Swiss members have certainly heard of this excellent initative from an internet-native company qoqa.ch that offers flash-sales on a daily basis but I think their idea is good enough to be shared beyond swiss borders.

They have developed a portal to support local businesses and self-employed people during the covid-19 confinement period where cash flow becomes an issue. How does it work? - Anybody can apply and get listed on their portal, the only condition is to be an established business and provide appropriate commercial registration numbers. Once listed, on the portal, the business is entitled to sell vouchers (value CHF 10, 20 or 50) through the platform and the full amount of money processed will be credited to the business' bank account. QoQa operates the platform and manages money processing free of charge. That's one thing.

Moreover, QoQa have partnered with major swiss insurance companies Vaudoise Insurance and Groupe Mutuel who offered 1M CHF each to support local businesses in the processs by adding 20% of the purchased voucher value to the money the small business receives. That's 2 Millions Swiss francs that will be shared among small businesses and self-employed people as support in this difficult times.

When I heard about this initiative from QoQa, I immediately contacted my watchmaker, Romain from Atelier Horlogerie 13 in Yverdon and suggested him to apply. Yesterday he informed me that his application was accepted and his business listed on the platform : https://direqt.qoqa.ch/fr/offers/23879



Since I have a couple of watches waiting for a service overhaul by Romain, I thought I might take advantage of this initiative, buy some vouchers from there and see how it works on the backend.

The maximum amount I was allowed to buy was CHF 500 (10x Vouchers of CHF 50 each). Did that yesterday evening, late.

Romain informed me that the money was already on the way to his bank account today, he's got a confirmation from the platform. Moreover, as described above, he will get a 20% bonus from the platform as per support program, out of those 2M CHF available. That's 100 swiss francs he's getting on top of my payment.

Anybody can buy those vouchers either as a donation, to support the independent watchmaker or to pre-pay some servicing work he's planning to get done, later.

The whole process is absolutely free of any charges to the small businesses as well as to the end-clients. The company runs the whole thing as a (free) service towards the community. Amazing !

How cool is that? I wish there were more of this kind of initiatives in our money driven world.

 

Very impressive! Thanks for sharing.

 

I would like to give something extra to the people working at the supermarket. Can't quite figure out how to do that.

 

Great idea - maybe he can now buy a new bench mat...

Seriously though, thanks for sharing. Ideas like this can certainly help companies that have had to shut down. Fortunately I am still working, but I know other watchmakers who aren't.

Cheers, Al

 

Great. I just did the same...as he has some of mine too. Now, I hope all worked out, as my French profficiency is 0 ... and thats currently the only language that works on that webste Kind of a strange 'shopping' experience...

 

Curious to know why they are not working (not being critical whatsoever, I'm genuinely curious). Are they typically independent watchmakers, or do they work for brands/ big jewelers that have shut down?

Are customers closing their wallets and just not sending watches in for repair? Are they afraid of having issues with shipping and deciding to defer the work? Is there an issue with parts supply that is resulting in the watchmakers not being able to work?

On the surface it would seem to me that this is a great time to send watches out for repair, since it seems less funds are being used for new purchases. Plus people spending more time at home could mean more time digging back through their collections and realizing they really need to get this one and that one in for a service, as they have been meaning to do it for the last 2 or 3 years.

 

What I can tell you about my watchmaker is that he is working and has enough backlog to be working another month.

Still, uncertainty remains for what will happen in two months. If people are still sitting on their cash and aren’t sending watches for service.

This platform seemed to be a good way to secure some cash-flow.

 

Well brand service centers are completely closed in many places, so if you work for one of those you are likely out of work right now. Many brands make you sign an agreement that when you work for them, you can't go out and service that same brand on your own.

I know a few people who work at AD's, and since the AD is closed, they are out of work as well. Some of these people have a set-up at home as well, so they have carried on, but some do not.

I know some independent watchmakers who operate only through a storefront and deal in person, so when the orders came down to close up shop, they did. Some of these people are, for whatever reason, very reluctant to do business by shipping.

For me, it's mostly business as usual, and in fact the number of requests I've gotten has seen a small increase - likely because people can't get things service by the brands or other watchmakers. I've never been in danger of running out of work, and I doubt I will any time soon the way things are going.

The only change I've made is that I no longer accept in person appointments, but those were a small part of my business anyway, so watches continue to be shipped in and out. The snag I will hit at some point is parts - Omega has been closed for a while now, and my large stash of parts is what is keeping me working. I'm quite good for most movement parts, but case parts are more tricky since there are seemingly infinite different crowns, crystals, hands, etc. that are used with one movement. There are some watches I am already short on case parts for...

Now some smaller watch material suppliers are still operating with sort of skeleton crews, so they have 1 or 2 people go in twice a week to pick and ship orders, so I can still order some things, but a lot of my parts come from the brands, rather than the third party resellers. I am in contact with the parts people at Omega, and when they go in they already know I'm going to have a large order for them...

I did anticipate that demand would go up for the very reasons you state - good time for people to catch up on service needs. I'm doing what I can to meet that demand.

Cheers, Al

 

Thanks for the reply.