This company (kinda) punk’d some media outlets with a pet hair watch collection

We’re used to three things from Passyunk Ave-based Analog Watch Co.: unorthodox watches, good media skills and April Fool’s pranks. In keeping with their track record, the story you’re about to read features all three.

“The Companion Collection,” a line of watches made out of your favorite pet’s fur (yes, fur) from Lorenzo Buffa’s design shop made the rounds last week. A full media kit with pictures, videos and a serious press release was distributed to journalists. In it, the brand was promoting the “nature-inspired timepieces” that would help pet owners “immortalize you favorite furry friend.”

If you can stomach it, here’s the video describing the manufacturing process:

Unsurprisingly, the product line raked in the media hits.

Yahoo! News reporter Kristine Solomon fell hook, line and sinker. “Feeling the itch to transform part of your fur-baby’s coat into this hair-raising accessory? The company will start taking orders on April 1,” wrote Solomon.

Mashable, The Verge and U.K.’s Daily Mail also latched on to the coverage, but all of them included some disclaimer about preorders starting on April 1.

“Preorders start April 1,” wrote The Verge’s Ashley Carman. “Which means there’s a strong possibility this whole thing is an elaborate April Fools’ joke (who starts preorders on a Saturday?), so maybe take the whole thing with a sizable grain of salt.”

Wondering if I would have fallen for this one myself, I emailed Buffa with an inquiry about the collection.

“Of course its an April Fool’s joke :D,” said Buffa in a tonge-in-cheek email. “Every year we try to strategize a way to leverage this into real sales, but so far its mostly just been a fun way for us to take a mental break from always being on brand and thinking of the market.”

BTW, Buffa is also good at crowdfunding.