Klokers, a French start-up business, is looking for partners in the UK for its innovative push button time travel watches.
The company is based in Annecy-Le-Vieux, only 30 miles South of Geneva, and aims to shake up the Swiss watchmaking industry with its unique approach to world timer watches.
Like many brands today, Klokers started life on crowdfunding site Kickstarter in 2015 with the aim of raising €50,000 to pay for the manufacture of its first pieces.
Unlike most new brands, the crowdfunding took off, with Kloker raising €605,898, enough to put two models into production : the Klok 1 and the Klok 2.
Klockers was created by Nicolas Botherin, whose creative background in media agencies is put to use in the role of artistic director ; and CEO Richard Piras, who spent 15 years in the technical development of electric vehicles, aeronautics, and medical devices.
The company’s Klok 2 is designed to display the time in any time zone around the world. The watch is designed into two halves, with the the top half showing a large arc of retrograde minutes and seconds sweeping across the face. The hour is displayed in a circular apeture in the bottom half of the dial next to a window showing 24 cities around the world ; one for each time zone.
A pusher at 4 o’clock advances the city and hour one at a time.
The 43mm watch, which sells in Europe for €865 (£750) uses a Swiss Made Soprod SOP 813 mechatronic movement with displays driven by high-efficiency/low power consumption.
Klokers already has retailers stocking its watches in Paris, Monaco, New York, Los Angeles, Milan, Rome and Taipei. UK cities are next on the company’s hit list.
British retailers may be encouraged not just by the design and technical innovation of the watches, but also by the company’s reach across social media and its creative marketing material.
On top of this, the brand is now working with former Swico brand manager Mark Ryder’s new Ryder Brands consultancy company to help develop and grow its distribution and retail network in the UK.
