I don’t know exactly how many times you have to do something before it becomes a tradition, but however many it is, this the sixth New Year’s Note from me.
2023 has been a year of initiating change here at LW. On the back of a strong 2022 we thought it was time to review our path forward. A few weeks ago we successfully completed our first LW Auction with the sale of the Oktopus Monster, a piece unique engraved by Johnny Dowell, to one of our good clients. While it may not be an absolute first in the industry, it still adds to a long list of innovations that we have made over the years that are always focused on our relationship with you, our clients.
LW Auction took quite a while to construct as part of our website and a few discussions with friends in the industry who were not always convinced it was the right step to take. They were worried that we would not achieve adequate pricing because of the lack of size of audience – similar to the arguments when we introduced certified pre owned in May 2016. My point of view is that it is not so much about pricing as about creating something interesting for our community.
For the LW Explorers we participated in yet another expedition of Leo Houlding and team. This time it was climbing the magnificent Mount Asgard (named after the Norse gods’ celestial kingdom), an extremely remote, vertiginously steep, twin-towered summit that looks like a medieval castle on a scale fit only for a god. After weeks of hardship Leo’s team (all wearing SpidoSpeed Carbon) climbed a first ascent and named it Loki’s Mischief.
We also started working with the new LW Explorer Antonio Laureano, a young big wave surfer from Nazaré in Portugal. Riding massive waves at Nazaré or elsewhere in the World reminds me of skiing in treacherous couloirs off the Matterhorn or Mont Blanc – there is no room for error. It is akin to skiing with an avalanche hot on your heels, where a single misstep can prove disastrous.
After having focused solely on direct personal and online sales since 2016 we have decided to return to wholesale, on a very tentative basis, in markets we are less able to service directly. First starting with Artisan in Seoul, South Korea and soon with a new old partner in Osaka, Japan. I expect we will partner with three to five more during 2024.
We have started working on the next generation – the third generation of the SpidoLite and Oktopus families. I am of course very excited as it is an important step for LW. We have spent a good part of 2023 discussing changes both on the outside and the inside of the watches. In early 2024 we will start production and plan to finalise and launch later in 2024 and 2025. Because of this we have less models available than we used to – a little like New Year – the existing goes out and the new comes in.
I wish you a happy New Year – and if we could get a bit more snow in the Alps that would certainly make my New Year a happy one.
– Jorn Werdelin