One of the most high profile watch projects to launch on Kickstarter in recent months achieved its €50,000 target within just eight minutes.
The Klokers Klok-01 project at the time of writing stands at more than €263,000, more than five times what founders Nicolas Boutherin, president and artistic director, and Richard Piras, chief executive officer, set out to achieve and quickly garnered coveted Kickstarter Staff Pick status.
WatchPro spoke to Boutherin a matter of hours after the launch on the crowdfunding platform.
Q: The Kickstarter reached its target within 8 minutes, did you get a sense in the build-up to launch that the project would be so successful?
A: We lived an absolutely amazing and gorgeous experience! We have been working over the last few months on the Kickstarter launch strategy, with its time of doubt and uncertainty also. Thousands of people registered at our website klokers.com over the last few weeks. We tried to prepare answers for everyone, but you never know what level of people actually will commit at the end.
And now the launch campaign is live and we reached 400% of our goal in less than 2 hours: more than €200,000. We’re stunned and we want to thank all of our backers that made it possible.
Q: How did you publicise the project before launch and did the feedback surprise you?
A: klokers tells stories about time travel. klokers watches are highly evocative, triggering memories and personal stories from iconic objects of our past. Our entrepreneurial project wants to tell stories that speak to the human soul. It seems the klokers’ message moves people and KLOK-01 matches expectations. They are like time shuttles for the wrist, reviving timeless style elements and channelling them into fresh, contemporary, playful timepieces respecting the origins of their inspiration. We maintained a close relationship with our Time Travelers before the campaign and participative communication has proved to be much appreciated. The feedback is crazy. We are eager to produce and deliver the KLOK-01 worldwide to all our backers!
Q: The final figure achieved at the end of the 45 days is likely to be huge, are you fully set up to handle the production numbers required or will you have to make adjustments to your plans?
A: We have been working on production of KLOK-01 for months now. The watch embeds innovative systems and components. We need time to select appropriate partners and suppliers, but also to reach the required quality level. Regarding volume of production, we’ll make-up our mind in the next weeks once we have confirmation of this amazing trend. But yes, we do have world-level ambitions.
Q: Any plans for a second model?
A: We have already worked on several future models that are under production at the present time. We will present them in the coming months. These models will follow the same pattern: transitive design process. Each klokers timepiece is inspired by an iconic object from the past to create a bridge allowing us to travel from the past, to the present and future. The future pieces will also follow the same marketing creative process. And klokers will highlight the uniqueness of each Time Traveler through these pieces.
