Independents

I saw some cool watches and met some wonderful watchmakers at Geneva Watch Days. I come from the art world, so I'm going to borrow three designators: Emerging, Mid-Career, and Established, which is more of a spectrum than a list. Examples:

Obviously brands like FP Journe and MB&F are firmly in control of their own destiny, and should be considered Established Brands.

Simon Brette or Rexhep Rexhepi / Akriva are Mid-Career, though pretty far along the arch. 

You get the point...

Then there are all the Start-Ups, let's call them Emerging. I'm concerned about some of these young men and women, especially the Early Emerging. I am getting close to sixty, and have been building companies for 35 years. Having a cool product is one thing, but managing teams, suppliers, relationships, but also cash-flow as well as communications is a really tough job. Having a clear handle on brand on top of that is near masterful entrepreneurship. I am concerned that some of these (very) young entrepreneurs will not succeed, because that is inherent to the risk of building a business in a crowded space. I am happy to engage with them if they're open to discussing their business, and I don't even mind being available to them as a mentor, though often there is neither that opportunity, nor frankly a desire on their end to discuss these things.

Microbrands are different in my mind, because my financial risk is less. If I put some money in a Kickstarter, or order something from a website, I would be bummed if it doesn't work out, but it's hardly as big a financial hit. 

Side note: artists are not lone creators, that's a cliché. Successful artists are effectively entrepreneurs who also need to run teams, manage relationships, and deal with financial issues, and the trajectory is tied as much to the reception of the art as it is to the artist's ability to grow the undertaking. 

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