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HOT100 2013: Ian Elliot & Alex Brown, Elliot Brown

What, we ask everybody, has been your biggest hurdle this year? When it is Alex Brown of Elliot Brown’s turn to answer, he says “establishing a new brand, funding a new business, and bringing it all to market in a very short space of time”.

You get the impression that his tongue is only lightly placed in his cheek as he adds: “It’s going to be nice getting to know our families again.”

This year, scores of months of build-up came to fruition as he and business partner Ian Elliot launched the Elliot Brown brand at the London Watch Show this July.

Between them the duo have decades of experience developing and servicing action sports watches and say that meant they were able to pinpoint a very specific sector that they hope to own. “Mid-priced, handsome, shock-resistant, high quality, fantastic value, great brand, credible story, exceptional back-up: that’s a powerful combination,” says Alex.

This pair are also a potent combo. Alex says Ian is an action dad who has spectacularly failed to accept his age. Ian says Alex has a gravity- and fashion-defying moustache.

The banter is entirely affectionate – here are two chaps who truly love what they do. Though this year has meant working more late nights than is healthy, broken promises and missed dinners, it’s all mixed in with childlike excitement and boundless energy. “Our to-do list is never-ending,” says Alex. “But no one said starting a new watch brand would be easy.

It’s like the most complicated recipe ever with about a thousand ingredients that all have to be added in the correct proportions in order to produce Goldilocks’ porridge – something that’s just right.”

They seem to love everything about their lives and they feed their lives into their watch design. As extreme sports and outdoors enthusiasts, they share a vision of a watch brand “that’s not just handsome enough to be worn with your best shirt, it’s also super rugged”.

With such impressive focus on the finish line, the hurdles are now way behind them.

 

Elliot Brown founders Ian Elliot and Alex Brown were Bering Ones to Watch in the WatchPro Hot 100 2013 in association with The Company of Master Jewellers. To read a digital version of the book in full online, click here.

 

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