Inspired by the desire to buy a quality, well-designed luxury watch but frustrated by the current state of the bloated luxury watch industry, Leonard & Church founder Jeff Leung set out to establish a new watch company that cuts out the unnecessary middlemen including wholesalers, importers and retailers.
This ‘eliminate the supply chain’ business model has been seen before with everything from eyeglasses and razors to suits…and oftentimes with great success.
While these new brands may not carry the same weight as decades-old brands…they oftentimes don’t have to in order to be a profitable and sustainable business in today’s startup-friendly culture.
Claiming that some brands mark their luxury watches up to 1000%, Leonard & Church aims to create a new way to buy a ‘meticulously-crafted, handmade luxury watch at a radical price point’.
Currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, could this maker-friendly business model be the new (and most efficient) way of getting your goods into the hands of buyers?
With over a year in the making, the team of designers, entrepreneurs and grad students behind Leonard & Church have focused on what is perhaps the most important key in this new form of doing business: establishing solid relationships with key manufacturers and material suppliers.
Another example of this has been Propersuit‘s ability to establish a relationship with Italian fabric production house Guabello to offer suits that are usually made for thousands of dollars more for more established brands such as Hugo Boss.
The direct-to-consumer approach might not have worked more than a decade ago, but today it can carry its own ‘luxury status’ by way of a company being tech-savvy in their customer experience design…a brand currency in itself these days independent of decades of brand and reputation-building.
With their Kickstarter campaign currently at about 25% of their goal of $75,000 with 31 days remaining, it’ll be interesting to see how Kickstarter works out for Leonard & Church. You can check out their collection over at LeonardAndChurch.com.
