(Newswire.net — May 27, 2016) — From apps and smartphones to video games and wearables, thousands of projects owe their success to crowdfunding. Whilst this online fundraising phenomenon is often associated with the tech space, it is causing just as much of a stir in some of the more traditional industries – and of late, the horological market in particular.
Indeed, a smartwatch project launched by California-based company Pebble set a new record for popular crowdfunding platform Kickstarter when it raised $10.3 million in 2012. However, the convergence of watchmaking and crowdfunding is not limited to gadgetry; peer-to-peer funding is proving to be just as significant for the classic timepiece. Czapek & Cie was the first luxury horological brand to use crowdfunding in order to raise money, but unlike most entrepreneurial projects, its founders were not looking to launch something original and innovative. Rather, Harry Guhl and Xavier de Roquemaurel – the Swiss entrepreneurs behind the initiative – are on a mission to revive a 19th Century watch brand famously worn by Emperor Napoleon III of France.
Another horological brand leveraging the powers of crowdfunding to breathe new life into the traditional watchmaking industry is DuBois et fils. Rather than using dedicated platforms such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo, the company has been using its own website to offer paperless shares at $10 each. Again, the money raised will go not towards an innovative new product, but will be used to revive the oldest watchmaking factory in Switzerland.
A blog to watch attributes the apparent rise in crowdfunded timepieces to two things in particular. Firstly, the low-risk nature of crowdfunding means that entrepreneurs have plenty to gain when launching such projects: they can easily enter international markets by selling their products online with sites like this one. Secondly, they have very little to lose: crowdfunding presents a unique opportunity for watch enthusiasts to actually create their very own brand without taking on too much financial burden.
The entry of crowdfunding into the traditional watch market – and vice versa – represents something of a new era for peer-to-peer lending, proving it to be just as relevant and applicable to old industries as it is to new ones. Equally, it demonstrates the seemingly timeless longevity of classic watchmaking which, rather than dying out in the age of smartwatches, is using new channels and technologies to reassert its relevance.