You have decided that watches belong in your product range. The question now is what happens next — not in abstract terms, but specifically: who does what, in what order, and what decisions will you need to make along the way.
This guide walks through the complete development process from a brand’s point of view. Not how a manufacturer describes their services, but what the experience actually looks like when you are the brand — what each stage involves, what it requires from your team, and what moves the project forward at each point.
Since 2009 we have worked with more than 45 brands to develop watch collections from scratch. The process described here is drawn from that experience, across fashion labels, accessories brands, lifestyle companies, sports teams, and IP holders. The stages are consistent. The decisions that determine whether the process runs smoothly or extends beyond the expected timeline are also consistent — and almost all of them are made in the first half of the project, not the second.
Before the Process Starts: What You Bring to the First Conversation
The development process officially begins with a first conversation, but what you bring to that conversation determines how quickly the process gains direction.
The brands that move most efficiently through development are the ones that arrive at the first conversation with three things reasonably clear: a sense of what their brand feels like in hand (expressed through existing products rather than words), a directional idea of where the watch sits in their range (what price positioning, what occasion it serves), and a clear sense of what the watch should not look like.
You do not need technical knowledge. You do not need to have chosen a movement type or a case material. Those decisions follow from your brief, not the other way around. What you need is clarity about your brand — and the willingness to communicate it specifically.
What should a brand have ready before the first development conversation?
Before the first development conversation, a brand needs three things: a design reference package of existing products and visual references that communicate the brand’s aesthetic language, a directional price positioning relative to the rest of the range, and clear statements about what the watch should not look like. Technical specifications — movement, case dimensions, materials — are not needed at this stage. They are proposed by the development partner based on the brand’s design and commercial brief, not decided in advance.
Stage One: The First Conversation — Establishing Direction
What happens: The brand describes what they are trying to achieve — the design direction, the commercial positioning, the occasion the watch serves, and the brand context it needs to fit. The development partner asks questions, proposes an initial direction, and identifies any gaps in the brief that need to be resolved before design work begins.
What the brand does: Shares existing products as design references, communicates price positioning, describes what the watch should and should not feel like. The more specific this communication, the more useful the first proposal will be.
What HTIMES does: Listens for the design language embedded in the brand’s existing products, asks clarifying questions about positioning and occasion, proposes an initial design direction based on what the brief communicates.
How long it takes: The first conversation itself is typically one hour. What follows — the back-and-forth needed to establish a confirmed direction — takes one to two weeks for most projects. Brands that arrive with a specific brief move through this stage in days. Brands that need to develop their direction through the conversation take longer.
What moves it forward: Specificity. The more precisely the brand can communicate what they want — by pointing to existing products, naming specific references, describing what they do not want — the faster this stage resolves.
What does a watch development partner do with a brand’s brief?
A watch development partner takes the brand’s design references, commercial positioning, and occasion context and translates them into a watch design direction — proposing case shapes, dial proportions, strap materials, and finishing options that express the brand’s existing language in the new category. This translation is the core skill of brand-focused watch development. A partner who simply presents a catalogue of available options is not doing this translation — they are asking the brand to make technical decisions without the knowledge to make them well. A partner who has worked with established brands before will propose a direction that the brand can react to and refine.
Stage Two: Design Development — Translating Brand Language Into Watch Decisions
What happens: Based on the confirmed direction from stage one, design proposals are developed — visual references, material selections, and component choices that express the brand’s identity within the watch format. This is not yet a physical sample. It is a design direction that both sides agree on before production of the sample begins.
What the brand does: Reviews the design proposal against existing brand products. Provides specific feedback — not “this doesn’t feel right” but “the dial proportion is too large for our brand’s sense of scale” or “this strap texture reads as too casual for where this watch sits in our range.” Makes decisions about the design elements that matter most to the brand’s identity.
What HTIMES does: Translates feedback into revised design proposals, explains the technical implications of design choices (why a certain dial finish behaves differently in production than it appears in a reference image, why a particular case proportion affects the perceived weight of the watch), and helps the brand make informed decisions rather than simply executing instructions.
How long it takes: One to two weeks, depending on the number of revision rounds needed to reach a confirmed design direction. Projects where the brand’s design team is closely involved and provides specific feedback at each round move through this stage efficiently. Projects where the brief is still being formed at this stage take longer.
What moves it forward: Involvement. The brands that produce the strongest design directions are the ones whose creative leadership is genuinely engaged at this stage — not delegating to someone without design authority, but making decisions with the brand’s visual identity as the primary filter.
How are design decisions made during watch development?
Design decisions during watch development are made through a collaborative process in which the brand’s brief and visual references are translated into component and finishing choices by the development partner, then reviewed and refined by the brand’s creative team. The brand is the decision-maker; the development partner is the translator and technical advisor. The most productive design stages are ones where the brand provides specific, comparative feedback — referencing their existing products rather than reacting in general terms — and where the development partner explains the technical implications of each choice rather than simply presenting options.
Stage Three: Pricing, Specification, and Project Confirmation
What happens: Once the design direction is confirmed, the full project specification is prepared — component details, materials, finishing specifications, packaging brief, and cost. The brand reviews the proposal, makes any adjustments to balance the specification against the intended retail positioning, and formally confirms the project before sample production begins.
What the brand does: Reviews the full specification and cost against the intended retail positioning. Makes any adjustments — if the initial specification comes in above the target retail price point, decides which elements to revise. Confirms the packaging direction. Gives the formal go-ahead for sample production.
What HTIMES does: Prepares the full specification and cost proposal, explains the cost implications of specific material and finishing choices, proposes alternatives where the initial specification needs to be adjusted, and prepares the packaging brief in parallel with the watch specification.
How long it takes: One to two weeks. The most common extension at this stage is a pricing adjustment that requires the specification to be revised and re-costed. Brands that have resolved their price positioning clearly in stage one move through this stage quickly.
What moves it forward: The packaging decision. Brands that brief packaging in parallel with the watch — rather than treating it as a step to resolve after the watch is confirmed — avoid the delays that come from discovering late in the process that the preferred packaging option affects the project cost or timeline.
Why does packaging need to be decided before sample production begins?
Packaging needs to be decided before sample production begins because the packaging prototype is produced alongside the watch sample, not after it. A brand that leaves the packaging decision until after the watch sample is approved adds a further round of production time to the project. More significantly, packaging decisions affect the total cost of the collection — a packaging specification that comes in above the allocated budget, discovered at the end of the process, requires cost adjustments that could have been avoided if the brief had included packaging from the start.
Stage Four: Sample Production and Review — The Most Important Stage
What happens: The first physical sample is produced — the watch and the packaging prototype — and delivered to the brand for review. The brand reviews the sample against their existing products and provides specific feedback. A revision round is produced if needed. This continues until the brand is genuinely confident in the sample.
What the brand does: Holds the sample alongside existing brand products. Compares them in the same conditions the watch will be worn and purchased — not under studio lighting, but in the natural light and environment of the brand’s retail context. Provides specific feedback about what is right, what needs to change, and why — referenced against the brand’s existing products rather than stated as general impressions.
What HTIMES does: Produces the sample to the confirmed specification, delivers it with notes on the decisions made and where there is room for adjustment, receives and interprets the brand’s feedback, and produces a revised sample incorporating the specific changes requested.
How long it takes: Sample production takes 45 to 60 days from confirmed project go-ahead to sample delivery. A single revision round, if needed, adds further time. In our experience, most projects complete the sample stage in one to two rounds when the brief was specific going in. Projects that require more rounds are typically those where the design direction was not fully resolved before sampling began.
This is the stage that determines whether the finished collection will feel like the brand’s own or like something sourced from elsewhere. The decision to approve a sample that is almost right — because the timeline is running or because the revision feels like an inconvenience — is the decision that produces watches brands are not fully proud of. One well-directed revision round almost always resolves the remaining issues. The cost of that round is modest compared to the cost of a production run that falls short of the brand’s standard.
For a detailed walkthrough of what to expect at each review point during the sample stage, the sample stage explained covers how to structure feedback and what each round involves.
How should a brand review a watch sample to get the most useful result?
A watch sample should be reviewed in person, in natural light, held alongside the brand’s best existing products — not viewed from a photograph or compared to a digital render. The review question is not “does this match the specification” but “does this feel like it belongs in our range.” Feedback should be specific and comparative: identifying what specifically is wrong and what the correct direction looks like, referenced against the brand’s existing products. General reactions — “this doesn’t feel quite right” — require the development partner to guess at what needs to change, which produces further rounds. Specific reactions — “the dial texture is too reflective for our positioning; our accessories have a consistent matte finish and the watch should follow that” — give the development partner precise direction and reduce the number of rounds needed.
Stage Five: Production and Delivery
What happens: With the sample approved, production of the full collection begins. The brand receives the finished collection with packaging as confirmed in the sample stage.
What the brand does: Confirms the production go-ahead. Plans the retail or launch context the collection is going into. Prepares any marketing or presentation materials while production runs.
What HTIMES does: Manages production to the confirmed specification, conducts quality control against the approved sample, and delivers the finished collection.
How long it takes: Production timelines depend on volume and the specifics of the collection. For most standard brand watch projects, the total timeline from first conversation to finished product is two to three months. For a detailed breakdown of each stage of that timeline, how long it takes to develop a watch collection covers the specifics.
What quality checks happen between sample approval and final delivery?
Between sample approval and final delivery, the production run is checked against the approved sample at multiple points: component quality before assembly, finishing quality during assembly, and completed watch quality before packaging. The approved sample is the reference standard — any deviation from it is identified and resolved before the collection ships. For brands receiving their first watch collection, it is worth requesting photographs of the production run against the approved sample before final shipment, as a simple additional checkpoint.
After the First Collection: What the Process Sets Up
The first collection is almost never the final word. It is the beginning of a body of knowledge about what the brand’s customers respond to in the watch category — which design elements they recognise as the brand’s own, which price point they are comfortable with, which occasions the watch serves most naturally.
The brands that grow most significantly in the watch category are the ones that treat the first collection as a learning exercise as much as a commercial launch. The brief for the second collection is almost always more specific than the first, the sample stage almost always shorter, and the result almost always closer to what the brand had in mind from the start.
Some of the brands we have worked with since 2009 have grown from a modest first collection to monthly volumes that would have seemed implausible at the start of the relationship. The category, once established in the right way, tends to grow with the brand.
To see what this process looks like in practice for a real brand project, how a fashion brand added a watch collection without losing its identity gives a concrete picture of each stage from the brand’s point of view.
If you are at the point of thinking seriously about what this process would look like for your brand, the most useful next step is a conversation. Not a specification or a quote request — just a conversation about where your brand is and what a watch collection would need to do for it. We’re here when you are ready.