This brand isn’t a watch brand. Its business is menswear, meaning clothing, bags and accessories, sold through several hundred stores. Watches are one category among many. Yet across those stores, watches sell in real volume, and they have earned a permanent place in how the brand presents itself.
That didn’t happen because the watches stood out on their own. It happened because they were built to look like part of everything else the brand sells.
Why a menswear brand adds watches
The reasoning is the same one jewellery brands follow: the customer is already there. A man buying a jacket or a bag is also a man who wears a watch, and if the brand doesn’t offer one, he buys it somewhere else. Adding watches made the range more complete, so a customer can buy the whole look, from clothing and bag to watch, in one place.
A watch that belongs to the wardrobe
For a fashion brand, a watch has to answer one question in store: does it go with what’s on the rails? This brand’s customers buy a look, not a single item, and the watch has to fit that look.
What matters to this brand is overall style rather than any particular material. Its menswear runs from business to casual, and the watches are chosen to follow those styles, with colours that sit well next to its bags and leather goods. A customer who picks up a business bag or a casual jacket can see the watch that belongs with it.
Getting the details up to the brand’s standard
The first sample showed where a watch can fall short of a fashion brand’s standard. The overall design was right, but the dial logo had been applied as a single flat print. Next to the brand’s leather goods it looked ordinary rather than premium.
The fix was raised printing. The logo was printed in the same position more than a dozen times, on some elements twenty times or more, until it stood slightly proud of the dial. That gave it crisper edges and a more refined presence. The caseback logo also moved from laser engraving to chemical etching, which leaves a deeper, more defined mark. The second sample was approved.
Where the watches sit in store
The watches earned their place through placement as much as design. In the brand’s stores they sit at the checkout counter, one of the last things a customer sees before paying, and on mannequins as part of the accessory styling for each look.
Both placements work because the watches are designed to be seen next to the brand’s other products. At the counter, a watch reads as a natural add-on to a bag or a jacket. On a mannequin, it completes the outfit the brand is already selling.
The outcome
Watches have become a steady category for the brand, with sales that hold up across several hundred stores even though watches were never its main business.
The line launched with men’s watches only, in keeping with the brand’s menswear focus. Since then, new models have been added every year, developed alongside each season’s colours and new bag releases. Watches are now part of the brand’s new-product launch plan rather than an afterthought.
Related reading: How Fashion Brands Extend Their Identity Into Watch Collections
Questions brands ask about projects like this
Can watches sell well for a brand that isn’t a watch brand?
Yes, when the watches are designed as part of the brand’s existing range rather than as a separate product. A menswear brand whose watches follow its styles and appear alongside its outfits can build steady watch sales across its stores, even when watches are only one category among many.
How should a fashion brand display watches in store?
Put them where they complete a purchase or a look: at the checkout counter, as a natural add-on to a bag or garment, and on mannequins as part of the accessory styling. Both placements work best when the watches are designed to match the brand’s other products, so they read as part of the same outfit.
What usually needs to change after a brand’s first watch sample?
The most common changes after a first sample are finishing details rather than the overall design, such as logo application, caseback marking and surface treatments. A flat-printed dial logo can look ordinary next to a brand’s other products, and raised printing built up over many passes usually fixes it. Switching a caseback logo from laser engraving to chemical etching is another common refinement. When the brief is clear, most brand projects reach an approved sample by the second round.
Related reading: Full Custom vs Semi-Custom vs Full Development: Which Model Fits Your Brand?
If watches could sit alongside your bags and outfits in store, we’d be glad to look at your current range with you and talk through where a watch would fit. Start a conversation →