Starting a watch brand – Introducing Apiar
Inspiration had struck; where brands might already celebrate use of different materials, Matt’s inner-engineer wanted to create something which celebrated the technological process behind making a watch, specifically Additive Manufacturing, and the idea which went on to become Apiar was born.
Starting a watch brand – building the supply chain
Initially, the idea was to try and create a single watch for himself, and soon after when sharing the idea with childhood friend Sam White, the pair had identified a niche in the market that they both felt passionately about, and so Sam came on board as Co-Founder and Operations Director.
They decided that in wanting to showcase the technology process of Additive Manufacturing, they wanted to offer customisation on the watches. The objective was to do this with a focus on quality, sustainability and British manufacturing, and all the while keeping the cost under £2000.
When speaking with Matt, he explained that when going about setting up the brand, they had two approaches – either taking the “white label” approach or building a supply chain themselves. The pair decided to ensure they had as much control over their objective by building their own supply chain, but obviously in itself presenting a much larger challenge. Building this in the UK would present a bigger challenge, and of course likely be more expensive than other options around the world, but with a desire to celebrate British manufacturing, the pair decided to stay true to their principles from the outset. After all, as Matt put it “you can only launch your first watch once!”
But where to start in building a supply chain? Well, as it turns out, Google!
Building the supply chain, the paid took a real “grassroots” approach when searching for suppliers. Breaking it down, they simply made a list of the different parts/suppliers they needed, and set about researching suitable suppliers online, engaging with them directly and understanding whether their offering was what was needed to get Apiar off the ground. This was quite the challenge, especially when identifying potential suppliers who were UK based, but then learning on engagement that actually the import whatever the part might be, having had it manufactured elsewhere.
Their extensive search ultimately identified the kinds of suppliers they were looking for, such as Bedford Dials, a family business which created their first dial for a steam train 1820 and today manufactures dials and gauges used the automotive industry as well as elsewhere such as in boats and submarines.
Leather straps and travel cases are all crafted from leather supplied by a tannery in Devon. This was itself a bit of a rabbit hole – initially the plan was for the watch boxes to be crafted from British wood, and they even went so far as having prototypes created before changing tack entirely.
Given the vast majority of watch boxes ultimately end up in a cupboard, Matt and Sam decided this wasn’t really in keeping with the pledge for sustainability. Instead, they decided that their watches would be presented in a leather travel case that would be far more likely to be of use to their customers, however as a B2C company they wanted to still provide customers with the much-anticipated unboxing experience. The sustainable solution, avoiding any polystyrene, was a novel material called Mycelium – a mushroom based product which is fully compostable, and provides the same protection in transit as polystyrene would.
Not all suppliers are UK based however, with hands being one area that they chose not to design and instead buy from a French supplier, and re-luming them to match the dials during the assembly process.
Furthermore, the final movements are supplied for Apiar watches are from La Joux-Perret. After initially exploring Sellita and using the SW200, Matt and Sam continued to explore different options and after they discovered La Joux-Perret’s G100 movement, they agreed that it better fit the bill for what they wanted in the first Apiar watch, both preferring the look of the G100 aesthetically, as well as benefitting from a superior 68 hour power reserve.
The star of the show with Apiar was always going to be the cases, with the plan from the outset always being to use this to celebrate Additive Manufacturing, and appeal to the connection between mechanical watchmaking and engineering. However, given what this entails (namely melting powder with lasers in an explosive environment, which has to be filled with argon gas to prevent combustion) it was always going to be a challenge! The pair enlisted the help of Apex Additive, a company who specialise in biomedical and automotive manufacture.
