When Morten and I first started out discussing the idea of making watches we had been all around ideas such as producing chocolates and furniture – and I am not kidding.
To begin we crisscrossed Switzerland visiting factories and learning from scratch what watchmaking was about, and pretty much every time we learned something new we thought – now we got it! In the splendid benefit of hindsight we were only scratching the surface of one single aspect of becoming a watch brand/maker.
We thought we had a great idea – and we had – but we didn’t yet understand the basic tenets for making people desire our pieces on a long term basis. Sometimes youth, energy, perseverance, ideas outshines lack of experience, lack of money, lack of failures.
When Morten and I trawled the Basel Fair (as it was then called) my head was stuffed full
with ideas of what we could and should do. However, after a few weeks of cooling off in the
mountains I realised that we needed to keep our eyes on the road and not on all the other
cars going in the same and opposite direction – so to speak.
We learned the painful way that production is absolutely key to success or failure. You can have the best product idea, marketing, people, sales, etc. but if you don’t understand the complexities of getting production correct then you will find success evasive.
We are not in the fashion industry where we need to constantly follow the next new hip idea – even if some brands would like it to be so. Making a watch is much more complicated than sewing a piece of garment or making a new handbag. I learned to trust my intuition and be true to our brand and history rather than come up with the next idea just for the sake of attention.
While being consistent one of the main reasons we have succeeded so far is that we always respond quickly to changes in the industry dynamics. We are in an industry with strong and unpredictable cycles. What was true 12 months ago can be utterly irrelevant today and of the opposite.
An example is pre-owned; when we started, buying a pre-owned was not something you advertised – you were telling people you couldn’t afford the real thing. Sometime in 2014/15 that slowly pivoted into what is now the general truth that pre-owned governs the success or failure of a brand. While resale value is relevant, what should guide you is the enjoyment of wearing a piece that speaks to you – whether it being the manufacturing, design, story or history of it.
Over a quarter of a century soon I have seen too many brands come and go and personally I take delight in the few brands that manage to stay and even thrive independently. I would be sad if our industry would consist of only four or five brands with one successful model each.
It is a privilege to be part of our industry and to be able to make watches that our clients desire and enjoy wearing. A colleague of ours long ago said to me “you have to contribute to our industry to make it”. I think it is very true and I hope I am not the only one thinking that we do contribute in our own unique way.
– Jorn Werdelin