Ten Watch Brands to Work for in Social Media

No I didn't go out and take a survey, although I wish such a report would exist. But horology being a rather secretive world, it's never easy to get information about what it's like to be on the "inside" of watch companies. People clam up. I mean it's Switzerland for Christ's sake. Nobody opens their mouth here. Least of all in the tick tock world. And the few who have are swimming with the fishes on the bottom of Lake Geneva :)

No, what I'm talking about are the top ten brands I think (or know) might be cool to work for as far as social media is concerned. Mind you, this is based on my personal perception - Ok, and a little inside knowledge perhaps. Heck, I interviewed most of these people.

It's not easy doing social media work for any Swiss watch brand. Let's face it, most of them were dragged kicking and screaming into this new social thing. I think there are probably around 600 active Swiss watch brands, around half of which have a presence on Facebook - significantly less on Twitter or Youtube. And most of them still think social media is just conventional carpet-bombing marketing or PR applied to new improved digital channels.

Nonetheless, as we say in French, "Au pays des aveugles, les borgnes sont rois" (in a nation of blind men, one-eyed men rule - sounds better in French, trust me) and so there are, in my opinion, some more progressive "social" watch brands than others. Some brands who really "get it" - or at least strive to. But what might those be?

Here's a list I came up with (in no particular order) each with a 1 to 5 ranking for Product, People, and "Coolness" categories - all reasons (albeit not exclusive) to be doing social media work for a given watch company these days IMHO (note: I insert a question mark on the People scale when I'm not equipped to judge and a link to their interview when available).

#1. Bremont (Product: 4, People: 5, Coolness: 4)
Compelling history, British brand. Awesome owners, kick-ass product. Huge room for growth. [radio show]

#2. Linde Werdelin (Product: 5, People: 4, Coolness: 5)
Beautiful product, original, great Nordic design, smart owners, outside-the-box marketing. Genuine and personal customer-centric approach. [radio show].

#3. TAG Heuer (Product: 4, People: 3, Coolness: 3)
Only brand who can claim genuine watchmaking innovation in the past 400 years. Already very active online (enough so to score a 115 IQ on the L2 Facebook IQ report). Cool CEO who used to sell FMCG with a great pool overlooking Lake Geneva. I know this because I interviewed him a short while ago :)

#4. MB&F (Product: 4, People: 5, Coolness: 5)
Owner Max Busser is an industry legend in the world of independent brands. Progressive and original. UFO product. Powerful, intelligent and opportunistic marketing and communication approach. Max was also my first guest on the radio show.

#5. Maurice de Mauriac (Product: 3, People: 4, Coolness: 3)
Under-the-radar brand in Zurich with solid bespoke product. Exclusive niche market. Brilliant founder (also not from the industry) with an offbeat and very subtle humanized one-on-one marketing approach.

#6. Bell & Ross (Product: 5, People: ?, Coolness: 5)

First brand to have an online boutique. Amazing product. Consistent and smart marketing guns. Customer-centric. Never met anyone there but clearly this brand "gets it" and has big guns.

#7. Xetum (Product: 3, People: 4, Coolness: 3)
Based in San Francisco. Unbelievably cool and humble founder (rare in this industry) Jeff Kuo (not from the watch industry) has an original, clean, simple and genuine product line. Big potential in key US and Chinese market segments IMHO. [radio show]

#8. IWC (Product: 5, People: ?, Coolness: 3)
Iconic German brand founded by an American. With L&S, probably one of the most breathtaking watch products out there. Clean, crisp, and...German. Very active online and a solid based of rabid fans community. Their forum manager Michael Friedberg will be a guest on my show next week actually.

#9. Audemars Piguet (Product: 5, People: ?, Coolness: 2)
Too iconic a brand to even be cool anymore :) - AP is what most brands can only dream of one day becoming. They seemed to have gotten a good start on social media but then Hublot lured their employee away, and since then I'm not sure what's going on there. They had an ad out, which I applied to - but never even got an acknowledgement for. And their CEO never answered my request for an interview - Come to think of it, not sure why I'm including them in here... :) Oh, yes, it's Genta's Royal Oak, silly me! :)

#10. Jaeger-LeCoultre (Product: 5, People: 3, Coolness: 2)
Iconic brand. No marketing per say as the product itself is the "marketing message".  CEO Jerome Lambert told me to take a hike when I asked him to appear on the show, which didn't really surprise me as this type of communication is not really in the brand's genes. Nonetheless the gal responsible for their social media initiatives is really cool and quite good IMHO (although not sure why she protects her Twitter account...)