loci: \’lō-kī \ noun, Latin: place
A BRAND DEDICATED TO THE SPIRIT OF PLACE.
THE POWER OF PLACES
Lōcī was born from the realization that places have power. Maybe you’ve felt it, too. That's the Spirit of Place.
Why do people travel to the other side of the world for vacation, or walk a favorite path in the park every day? Why does a swim in the ocean feel so different from a backyard pool? Why hike up a mountain or through the woods when you could just hop on a treadmill in your gym?
Because places have the power to affect and challenge and inspire us. They have something to tell us. We all know places that recharge and energize us, awaken our senses, clear our heads, even change our perspective. These are just some of the ways the Spirit of Place speaks to us.
“You do not need a sixth sense for it. It's there if you just close your eyes and breathe softly…you will hear the whispered message.” ― Lawrence Durrell, Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays on Travel
THE SPIRIT OF PLACE
The Spirit of Place is at the heart of everything Lōcī does. The phrase has a double meaning.
Today people use “Spirit of Place” to encapsulate all the things that make a certain place unique or memorable — the people, culture, sights, sounds, and smells, it’s overall energy or vibe. How we feel when we’re there. This is what we aim to capture in the design of our watches.
The Spirit of Place is why Tokyo hits different than Telluride, and Maui feels different from Machu Picchu. It distills every aspect of a place’s past, present, and future. The natural environment, geography, history, and culture — the impressions and echoes left by everyone who’s been there before — they’re all part of the remarkable alloy we experience as the Spirit of Place.
What will you add to that alloy? The relationship between people and the places and environments we inhabit is always evolving. Everyone leaves their mark on a place, just as the place leaves its mark on us.
The two-way relationship with the Spirit of Place connects us to something larger than ourselves. It’s a conduit to the people and communities who’ve been there before and those who’ll be there in the future. To what’s happened there and what’s still to come. This sense of connectedness, perspective, and meaning is our gift from the Spirit of Place.
Our watches are inspired by special places that have the power to move us...but they also have also vulnerabilities that put them at risk.
Lōcī is a purpose-driven, social impact business. We're the only watch company contributing 10% of all sales to top-rated non-profits that protect and preserve endangered places and fragile environments.
When you buy a Lōcī you join a movement to protect and preserve special places, today and for generations to come.
FOUND IN TRANSLATION
The ancient Romans had a deeply held and more specific belief about the Spirit of Place, or the genius loci as they called it in Latin. To them a genius loci was the incredibly powerful guardian spirit of a special place.
Just as the Spirit of Place inspires our watch designs, the Roman genius loci inspires our company's purpose. Because if places are worth traveling to, living in, fighting for, and painting pictures of — then they’re also worth protecting.
The Spirit of Place is an invaluable gift. One that connects each of us to the land and sea, to history and future possibilities, to the lives and experiences of people and communities stretching back through the past and forward into the future. Such a profound gift creates more than just gratitude in those who receive it. We also have a responsibility to ensure the Spirit of Place endures for others to experience.
But today special places and fragile environments everywhere are increasingly under threat — of being thoughtlessly altered, irreparably damaged, even completely lost. Natural disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity. Forces like environmental pollution, higher temperatures, deforestation, and rising sea levels…All these and more threaten to permanently damage or destroy some of the most fragile, beautiful, and meaningful places in our own backyards and around the globe.
The places we love reflect who we are what we value. They become a part of us. Who will protect them?
We’re stepping up for places that matter. Join us.
Discovering the Spirit of Place
IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
Lōcī is built on a passion for watches; more importantly a belief in the power of places; and most importantly the drive to create positive impact in the world. If you’re curious why we chose to build the brand around the Spirit of Place concept, read on.
I found a spot where I could lean on the lifelines and relax a bit...and then I looked up. As a kid from suburban Philadelphia, I’d never seen the night sky completely unspoiled by light pollution. Here, out at sea hundreds of miles from so much as the nearest candle, the clear sky was filled with millions of stars for the naked eye to see. Even the spiral arms of the Milky Way were visible as broad fog-like brush strokes across the darker patches of emptier space. Every pinpoint of light was a star orbited by its own set of distant worlds. How many stars? How many planets? It took some time to really register the perspective of what I was seeing. But I knew immediately why no one was talking.
Maybe I should have felt alone out there at sea staring up at the galactic vastness of that view. But instead I felt incredibly connected to the sailors on deck with me, the ones who’d been here over the centuries before us, and those who’d follow someday in the future. This place left — and would always leave — its mark on us all.
The Spirit of Place there, even though “there” was an ever-changing patch of ocean, transcended time, affecting and connecting us all. It offered me an experience and a realization that changed my life for the better.
That unexpected moment was the start of a lifelong fascination with the power of places and our relationship with them. So far I’ve made it to five oceans and seas, five continents, and 49 US states (North Dakota, and yes, I'm gonna get there) to learn what the Spirit of Place would say to me and who it would connect me with. But a more recent chapter of my professional career would bring me new and again life-changing experiences with the Spirit of Place.
Lōcī's Ethos
COMMITMENT TO IMPACT
Places have been transformative forces in my life. I've experienced them at their best — and on their worst, disaster-stricken days. I believe not only in the power of places, but in the power of service. That’s why I’m building Lōcī from the ground up as a social impact business that offers customers a way to take action and join the movement to protect the places we love.
Together we can make sure the Spirit of Place endures for our kids and for generations to come.
— Trip Henderson, Founder
