Time is ticking for watchmaker’s fundraising hopes
TIME is nearly up for the Birmingham start-up that is looking to raise money to fund the development of a fully interchangeable watch.
Eldon Watches has reached more than 50% of its funding target on its Kickstarter campaign, but with a few days left to raise £10,000 the brand’s only obstacle is ironically time itself.
The company – which has benefited from being part of Birmingham’s Entrepreneurial Spark Programme – has designed and created prototypes of a fully interchangeable watch, but needs the full figure to produce the initial order, which it hopes will help it to become the next big thing.
Founder and co-owner Elliott Haydon said: “I’ve always been interested in watches and I’ve always looked and just liked different bits of different watches.
“So I just thought somewhere there must be a way that you can create your own watch and change it about – I had a look, but couldn’t find anything so I started working on how I’d make it possible.”
Together with the help of Entrepreneurial Spark and his mentor Mark Brown, Elliot has designed a collection of components which fit together to create up to 200 different watch combinations.
Mark who is now the director of the company, said: “We love watches, but not every watch will go with your entire wardrobe. With our new concept you can change the face, case, bezels and straps.”
With eight different straps, three cases, three bezels and four faces, the customer can create their watch online in the ‘Build your own watch’ section, or alternatively, buy the components separately to attach to their own watch.
Should the brand succeed with its crowdfunding campaign, it will launch a women’s collection and offer a range of more traditional designs.
Mark added: “We find that people now want to be unique and want their own different style and especially with watches, it’s something you don’t really particularly want someone else to have what you’ve got, so with this you can create a watch exactly to you.
“I think that’s why the concept has been so successful already because it’s something different, something new and it’s a way in which people can interact with the buying process of a watch a bit more.
“We want to be a renowned watch brand and be up there with the Armani and the Hugo Boss and those types of brands that people recognise as a good quality luxury entry level watch.”
