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Starting a watch brand

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

biophase

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Reason why I wouldn't start a watch company

In addition to what Walter said, the marketing effort to position your brand would be very costly. Or at least very time consuming.

When I think about instagram and Facebook and running ads to position a new watch brand, it makes my head hurt. I don't want to do that kind of promotion. To me it's basically a look at how cool my watch looks type of branding and I hate that kind of stuff.

Why don't you imagine that the watch you've always wanted to make is complete. You have a 1000 units sitting at your house right now. How are you going to sell them?
 
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freelancedev

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Reason why I wouldn't start a watch company

In addition to what Walter said, the marketing effort to position your brand would be very costly. Or at least very time consuming.

When I think about instagram and Facebook and running ads to position a new watch brand, it makes my head hurt. I don't want to do that kind of promotion. To me it's basically a look at how cool my watch looks type of branding and I hate that kind of stuff.

Why don't you imagine that the watch you've always wanted to make is complete. You have a 1000 units sitting at your house right now. How are you going to sell them?

I had planned on using facebook and instagram ads as well as social media influencers.
 

biophase

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I had planned on using facebook and instagram ads as well as social media influencers.

But you haven't really thought about this part yet right? I'm going to say that this part is more important than your watch design in the beginning. What do you think your cost will be on ads?
 

Scot

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But you haven't really thought about this part yet right? I'm going to say that this part is more important than your watch design in the beginning. What do you think your cost will be on ads?


With as much as I see MVMT ads on FB, I wouldn't be surprised if they spent at minimum $1k/day
 
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freelancedev

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But you haven't really thought about this part yet right? I'm going to say that this part is more important than your watch design in the beginning. What do you think your cost will be on ads?
I have a bit of experience in online marketing, and although I'm not an expert, I expected this to be one of my "strengths". Cost for ads would largely depend on CPC, CTR, CVR etc., I think it's really difficult to determine before hand, but as long as the ROI is positive that's the main thing.

Honestly, I have ground to a halt with this for a few days now, and I'm kind of put off by the MOQ which will result in a big financial risk (and also hearing from other experienced members saying they think it's a bad idea). So really I'm just back to the drawing board again for now, I seem to always get stuck on the idea/concept part of starting a business and never get going.
 

Jake

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With as much as I see MVMT ads on FB, I wouldn't be surprised if they spent at minimum $1k/day
A lot more than that..

"Over the holidays, MVMT also saw a lift from paid Facebook acquisition ads, claiming that one out of every 10 people on Facebook saw a MVMT ad on their feeds during the season."
 

cutthroughstatic

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I second Walter's recommendation to spend some time on www.watchuseek.com, specifically F71 (the affordables) page on the forum.
Forum members have partnered multiple times on "project" watches, voting for design elements and prepaying for limited edition forum created custom runs.
In addition, you'll figure out what movements are generally accepted as desireable/reliable. Most small watch brands are using movements made by a Chinese company called seagull for mechanical/automatic watches. If you want to do quartz(battery powered) there's probably tons of options...
A forum user on there started his own watch company called Huey and Luey and it's been pretty successful just basically marketed to the forum members.
There's many different niches within the watch market when it comes to design and engineering... some people like the mechanics of them, some like big designs, some like classic homages ...

Figure out who your target market is. Figure out what their desires are in a watch. Design the watch for them and market to them.

It will help immensely if you yourself are a "watch guy".
 
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WorldImperator

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Wrong.

I don't know what the trigger was some years ago, but watches are super hot (at least in Europe). Huge watches, with massive flashy buttons or very weird numbers, you name it. There's a big market for it..

Complete nonsense. Big blinky watches are popular only in new rich russian guys and zero taste persons. For normal men, anything between 38-44mm is enough, while 44 is already quite big and one has to have really huge hand in order for it not to look too big.

Besides, due to watch fashion right now, watch education in growing, but it's not at the same speed as new Chinese made and custom packaged mechanism are put inside. Good fashion brands like Triwa or Fossil are puttin inside cheapest Miyota or Ronda, but than it costs the price of basic automatic Seiko and anything in between 100-200 EUR. For 100EUR I have seiko SNZH, and I am buying true heritage of one of the most valuable watch and caliber manufactures. Or you can buy FiftyFathoms for around 200EUR, which looks absolutely fabulous.

And yet you decided to MAKE A BRAND WHILE NOT EVEN KNOWING HOW IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE. On an overly crowded and full of cheap quality overpriced products.
 

ALC

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Complete nonsense. Big blinky watches are popular only in new rich russian guys and zero taste persons. For normal men, anything between 38-44mm is enough, while 44 is already quite big and one has to have really huge hand in order for it not to look too big.

Besides, due to watch fashion right now, watch education in growing, but it's not at the same speed as new Chinese made and custom packaged mechanism are put inside. Good fashion brands like Triwa or Fossil are puttin inside cheapest Miyota or Ronda, but than it costs the price of basic automatic Seiko and anything in between 100-200 EUR. For 100EUR I have seiko SNZH, and I am buying true heritage of one of the most valuable watch and caliber manufactures. Or you can buy FiftyFathoms for around 200EUR, which looks absolutely fabulous.

And yet you decided to MAKE A BRAND WHILE NOT EVEN KNOWING HOW IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE. On an overly crowded and full of cheap quality overpriced products.
Actually the Mitoya / Ronda mecanism is not to far behind the swiss ETA mecanism, both are very similar, so when i order a watch with a sapphire crystal glass and a mitoya mecanism, i'm pretty sure it will be a reliable watch.
 

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