Our phones serve as our primary means of telling the time for the majority of us, so why do people still wear watches and can you make money by launching a watch company?
Today, however, wearing a watch is more about style, trend, and social cues. Hence, think about starting a watch brand if you’re searching for a business to launch where you can really concentrate on building a memorable brand that your audience can connect with.
You’re going to need to conduct more research before starting your business if all you know about watches is that they tell the time.
Even if you don’t know a lot about watches, we’ll walk you through the process of launching a watch brand in this post. Also, we’ll showcase some of the best direct-to-consumer watch brands now available and examine their branding strategy to discover how they managed to differentiate themselves in such a crowded market.
Why Launching a Watch Company may make sense?
Individuals don’t purchase watches out of a sense of necessity. And that’s advantageous.
Individuals purchase watches because they want a piece of clothing that communicates to others that they are well-educated, refined, trendy, sporty, and/or appreciative of fine goods.
This indicates that you are marketing a product to customers that appreciate high-quality products and have disposable income to spend, which is a lucrative market.
This does not imply that your watches must be extremely expensive like Rolexes or that you must exclusively sell to affluent customers; it just means that your goods must appeal to those who aspire to live up to that standard.
If that appeals to you, it’s an excellent reason to start a watch business because it provides you a lot of leeway to create a dynamic brand.
Another excellent reason to launch a watch company is if you are passionate about watches and have an interest in their craftsmanship. It is possible to run this type of business while being driven by your passion because many watch brands were formed by individuals who had a particular interest in watches prior to creating their own brand.
Finally, it is profitable to work in the watch industry. According to Market Research future:
“Watch Market Size was estimated at USD 51.9 million in 2021. The watch industry is projected to grow from USD 54.2 million in 2022 to USD 73.5 million by 2030, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.45% during the forecast period (2022 – 2030).”
Market Research Future
Is Launching a Watch Company possible when You Have No Prior Experience With Watches?
But how exactly can you launch a watch company if you have no experience with them? Yes, you may be aware of the watch types you prefer or dislike, you may be familiar with some of the lingo, and you may even know a little more than the typical person. Where do you begin, then, if you don’t truly know how to design or produce watches?
First of all, watches are composed of a variety of parts, therefore it is helpful to understand the fundamentals before moving on.
Components of a Watch
Knowing a bit about watches, especially the key components of the watch is important when launching a watch company.
- Bezel: The watch’s outer bezel, which surrounds the watch face.
- Case: This fits inside the bezel and keeps the watch face, dial, and all the other internal components together.
- Case Back: The watch’s removable back, which provides access to the watch’s internal mechanisms. Case backs may occasionally have engravings or stamps.
- The watch is wound using the crown, which is often located on the watch’s exterior.
- Crystal: This clear covering protects the watch face by lying on top of it.
- Hands: The watch’s hands indicate the current time. There are typically two—one to display the hour and one to display the minutes—but a third one may occasionally be included (to show the seconds).
- Movement: The term “movement” refers to a watch’s internal workings.
- Strap: These are the bands that fit around the wrist and snap shut to secure the watch case. A range of materials, including metal, precious metals, porcelain, leather, canvas, and even wood, can be used to create them. Typically, there are two distinct straps that attach to each lug; however, there may only be one continuous strap that passes through both lugs and rests next to the watch’s case back.
- Sub-dial: On the watch face of some pieces, there may be tiny dials that provide extra functions. Some of them can display the seconds, tell the time in several time zones, or even function as a stopwatch.
What are the different types of watches?
Knowing the various watch types will help you decide what kind of watches you want to manufacture and market when you’re launching a watch company and building your watch brand.
The purpose of each type of watch varies, which typically affects the features, design, construction, and audience for which they are intended.
- Mechanical watches: Rather than a battery, these watches track time using clockwork mechanics.
- Quartz watches: Batteries are used in these watches.
- Digital watches: These timepieces don’t use an analogue clock face to show the time; instead, they use numerical digits.
- Luxury Watches: These watches are frequently constructed of precious metals and/or gems and are designed with design, durability, and brand heritage in mind. They frequently have mechanical movements, as opposed to quartz watch movements, which are battery-powered.
- Smart watches: These timepieces typically have touchscreens for the watch faces and are capable of carrying out tasks that smartphones can.
If you’re serious about launching a watch company, you should educate yourself as much as you can about watches, especially the models you want to offer. This will help you select the best source to deal with and ensure that you’re getting the information you need.
You need things to sell when launching a watch company!
You need things to sell in order to launch a watch company! Finding watch suppliers or becoming a watchmaker yourself are the only options left, according to this.
Here are some of your options so you can pick the one that fits you the best:
How to make your own watches
Creating your own timepieces is absolutely a possibility, but depending on the type of watch you’re making, it may be fairly complicated.
Watch assembly requires some practise and dexterity because the pieces are small and fiddly. For this reason, before you start actually selling any of your inventions to customers, it’s in your best interest to learn from an expert and take your time mastering the craft of watchmaking.
If you want to build your own watch products, the previously stated Learn Watchmaking course is a wonderful place to start because it concentrates primarily on making watches.
The main benefit of producing your own watches is that they will be distinctive to your brand, which is important to watch wearers and collectors who respect craftsmanship. The biggest disadvantage is that there is a steep learning curve involved in learning how to create watches.
Making your own watches isn’t strictly necessary when launching a watch company as we explain below.
Watches for drop shipping
Another choice is to dropship watch products if you don’t want to make your own watches by hand but aren’t yet ready to manufacture watches.
Drop shipping watches makes it possible to launch a watch brand on a tight budget because you don’t have to buy inventory up front.
You can locate a watch product provider and list their products on your website. When a customer orders something from your store, you can pass the order to the supplier, who will then ship the item to the customer. You don’t have to spend any money up front to create your items or buy any inventory, which relieves a lot of the weight off of you as the business owner to run and maintain the technical aspects of your company.
The main benefit of buying watch products from drop shipping vendors is that you can launch your company quickly and on a shoestring budget, but the main disadvantages are that you have no control over the watches’ appearance, you won’t be able to trademark them, and the profit margins will be modest.
Wholesale watches
You can open a store that carries a variety of watch brands if you want to sell watches but aren’t necessary interested in selling your own line of timepieces. If you fulfil their requirements, several watch brands have wholesale programmes that allow you to buy stock from them and resell their watches on your own website.
Opening a watch shop might be an excellent step towards selling watches under your own brand. Offering well-known watch brands that consumers are familiar with and enjoy helps drive traffic to your website; once you have a constant stream of visitors and the cash to start producing your own watches, you can then sell your own. This is how many businesses begin!
The primary benefits of buying watch products in bulk are that you may attract customers to your store more easily because they are already familiar with the wholesale brands and that you don’t have to invest the time and money in producing your own watches.
The main disadvantages, though, are that you’ll have to pay upfront for goods from the wholesale suppliers and that you’ll be subject to their resale policies and laws, which may have various restrictions on you and your firm.
Watches made by private label factories
A provider of watches under a private label is an additional choice. You don’t need to design the watch yourself because private label vendors will construct it and then brand it with your logo. Because you don’t need to create the designs or pay for any special moulds or castings, this procedure is a little bit simpler than making your own watch, but the finished product still has the appearance of being made from scratch.
Private labelling’s key benefit is that you may have watch items with your own logo on them without investing the time, money, and effort necessary to actually have a watch created.
The biggest disadvantage is that you have little control over how the watch appears. Finding a private label provider who will make minor adjustments to their product so you get what you want can be possible, but in the end, you’ll just be getting your branding applied on their product, however they decide to create it. This also implies that your product is not special and that other retailers will sell it.
Producing watches
The final choice when launching a watch company is to have your watches made to order. With this choice, you have the greatest creative control over how your timepieces look and work. Also, because you buy your goods directly from the manufacturer, you often have the best chance of making a profit margin.
By producing your own goods, you have complete control over how they appear, the features they have and don’t have, and how you want to trademark them. To help you stand out in this crowded market, you can design a truly unique product that works exactly how you want it to.
The main benefit of manufacturing your goods is that you have total control over the production process; however, the main drawbacks are that you will need to pay for your inventory up front, you will probably need to meet the minimum order quantities (MOQs) of your manufacturers, and you may need to pay for new moulds or castings to accommodate customizations.
How Much Does It Cost to Create a Watch for Launching a Watch Company?
You might be wondering how much it actually costs to manufacture timepieces or to make your own.
It really depends on the style of watch you’re attempting to create, as well as the mechanisms and technological elements you employ in your timepiece. To choose the best solutions for you and your desired outcome, it is crucial to have as much knowledge as possible about how watches are put together and the various options available for each component of the watch.
As you can see, the parts you use will determine how much a watch will cost to make. Certain parts are more expensive than others, while others are less expensive. It will be even more cost-effective if you select generic parts from a “catalogue” rather than having them built to your requirements.
As a result, you have some freedom in deciding which components to use to create your timepieces and how much they will cost altogether.
The Movement Makes the Watch
The movement, which is what truly makes a watch operate, is the one significant cost of production. It’s challenging to produce a movement oneself, so you typically have to buy them.
You just have a few options for where to buy moves (only some companies make them)
Certain movements are of higher quality than others, thus you will need to pay more if you want one of higher quality. Bulk production of them is challenging.
These days, only few watch companies still produce their own mechanical movements in large quantities. Yet, some movements may be produced more cheaply and more easily than others. For instance, the quartz movements in battery-operated timepieces are less complicated than those in mechanical watches. Yet, such simplicity may turn away certain clients.
Because they need a lot more labour to construct, mechanical timepieces are substantially more expensive than battery-operated ones. Almost all collectors and connoisseurs prefer manual or automatic watches despite the fact that battery watches are intrinsically more accurate since these movements are the culmination of nearly 600 years of refinement, knowledge, and skill. (Source)
So, if you want to create a watch brand that is built on high standards and luxury, you need either create your own mechanical movement or buy one from a reputed vendor. Alternatively, you should probably use a quartz movement that is powered by batteries if your main goal is to sell your watches for a reasonable price.
Other expenses in running a watch company:
Besides the price of making the watch, other expenses associated with running your watch company include:
- The expense of opening an internet store: Shopify.com is a good place to start
- Making the strap and other watch components
- Putting together cleaning kits for your watch gear
- Making watch display cases or carrying cases
- The price of packaging your watch products for delivery
- The shipping fees you pay to deliver your timepieces to customers
- The price of replacing any damaged timepieces or timepiece components
- Warranty costs – if you decide to give a lifetime or yearly warranty
- The price of having your watches certified by a governing organisation like the COSC (if you choose to)
The price of launching your watch brand will therefore significantly vary based on what you decide to sell and how you want to manufacture your watches. If you’re dealing with a supplier, buying inventory up front could cost you thousands of dollars, but if you buy the parts separately and build the watch from scratch, it might be less expensive for you.
Strategies for Promoting a Watch Brand / Company
All companies must promote their goods, but there are several particular strategies you may use to differentiate your watch brand from the competition and draw in more customers:
Describe and Explain Your USP:
Have a strong unique selling proposition, and tell your audience about it. You might sell just vintage watches, hand-made watches, high-quality watches at affordable prices, a variety of styles and colours, or watches that have been tested and approved by the Controle Officiel Suisse des Chronometres (COSC), a Swiss organisation that certifies watches for quality.
Make Limited-Edition Watches:
Provide both inexpensive and expensive watches. By doing this, you can draw clients from both ends of the price range. It might not be able to serve all pricing points while your watch brand is first starting out, but as you expand, create collections that serve both price points so you can attract a variety of customers.
As you build your marketing tactics, keep in mind that the majority of consumers turn to watch brands for quality, workmanship, brand legacy, and social signalling.
Prominent Watch Brands and How They Differentiate themselves:
In recent years, watch brands have been a popular business to launch for a number of reasons:
Watches are a little product that can be easily sourced and shipped for a reasonable price.
They can be altered. You can provide the same kind of watch in a variety of designs.
They stand for quality, luxury, and taste, making them a product that buyers want to own.
These are several brands that have been increasingly well-known over the past few years, with – a focus on direct-to-consumer brands, as well as what they did to achieve this.
Watch brand – MVMT
One of the first watch companies to put a significant emphasis on making watches affordable for a wider audience was MVMT. Their distinct selling proposition is that they provide premium timepieces at competitive prices since they don’t add arbitrary markups.
They are able to accomplish this because they avoid using intermediaries by sourcing their items directly from manufacturers (a common strategy for direct-to-consumer brands), and they also don’t mark their products up more because of their brand, unlike many name-brand watch firms.
Also, they’ve added jewellery and sunglasses to their product line in recent years.
Watch brand – Daniel Wellington Watches
Daniel Wellington has a similar direct-to-consumer business strategy as MVMT, but they also extensively invested in influencer marketing to spread the word about their goods. They also focused on the women’s watch industry and developed watch designs that appeal to women.
Watch brand – Rosefield Watches
In contrast to the minimalist watch faces you’ll find at MVMT and Daniel Wellington, Rosefield places more of an emphasis on the watch face’s design. Rosefield, on the other hand, makes extensive use of colours, patterns, gems, themes, and embellishments. This gives them the opportunity to appeal to a market that wants their timepiece to be more than just a watch.
Watch brand – Swatch
Swatch are a Swiss watch brand. they’ve become known for funky and colourful designs whilst not charging the earth. They have an immediately recognisable design and appeal to both men and women and increasingly to kids.
In Conclusion
There are many various watch types and suppliers available, so it’s definitely feasible to establish your watch business however you like. Launching a watch company is a bit of a complex enterprise because watches may be highly technical to create.
Selling watches has the potential to be very profitable, though, as consumers are interested in the quality and brand history. Building a watch brand therefore involves constructing a dynamic brand that tells a story.
Leave a Reply