For Swiss watch startup Norqain, a partnership with the just-completed TCS New York City marathon just makes sense.
The company, led by founder and CEO Ben Küffer, is targeting active, younger, and generally more upmarket buyers for its mechanical watches that incorporate cutting-edge materials.
“We’re now in the third year as the [official] timekeeper [for the NYC Marathon], and very excited to be running it on Sunday for the first time,” Küffer said in an interview with Yahoo Finance, noting that he was running the race.
Norqain makes a limited edition NYC marathon watch, which is itself a special edition version of its Wild One sports watch, limited to just 262 units (a marathon is 26.2 miles long).
The watch is shockproof for the rigors of so much running and made of an in-house material called Norteq that’s both tough and lightweight, the company said.
“The marathon was a great way to show what we’re doing at Norqain. We’re challenging the market with new materials and sporty watches,” Küffer told Yahoo Finance.
Though the Wild One marathon watch costs nearly $5,500, Norqain is finding more and more clients who are buying its sports watches and other similarly priced timepieces.
Norqain, which doesn’t disclose sales data since it’s a private company, said it does produce around 10,000 watches a year. Küffer told Yahoo Finance that the brand is “growing by 50% this year.”
Those are pretty good numbers when the overall Swiss watch industry has seen global deliveries decline. And challenging Swiss stalwarts like Rolex, Omega, and IWC, which have hundreds of years of collective history and industry excellence, is easier said than done.
Küffer, who started Norqain in 2018, believes the focus on younger, more active clients, combined with traditional watch collectors, is a winning formula for growing a watch brand.
“It’s really nice to see we have those two demographics,” he said.
That focus on younger buyers, like Gen Z and millennials, might be key to that growth.
In a report detailing Gen Z buying habits, e-commerce and data site Watchfinder reported Gen Z buyers bought more watches than millennials, and even outspending their older cohort, in the last year.
Despite entry-level watches costing over $2,000, and others that go for nearly $10,000, Küffer believes Norqain is in the sweet spot for not only growing among those who own multiple watches, but also for bringing new buyers into the fold.
“[We’ve brought watches] back to a price range where people can enjoy them and actually invest in a mechanical watch and say, ‘I have a great first timepiece.'”