Former global sales director of The Dreyfuss Group, Tom Tope, is celebrating 50 years in the UK watch trade.
An industry stalwart, Tope started at R.B. Wigfull & Son, a jeweller in Plymouth, in December 1970, having been a watch obsessive from an early age.
In order to progress his fledgling career, Tope then applied for the trainee manager job at the newly opened Ratners store, which he got. He tripled his salary overnight and was store manager within six months, at the age of just 18.
Having dealt with a number of watch company representatives during his time at Ratners, Tope realised that working for a brand was what he wanted to do. This new career path started as a sales rep for Lorus, but very quickly an opportunity came up at Rotary.
He started at Rotary in May 1998, as the company was undergoing major changes under the stewardship of Robert Dreyfuss. Surrounded by a number of highly experienced salespeople, Tope learnt on the job and by 2001 was national sales manager. He rose to his eventual title of global sales director and helped oversee the sale of the business to China Haidian Holdings Limited, before leaving and having a year off.
Having stayed in touch with Robert Dreyfuss, the pair teamed up with two other former Rotary directors and Dreyfuss’ son in 2019 to launch Timetofind.com.
The idea of this new venture is to help consumers locate the watch they want from a network of authorised retailers. The team has been busy getting retail partners on board and has recently secured a second round of funding, which they’ll use to launch a major advertising campaign, including on television.
