Hi all,

Ever since catching an interesting thread on the Airain type 20 revival, I have decided look deeper into this story. I've preordered a brown dial version and I'm seriously considering putting in a modest investment into this company. I really like the passion in the pitch as well as the apparent quality and direction they're taking with their watches.

I was looking at my watch box and realized I ended up with a whole bunch of reissued/heritage timepieces. So why not jump into Tom's adventure I said...

https://www.cdmlec.com/why-reviving-old-watch-brands-is-now-more-relevant-than-ever/

A good read...

Cheers,

 

All true. I feel the same way but somehow, Lebois struck a chord with me....we only live once!

 

the most classic and successful revival of a seemingly unknown brand for the last decade was Bovet.
I myself never heard of the brand til the early 2000 when i bought in 2004 my bovet type20 val22, when
the internet was so devoid of any information about the watch and the company, until mid-2000, suddenly
Bovet started reproducing in a limited volume and unique watch models with hand painted dials and pricey
tags. there are other good stories too.

 

The relaunch of Nivada would be one to examine in comparison - how well are they doing?

 

They mention resurrection of several brands.
Can see the Airain watch doing well if it sells out it’s initial run.

Any idea of which other brands. ( did see a Lebois and Airain )

 

If you want to invest in a watch company just invest in SWGAY 14.00 per share and I’m sure you already own omega watches.

 

A question I will ask as I'm in the process of setting up a video conference with them to obtain more precise info.

 

Plenty of questions to ask. How will shares be valued? How can you sell in the future? Will they pay out some profits in the form of dividends, or will the officers take it all as bonuses, etc. Also how debt are they already carrying. If you are jumping for tens of thousands of dollars definitely find a pro who can review and interpret the info for you.

Private equity stakes can be very nice to have, but usually only if the company plans on eventually going public. Often the investors are paid off by the main company owners as soon as they have enough capital to do so, reducing the potential for the investor to realize substantial gains. (seen this happen with some restaurant deals)

 

How about watch brand rescues? Like how much could we all put together to buy Eterna out from the clowns running it nowadays

 

The French issued Type 20 and Type 21s are iconic mil-spec watches. Good luck to them with the venture, revivals and microbrands are an increasingly crowded space. Dodane has been at it with essentially the same design (it's mil-spec after all, must meet all the same requirements) for some time now, not to mention Breguet. Some eye-candy from my archive of watches come and gone (except one).

 

Wow...Thanks for this. Excellent questions to ask. Although I intend to make a modest investment, it's well worth while to aske these questions. Again. Thanks

 

I’m in!

 

Wouldn’t be hard to come up with designs- just pull directly from their back catalog and don’t try to “jazz” them up at all- just do 1:1 reissues with modern materials. And for god sakes, don’t price them exclusively for the ‘dinky crowd! I think Eddie Platz set the standard of how to relaunch a brand and keep it viable- unfortunately, I don’t think he can keep up with demand anymore.

 

The name and goodwill that goes with it is only one small component of a successful relaunch. It provides a brand origin story, and heritage has collateral in this market, but what’s needed to make it a success is a sound strategy and sufficiently deep pockets for the operation, particularly marketing. Although Invicta watches are horrible, the people who bought the brand were clever with it.

Given how many times this sort of revival has been done, I’m not even sure it excites the general public or watch enthusiast market any more. Who cares if another name that nobody remembers suddenly reappears with a range of watches that look like updated versions the watches that carried that name 60 years ago? There are dozens of brands out there already reviving the 60 year old watches that carried other names and most of them have one of about three different modern movements in them.

To me, buying a modern Omega is truly buying into the heritage of the brand, even though the company went through major changes in ownership and structure in the early to mid 1980s. The organisation hung on and the heritage value remained intact even after it was bought by private investors in ‘85. That’s a very different proposition to the organization shutting down, and, importantly the people dispersed, taking with them the all important corporate memory that is only passed on when the entity exists continuously.

These revival brands have the name, and the brand and watch designs, but they don’t have that continuous history so to all intents and purposes, they may as well be a completely separate company.

 

The thing is, these revival companies almost never give us reissues without making them 6mm wider, 2mm fatter, and a date.

 

With a Sellita SW200 movement

 

I wish UG would be rescued...and even more so Lemania.

 

Substitute inches for mm, and it sounds like a reunion with an old girlfriend.

(To be fair, I expect that women could make similar jokes about old boyfriends!)