It seems that nothing and no one is impervious to the digital wave that’s sweeping across businesses around the globe, including the world of horology. The Peak speaks to leaders of the watch industry to better understand how this march towards digitalisation is making its impact on an area that prides itself on the rich history, careful mechanics and art of it all.
Maximilian Büsser, Founder, MB&F
What’s the MB&F attitude towards going digital?
De facto, we have been selling by e-commerce at our Geneva M.A.D. Gallery since its opening seven years ago. There is no website with a ‘put in basket’ icon, but customers interested in a piece write us an e-mail and we start a discussion which leads – or not – to a sale. All retailers have been doing that for over a decade. The difference is just the graphic interface.
We need to make everyone’s life easy – or easier – and the Internet is the one resource that should give us that possibility. You can, of course, find all the information on our brand and creations on the website. We would love to have all the prices featured (it drives me mad when I cannot find the price of a product online), but our challenge is that, between local taxes, VAT and exchange rates, our creations end up having different prices all over the world. Sometimes with differences up to 25 to 35 per cent! So, whatever price we put online, it will be wrong for 90 per cent of the readers. Unfortunately, we have not found a solution to that yet.
So, will we be seeing a proper e-commerce platform for MB&F?
For the last few years, we have had a few of our M.A.D. Gallery pieces for sale online, but never really made it known – it was only for our clients’ convenience. Our first foray into a real e-commerce platform will be with our ‘Certified Preowned Chapter’ in June 2018. We will sell very rare, certified pre-owned MB&F pieces that cannot be found at our retail partners. They are refurbished, and completely serviced and upgraded. It’s a fantastic opportunity for our collectors to find that impossible-to-find piece.
What about social media?
Social media was fantastic when it started. It is much less now. On Facebook, for example, we have over 90,000 real fans, but barely 500 will see any of our posts if we don’t pay when posting. Which, in one way, is understandable as Facebook needs to monetise its platform, but what makes me mad is that our followers will see the post as ‘sponsored’ on their feed. We are not trying to sell them our stories. It makes the whole experience so commercial! All we are doing is giving them the info they signed up for by following our page.
What’s your strategy in making sure that MB&F stays luxury in the digital sphere?
Luxury’ is a terrible world. It’s arrogant, overrated and snobbish. It is everything that is wrong with the capitalistic and marketing take on what used to be defined as impeccable artisanship, heartfelt emotion and great engineering. How does it make you feel when you realise that someone is saying only a few ‘deserve’ their products? We love the real dialogue on social media and what you see on our accounts is what you get – in tone and in philosophy.
Coming back to e-commerce, we need to make our clients’ lives easier. Why could they not order a piece at 3am whilst living 2,000km from the closest retail partner? The same goes for our retailers – they need to have an e-commerce platform offering our pieces. We have been encouraging them to do so for the last 10 years!
As an independent brand, is it challenging to penetrate into the digital world as compared to those under luxury conglomerate groups?
Actually, I think it is much easier – we can be ourselves and don’t need to be politically correct. Of course, it is extremely challenging to have our voice heard over the big-budget boys, but it will always be much easier than with print media.
All said and done, do you think it’s too late for luxury watchmakers to go digital?
Since the 1970s, high-end watchmaking has mostly adapted but it does not lead. Just give it time.
