Starting a watch brand

[freelancedev]

Hi All,

Following on from some threads and posts I've made recently, and the great replies I have had to them, I am going to get started with a business.

You can see the thread that I made the other day here, my main struggle has always been that I have searched for brand new business ideas or pain points that have not been addressed yet and have struggled to find anything, and because of this I have just made no progress whatsoever.

I've been waiting for the golden goose to come along instead of just getting started building a product that is unique and better than what is on the market at the moment. A great post in the thread I made the other day encouraged me to focus on improving a product rather than trying to find pain points, I know this seems like a subtle difference but it has given me a few ideas to explore.

I'm still kind of floundering on what sort of business I am going to start, for now my focus is on the wrist watch niche. In my other thread I have done a brief analysis of some of the big players in the niche at the moment (MVMT, Daniel Wellington etc.) to try and get a feel for what sort of products are already being offered.

I have had a few ideas as far as what I can offer which may be different or improved value in the eyes of some people. I don't yet have a product in mind, and in a way I think it is difficult to know exactly what you're aiming to make with such a visual product until you have a visual representation or prototype.

Some of my ideas revolve around different colours, shapes, wristband materials and watch face designs than what is generally available from the big players. There is certainly an element of mixing different pieces of inspiration I have had from different manufacturers to make something which is truly unique.

I'm not sure which elements I want to fuse together and how the market will react to something which is very different to what is already available - I guess the only way to find out is to put the product out there and test it. I think some of the ideas that I have had, specifically around colour, can be very polarising and may totally flop.

To an extent, I feel that perhaps I am being too ambitious in looking to make something that is so different to what other manufacturers offer, and I should follow the 'proven' template while adding small elements instead of trying to mash together lots of unique variables?

I am ok with the process of building a shopify store and creating Facebook ads etc., but I am really unsure of how I would even go about getting a watch manufactured.

The last thing I want to do is go to a website like alibaba and import a cheap, generic, poor quality product. I'd like to build a high-quality product, but I'm not sure I have the capital to hand in order to go through the process of getting something basically manufactured from scratch.

Is anyone here in the watch game that has experience with any of these things?

 

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[jlwilliams]

I know a few people who make or have made watches. It's not so different from custom knife making. The best thing you can do is locate a watch show and go to one. Typically they are weekend events where makers, collectors, dealers and enthusiasts in general do their thing. You would have the chance to meet people who do what you are contemplating.

Online research is vital, but you need to go to a live action event. Meet real people, handle real merchandise and so on.

 

[freelancedev]

I know a few people who make or have made watches. It's not so different from custom knife making. The best thing you can do is locate a watch show and go to one. Typically they are weekend events where makers, collectors, dealers and enthusiasts in general do their thing. You would have the chance to meet people who do what you are contemplating.

Online research is vital, but you need to go to a live action event. Meet real people, handle real merchandise and so on.

I've had a quick search with google and the biggest one in the UK seems to be the midland clock and watch fair. There's not one till October so I've got a little time to continue doing research before then. The good news is that the fair is in my girlfriends home town, although it's still about a six hour coach ride for me, I'm not sure whether there will be any/many manufacturers there as it seems like more of a hobbyist event.

I've been doing a little research online for manufacturers and I've come across a company that seems to assist in the manufacturing of watches. Looking at their pricing they're very expensive, they have packages ranging from $5000-15000 which include things like market analysis, pricing analysis, designing, sampling and prototyping, although you have to pay at least 10k to get a prototype.

I hope I can find something a bit cheaper than this because I'm not sure I can afford to sink 10k+ into this project, although I acknowledge that it's not going to be cheap either way. I'm worried that I MOQ will be a barrier for entry for me when it comes to actually ordering the stock.

This company that I've mentioned seems to offer a service as a middle man between the watch company and the manufacturer in China, I guess I would perhaps be able to save money by going direct to manufacturers.