Swiss watch brand BA111OD is celebrating generating sales of over CHF 2 million since the company launched in 2019. Impressive for a business that and has operated for most of its fledgling life under the shadow of covid-19.
Its founder, Thomas Baillod, says the pandemic has actually accelerated growth for the company because of the unique way in which it sells watches.
From its first collection, “Chapter 1”, to what it has on offer today in “Chapter 4.1” BA111OD looks set to go from strength to strength.
The latest turn of the page for the brand has seen it come up with not only an amazing product, but a Tourbillon that is available to customers for less that CHF 4,500. Astonishing.
In conversation with WATCHPRO, Mr Baillod explains how: “Before being a brand, BA111OD is a concept first. Our idea wasn’t just to sell watches, but to rethink the way we (and the industry) should do it. Brands have always focused on optimizing the industrial performance to reduce production costs, in order to offer timepieces at an accessible price.
“We at BA111OD believe we should take the issue from the other side. It’s not about how you produce the watch, but how you commercialize it. I created a new phygital approach that effectively places the end customer at the center and not at the end.”
“This allowed us, with fair margins both for our brand as for the top suppliers in Switzerland to offer an impressive tourbillon, 100% made in Switzerland, at a price never seen before in the industry,” he adds.
To prove his new sales concept, which he teaches across several universities, Mr Baillod started the journey by launching spectacular wrist machines in the entry price segment, while not being Swiss Made.
When industry professionals welcomed this approach, they reproached him at the same time that it would only work with affordable non Swiss Made timepieces. Therefore BA111OD released the chapter 3, a Swiss Made skeleton watch for under £400 + VAT.
The success with immediate in terms of sales, but again people commented that the new concept would only work for entry price level, whereas this chapter 3 should have cost 3 times the price.
Therefore, in considering the Chapter 4, Mr Baillod asked: “What would happened if we plug our concept into high end watchmaking. Would we be able to sell a £40k Tourbillon? The answer is yes, but the surprise is that it cost just a 10th of that, without any compromise on the quality.”
He continues: “Our Tourbillon Chapter 4.1 is name “The Veblen Dilemma”, by the Austrian economist Thorstein Veblen who theorized what is called the “snob effect”. This demonstrates that customers react positively to high prices since they think the product should be better. On the contrary, something accessible is seen as less qualitative.”
Adding: “Our Tourbillon is produced by the very best Swiss suppliers, the same that produce for the top end brands. But is costs only a fraction of their price. Is that watch less good? Not at all. We just allow normal people to access to high end watchmaking at a fair price. Why do we do that? Because we want normal customers to reconnect with meaningful watchmaking.”
The sales strategy is based around ‘afluendors’, a term Mr Baillod coined to describe how BA1110D’s customers are given the power to influence more customers, feed their views back to the company and earn tokens that can be exchanged for gifts and experiences from selling watches.
It works like this: anybody who buys a BA111OD watch automatically earns the opportunity to earn tokens by selling another BA111OD watch to somebody else.
A clever app tracks all of these transactions and interactions, and encourages the afluendors to keep promoting and selling BA111OD timepieces.
The only way to buy a BA111OD watch is directly from its website or through its community app, which strips out the cost of distributors or agents and keeps marketing spending at a minimum.
That said, the brand is looking to work with retailers, which earn proper margins, and has already opened one partner in Switzerland and plans to grow distribution.
BA1110D Chapter 4.1.The Chapter 4.1 Veblen Dilemma is comes 43mm in diameter and is a semi-skeletonised 2-hander watch made from grade 5 titanium with black DLC with a power reserve of 105 hours.
Veblen, for those outside of economic academic circles, refers to a type of luxury product that becomes more popular as price increases in contradiction to the law of demand and supply.
Swiss watchmakers have turned the Veblen theory into a CHF 20 billion industry that BA111OD thinks is ripe for disruption.
It comes on a smart bracelet with an embedded NFC chip, which is normally used for contactless payments but in the case of the Chapter 4 watch links to a concierge service.
Currently available for pre-order for CHF 4,440 + VAT, the offer is limited to a first series of just 220 pieces, estimated to be delivered in April.
On whether this signals what the future holds for BA111OD as a brand, Mr Baillod concludes: “Indeed it’s pretty much happening, beyond our expectation. We experience an exponential growth and BA111OD is already seen as one of the most innovative watch brand in the industry. Why is that great? Because BA111OD was launched with zero investment and advertising, but just a brave idea to disrupt a conservative industry.”
