It's been a while since we've put up a new edition of Behind the Curtains, but better late than never!
We've been working hard over the past few months to flesh out our new supply chain for our upcoming release, Mistral, and thought we'd talk about the work that goes into picking our suppliers (plus some highlights from a recent trip!).
Picking partners for the manufacturing of your products is one of the most important things that goes into a watch. It's in the nature of the word: partner. They work to represent our brand, and are responsible for the quality of the product that we ship out – so naturally, it's especially important that we're rigorous when choosing. When we were shopping around for manufacturers when creating the prototypes for 22, we ordered sample parts from 10+ factories to gauge their quality.
However, quality isn't the only thing that's important. Their flexibility on quantity is also hugely important, especially for microbrands like us. Many factories won't accept orders under 500 units, as high fixed costs make lower quantity orders less profitable.
Our factory was gracious enough to believe in us and our vision, and has been extremely flexible with some of our outlandish manufacturing requests (you'll understand what I mean by this once we unveil Mistral!).
While the quality of parts we used in 22 was excellent, Mistral is a far more complex project, and requires greater flexibility and technical know-how than some of our partners were able to produce. Over the past year, we've sourced new dial, hands, crystal, movement, and assembly partners to help bring Mistral to fruition.
I recently travelled to Geneva to go meet with some of these partners, and check things out in-person. Making that personal connection makes all the difference, and it was great to see the people who would help make Mistral come to life. Likewise, it's great for the manufacturers to get a sense of the person behind the brand, and their passion and vision – a true partnership!
We're excited to launch Mistral soon, and we'll share more over the upcoming weeks. May can't come soon enough 😉.
We wish you all a great weekend!
