Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. Would you please tell us a little about yourself and your background in the industry?
I have been an avid watch collector since my late teens. My purchase of a Seiko Kinetic in the mid-90s was my first introduction to automatic watches and I have had a love affair with these mechanical masterpieces ever since.
The interest I have had since I was young led me toward the path I am at today with the launch of ERROYL in 2014. I have always been somewhat entrepreneurial but have never really followed this path due to work commitments. In late 2013 I decided that if I did not follow a dream and launch a watch venture then it would never happen. ERROYL is the end result of many years of planning a business and over 12 months of planning and refining our designs before launch.
Regarding the company itself, can you tell us a little about the size of your brand, the number of watches you produce and so on?
ERROYL launched its first collection on Kickstarter in early December 2014 and we have come a considerable way in a matter of months. It is in no small part to a considerable amount of planning before our launch but it is really our backers through Kickstarter and the follow-up support we have received after Kickstarter that has helped us considerably.
We have shipped timepieces from our first collection to approximately 25 countries in North and South America, Europe, North Asia, South East Asia and Australia.
Our first batch of our E30 Heritage Rose sold out within a month of our completion of our Kickstarter campaign, the demand fat exceeded our expectations. We have ordered our second batch and stocked up on much more than we ordered the first time to meet pent up demand. We currently have remaining stock of the E30 Heritage White and E30 Heritage Black but demand has continued to be strong.
As you are the CEO you were also the originator of the brand and of the design. Where did you get the idea to create this brand? What inspires you when it comes to design?
The idea to create a watch company had been with me for many years. It was only late 2013 when the timing worked out for this to become reality. The clincher in turning ERROYL from an idea into a business was the commitment of my two business partners in ERROYL, one with a deep focus on logistics and supply chain management and the other a designer with a penchant of watches.
In ERROYL we wanted to create a watch company based on providing innovative designs at an affordable price inspired by the simplicity and refinement of the Bauhaus movement. We believe that quality and refinement in a timepiece can be provided at an affordable price making it much more accessible for people to buy quality automatic timepieces where they may have only considered a quartz previously.
Personally, as a consumer and watch collector, the onset of crowdfunding has brought a new leg of innovation into the watch industry. We are thankful that we are part of this and we hope to continue to be able to innovate and keep our prices accessible. That said, we know it is very hard to create something new and different in the watch industry but I feel we can thank crowdfunding for bringing many new entrants to the market offering quality timepieces at an affordable price.
You live in Australia and we know there are not many watch brands in your beautiful country. Could you explain us what was the most complicated things during the phase of creation and technical studies?
We are lucky in Australia in that we have so many talented and innovative people but starting a watch company with a limited local watch industry was challenging. Identifying a suitable manufacturer was perhaps the most challenging part of business. There are so many manufacturers, mostly in Europe, Hong Kong and mainland China but identifying one that could bring our product to market as we envisioned it took many months of planning, analysis and communication.
We had ordered several samples before arriving at our current manufacturer and the variance in quality and design from our detailed specifications were considerable. Once we identified our current manufacturer we knew they were the one as they correspondence and questions were spot on and even before we ordered samples we knew, in our heart, this was the company for us.
