Monthly Archives: January 2011

Geneva SIHH Report Part 2: The Retailers

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As I mentioned in my pre-Geneva report, the first line of meetings during these shows is with retailers.  Right now I have four in North America.

These meetings are a great chance to sit down, look at the full collection, discuss any issues we or they might be having, and plan for the coming year.  This year everyone was in a great mood!  In order to have a happy relationship, I only open points of sale that I am confident can turn their inventory at least once per year.  This means, if you stock five pieces, you must sell at least five per year.  That way everything moves fluidly.  This year all of my retailers turned their inventory at least 1.5x.  And happy clients makes for easy meetings.

We show our retailers the watches we are releasing to the press, but also the next round of launches too.  This way we get the orders in advance so we can deliver as close as possible to the launch.  We pride ourselves on delivering on time.  When we speak about a new piece, it is always nearly ready for delivery.  No “vapor” releases from MB&F.  So here is our launch schedule for this year:

  • Jan/Geneva: HM2 Final Editions (SV-Red, SV-Black)
  • March/Basel: two more variation releases
  • June: new Only Watch piece unique
  • September: HM5 (!!)
  • November: a very fun, funky variation

So now the retailers have seen the first two.  In Basel we will show them the rest.

I’m extremely pleased with how 2010 turned out and expect 2011 to be even better.  I hope this post gave some insight into the nitty-gritty of these shows.

Tech Tuesday: Google Voice – Taking Control from the Wireless Carriers

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Those of you who know me know that I am both a huge Google fan, and a major follower of anything mobile.

As an Android user, one of my favorite features is its deep integration with Google Voice.  GV is basically a hub.  If anyone rings your GV number, you can tell it exactly what to do: ring your cell phone, ring your office phone, ring your computer through gmail, go to voicemail, etc.  This is programmable for every single person who may call.  You can also call out through GV.  Calling from Android is seamless, but still requires a phone plan, calling from Gmail is free.

The one problem with Google Voice was the phone number.  I have had the same phone number for years.  I don’t want to change numbers.  Most people called my same old cell number, and I always wanted to call out with that number so I would come up properly on caller-id.

Well, this weekend that all changed.

Google Voice is now allowing you to port your phone number to that service.  As of yesterday, the phone number that I have had for 6 years under carrier control, is now mine – outside of the system.  Let me explain some of the benefits:

1) I can take any phone on any plan and have my number up and running in about 1 minute without any contract or carrier involvement.  If a new phone comes out on a different service, I can try it and not worry about porting my number.  I have complete control over where my phone number rings.

2) I was just in Europe for a week and it cost me $10.  I had a SIM unlocked Android phone.  Bought a local SIM card with $2/day unlimited 3G data.  If I received calls on my number, they went straight to voicemail but that voicemail was delivered to me over my local data plan so I got it immediately and for free.  I could also send and receive texts immediately and for free.  If I had to call someone back, I could either call from my computer over wifi (free) or call from my local SIM phone number.  Since I was covered on wifi nearly the entire time, the only calls I made were local Swiss and therefore free.

3) I’m on a month-month phone contract with minimal minutes.  As long as you have a plan that allows for some sort of “Friends and Family” numbers with unlimited minutes, you can just put your GV number as one of those and not burn any minutes.

Of course, there are some caveats – the biggest of which is that if you are on a contract, porting your number will cancel the contract and subject you to an early termination fee.  But overall, getting freedom from the Wireless Carriers feels fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Geneva SIHH Report Part 1 – Before the show

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Apologies again for the long absence.  I’m back now and looking forward to continuing the blog.

Each year, the shows in Basel and Geneva are some of the most closely followed happenings in the watch industry.  Blog and forum traffic sky-rockets as everyone checks in to see what novelties are presented.

There are plenty of places to find novelties, so I thought it would perhaps be interesting to give an account of what these shows are like behind the scenes.  Today I will start with preparation.

During SIHH, we take a suite in the Hotel de la Paix in downtown Geneva.  We have three rooms to the suite: one used as a back office, one for Max to take meetings and one for me to take meetings.  As we have very limited space and only two of us accepting meetings, scheduling is of the utmost importance.  While the actual SIHH goes from Monday-Friday, we start Sunday afternoon and to through Saturday.  During that time we generally take upwards of 120 meetings between the two of us.

So, for the 6 weeks before the show, my primary job is to book as many meetings as I can.  This is not easy.  First of all, the SIHH pays for many of the journalists and retailers visits.  As such, they try to keep them busy at the show for the whole time.  Everyone’s schedules are crazy, so finding time to visit a little brand like us is not always easy.  It is quite a juggling act.

Of primary importance is booking our current retailers.  The true point of the show is B-B.  Approximately 33% of our yearly orders are taken in that week.  Next is to book other stores who we could potentially work with in the future or who are interested in meeting us.  These tend to be tricky as their primary drive is to meet with their current brands.  However, it is important as we rarely have a full collection to show outside of these show weeks.  Next we book press.  As Max and I do all of the PR ourselves, we have personal contact with everyone.  And lastly, when I have booked everyone else and have slots left, I like to invite collectors.  The show in Geneva is not very friendly to enthusiasts.  Getting passes to SIHH is nearly impossible.  However, it is a great opportunity for collectors to see all of our rare pieces in one sitting.  And, selfishly, nothing recharges my energy better than a meeting with people who really understand and love what we are doing.

This year was a great success in terms of scheduling.  I saw nearly everyone I hoped to see and had very few issues of meetings stacking up or needing to be moved around.  I’ll do a Tech Tuesday post tomorrow and then come back on Wednesday with an account of the show itself.

A Personal Update

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As I wrote earlier, I took a leave from the blog for a few weeks while I finished up the year and got ready for the birth of my first child.  I am happy to announce that he was born on 1/12, a big, healthy baby boy named Everest.

Of course, the timing was a bit difficult as I had to leave three days later for Geneva.  So here I sit, taking meetings all week.  I hope to have lots of time to blog when I get back.  TickTocking has been a very rewarding project for me and I cannot wait to get back to it.

In the coming day or two I hope to write a post or two on what this week in Geneva during SIHH is like.

So consider this my comeback post.  I’ll be back soon with some good stuff.