Disruptors Johnny Garrat | Crowdfunding a Luxury Watch Brand
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Rob is joined by Johnny Garrett, founder of William Wood Watches, which he created with just 25k and crowdfunding. They talk about the luxury watch market including its dramatic post-COVID crash and the rise of independent watchmakers. Johnny reveals how his grandfather's firefighting legacy was the inspiration behind building a British watch brand that incorporates genuine upcycled firefighter equipment.
From celebrity collectors like Kevin O'Leary and President Biden to Johnny's journey from banker to watchmaker, this episode provides a fascinating look into entrepreneurship, watch industry disruption and why traditional luxury brands might be taking advantage of their customers.
REVEALS:
- How William Wood Watches incorporates genuine upcycled firefighter equipment, honouring Johnny's grandfather's 25 year firefighting career.
- How Johnny started William Wood Watches at just 25 years old while maintaining his banking career
- The company produces about 3,500 watches annually priced between £1,000-£4,000, with limited editions like the 30-piece "King's Coronation" watch dramatically increasing in value, selling out instantly.
- The high profile customers that buy William Wood Watches, including President Biden (whose watch was presented in the Oval Office), Kevin O'Leary and Russell Crowe.
- Why Johnny believes the luxury watch market crashed post-COVID
- How William Wood is expanding beyond direct-to-consumer sales into B2B government contracts.
- That watch brands claiming "in house" manufacturing primarily use this as marketing justification for charging premium prices.
BEST MOMENTS
"I believe if a Richemont Group bought it, Jesus, they could take William Wood Watches into the billions in revenue. Every single country in the world has a fire service. Our vision is to convert fire stations all around the world into our concept stores."
"The whole reason we're in business is to be able to produce watches that you can actually wear on a daily basis and appreciate. Now there's so much supply in the marketplace that you are struggling where to be able to make these purchases."
"I used to fall for that, I've got loads of limited edition APs, which, you know, they're limited edition, so they're the ones that will go up in value and they haven't gone up in value because they make a new limited edition, a new one, and a new one."
"This is the reason why we're seeing such a rise of independent brands. We've seen in the last three years, the amount of customers who now know more or want to educate themselves on other independent sort of lesser well known brands."
"I think society is celebrating the wrong businesses. We are feeding a conversation around entrepreneurs who have these big billion dollar companies with huge employees, potentially masses of debt. I think we should be celebrating more the entrepreneurs turning over maybe into the single digit millions."
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ABOUT THE HOST
Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “The Disruptive Entrepreneur”
“If you don't risk anything, you risk everything”
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