Watch Flipr

With long careers in the watch industry we have witnessed a great deal of brands that have made the world of watches stand on end and then plummet. Certain criteria has to be accomplished for a watch to make the grade for longevity. Watch Flipr’s list of solid qualifications are as follows:

1) Solid case construction
2) Excellent sourced or house-made movements
3) Timeless design

It seems so simple, if brands follow this short list of what real customers want, they’ll have a great run in the timepiece industry… or will they? Corner cutting and greed can be downfall signals in a watch manufacturer’s beginnings and is often times the cause for failure. Bedat & Co. was the exception. Bedat, where are you now?

This may be the most puzzling watch company of all to the industry. In a few short years the watch leaped to 60+ United States accounts with the Mother and Son team of Simone and Christian Bedat. They toured the States in the late 90’s, established a great brand in all the right stores, and sold incredible amounts of good all-Swiss-made product. The styles were excellent – timeless. They had all the above qualifications and still after a few ownership changes, the brand and company fell straight on its face!

The long and the short of this lesson makes us have to add one more critical bullet-point to our criteria:

4) KEEP YOR COMPANY!

When a watch company goes from founding fathers (and mothers) to different groups or distributors, this also can be a horrible mistake and another path to the company’s demise. Do not expect the same passion to exist for the watch after a corporate sell-out. Interestingly, it appears that customers instinctively know this and leave the brands for more of what is solid.