BA111OD tweaks the traditional watch landscape with success

A most significant proportion (two-thirds) of the price of a luxury watch flows into high distribution channels and marketing activities, including paid ambassadors and influencers. With this approach, customers today turn to blogs for authentic information while official websites act as mere storefronts with photoshopped images. Convinced that after marketing, the digital transformation will impact distribution, Thomas Baillod found new ways to optimise the current distribution model for the mid-range segment. After nearly fifteen years of working for independent watch brands, he founded BA111OD in 2019.

BA111OD has a customer-centric approach to watch distribution. Through a web app, the startup has created a community of “Afluendors” (a contraction of “ambassadors, influencers, and vendors”), with whom it communicates daily. Everyone can express themselves through the platform and add content by posting photos and opinions on the watches and network. After buying a BA111OD watch, Afluendors can also recommend the brand to others and pass on the “right” to purchase available models. This option comes with rewards in tokens, redeemable in the Community App. Occasionally, the company brings together customers at exclusive events to share their experiences.

Figures from the company’s activities have proved that the model works. Launched consecutively on an experimental basis via the LinkedIn network, the watch Chapters 1 and 2 served as a crash test to verify Baillod’s approach. The self-winding watches with a double oscillator are designed and assembled in Switzerland but produced in Asia with partners in the Swiss watch industry and sold for less than CHF 400. Chapter 3, a self-winding model with an open-worked dial and Geneva stripes decoration, priced at around CHF 500, was also successful.

A tourbillon at a steal price
The startup stunned the watch industry after launching chapter 4; a Swiss Made Tourbillon priced under CHF 5000. Since launching the Tourbillon in October 2021, the company sold the first 50 pieces within 24 hours, and today it has sold more than 300 Tourbillons. Building on this success, the startup is planning Chapter 4.1.

Thanks to the innovative distribution approach, BA11OD continues to grow, with revenues rising month on month. The first year saw more than 1,500 watches sold, and the first one million in sales was achieved in 18 months, BA111OD boast of hitting the CHF 3 million mark in April 2022. “We aim to reach CHF 5 million revenues by the end of 2022”, revealed Mylène Thiebaud, BA111OD DACH Business Development Manager.

(RAN)