Four years ago, on 3rd July 2014, The Camden Watch Company opened its doors for the very first time in a pop-up store on Camden High Street. What started as a showcase for our co-founders Anneke and Jerome's design studio, soon became an established British watch brand with two stores in London and distribution in Japan and Taiwan.
Here at Camden Watch Co. we've stayed true to our identity and the British-Swiss founders have grown the business through not only hard work but an ongoing and contagious passion for what they do.
Let Anneke take you down memory lane to the very beginning of The Camden Watch Co.'s wonderful journey...
Around five years ago, Jerome and I were running our watch and jewellery design studio, but we were finding it hard to get new clients. The watch world is notoriously secretive and it was impossible to show people the work we had done previously without breaking all sorts of NDAs. So we decided to create our own brand that would serve as a showcase, showing people the A-Z of what it is we do. Little did we know that the showcase would soon overtake the studio itself!
The Camden Watch Co.'s first award, the WatchPro Hot 100.
We’re completely self-funded, it was very important to us from the get go that if we were going to do this, we were going to do this our way. No angels, no investors, no VCs. At the time we were looking for an initial loan to get us started, and it just so happened that the shared office space where we were working (Camden Collective) was about to run an accelerator, with the chance of a £10k loan at the end. We did the course and were granted the loan. That at some money from our own pockets helped us kickstart the brand and got us going. 
The Camden Watch Co. at The Camden Collective.
We’ve taken a lot of risks with The Camden Watch Company, but never blindly. Opening a store was one of them, at a time when retailers were, and still are, closing down faster than you can say House of Fraser, it seemed crazy to open a single brand watch store. But we had the data to back it up and three years down the line we have another store with a third on its way.
In terms of highs, I think positive customer feedback is always incredibly rewarding. We’ve received emails, cards, letters and reviews from people who truly love what we’re doing and that’s so motivating.
The Camden Watch Co.'s next office was in the stockroom of their first store in Camden market.
Because we were self-funded and still running our design studio, Jerome and I really had the luxury of growing the brand organically. For the first year, it was just the two of us. We’ve grown steadily since then and we’re now a team of seven. Our employees are hugely important to us so we choose our team carefully. It’s so great to build up a group of people around us who are as passionate about what we do as we are.
The Camden Watch Co.'s pop up store in Old Spitafields, Shoreditch.
I think running out of stock is always tough, when people are there and actively want to buy your product, but you have to say no, it’s really difficult. But we’re working hard on streamlining the whole process and trying to get on top of stock. Another thing about running a small business is that you’re always on, holidays aren’t quite the same when you have one eye on the view and one eye on your emails to make sure you’re staying on top of everything. But that’s the life of a small business owner and we wouldn’t change it for the world.
The Camden Watch Co.'s build of their Flagship store in Camden Stables Market.
The Camden Watch Co.'s first time at Eroica Britannia vintage cycling festival in 2016.
Back in late 2016, we launched what our first ever Limited Edition watch. Based on Tom Sayers, a champion bare-knuckle boxer from Camden, it was a steel No.88 with a black dial limited to 200 pieces, and we loved it.
Produced in four batches of 50, each batch sold out fast, and ever since we have received emails and messages asking us if by any chance we've held any back (we haven't), or even if it was possible buy our very own edition (it isn't).
