It is over six years since British watch brand Accurist was acquired by Time Products, becoming a stablemate to this country’s top selling watch, by volume, Sekonda.
Time Products has been through a major restructuring over recent years, with an all-new top team under the leadership of CEO Alison Forrestal.
That restructure delayed a full relaunch of Accurist until this year, but the brand, first founded in London in 1946, is now ready to reclaim its place at the heart of the mainstream watch market across online, high street and travel retail.
Accurist’s history is key to the relaunch, according to Ms Forrestal, whose team spent thousands of hours interrogating the brand’s archive for inspiration that has fed into today’s new collections.
“We are immensely proud to unveil our Accurist revitalisation, which represents the culmination of 18 months spent immersing ourselves in Accurist’s history and heritage, and iconic watches. We believe the brand reflects the ethos which connects us to our past: we will produce competitively priced watches that ‘punch above their weight’, informed by the expertise and knowledge we’ve amassed in our long history, all with a modern twist,” she says.
This season’s relaunch is more than just an update to the Accurist product line. It is a root and branch transformation of sales, marketing, operations and service built around making the brand attractive to retail partners and their customers.
“We are embedding this philosophy in everything from the watches themselves to the new website, to our refreshed stands, and to our packaging, ensuring that the brand’s core values and the pride we take in our heritage are at the heart of the brand,” Ms Forrestal explains.
Marketing kicks into high gear in October with a pre-Christmas campaign carrying the tag line “It’s about time”, which might amuse insiders who know how long the project has taken to come to fruition.
The campaign includes outdoor advertising on bus sides and in shopping centres, extensive press and magazine partnerships, and digital and social media marketing.
An overarching philosophy behind the relaunch is to re-establish Accurist’s reputation for making high-quality watches at affordable prices that “punch above their weight” in terms of styling, build quality and materials, the company promises.
They all sit within a price range of £119 to £219, but still use materials such as high grade stainless steel, semi-precious stones, sapphire crystal glass, and real leather.
So confident is Time Products in the build quality of the Accurist collection that each watch comes with a five year guarantee.
There are 76 references launching this season, grouped into seven collections — Origin, Rectangle, Everyday, Jewellery, Aviation, Dive, and Classic — each inspired by a distinctive vintage watch from the archive.
There is a focus on personalisation, with watches using quick-release interchangeable straps and customers given the opportunity to have a message engraves on the case back.
All watches went on sale on the Accurist website this month and will be available in-store at high street stockists and online retail partners from October.
