happiness the amazing "more" (sea in Croatian language) brings to us.

Each and every encounter is special, but they all have one thing in common: our customers leave the shop with a smile. Here here are a few of our visitors from the last few days, in Split (Trogirska 8) and Dubrovnik (Antuninska 5).

This lovely German family will return to Berlin with some cool handmade bracelets from our Istria and Split collections, as well as (you probably already noticed it) a necklace from our Vis collection :)

This lovely lady was one of my personal favourite customers. Just look at the photo and you will certainly understand why:

This fun group of Italians definitely did not return to Napoli empty-handed :)

How about this beautiful family? Their smiles say it all!

And the smiles are happening in both our shops, the photo below with these beautiful young German ladies is from the newly opened Break Time store in Dubrovnik Old Town:

Wanna know the secret weapon we use to bring smiles on people's faces? Because it is not only about the fun, unique, beautiful looking bracelets that my partner, Ionut, is making with a lot of TLC. It is equally about the amazing teams we have in our shops: Biljana & Katarina in Dubrovnik, Petra & Dino in Split. They are the ones doing their best to find the perfect bracelet for each of our customers and they are ultimately responsible for the smiles :)

Here is Dino showing one of our young customers how to adjust his new Break Time anchor bracelet look amazing on his wrist: