Into The Home Straight

A peak behind the curtain just days before our new collection goes live

Recently, we invested a large chunk of our accrued capital in base calibers from Soprod to ensure we have a healthy reserve of movements to buoy us through our next phase of development. While the investment was heavy, it is, as far as watchmaking investments go, a safe one. Movements, as we ave come to realise, are always in demand.

We’ve suffered in the past from having to wait for months (even close to a year in some cases) for the movements we need to bring a project to life.

While this can be frustrating, it is, for a brand like Arcanaut, also an opportunity to better manage our production workflow and keep customers in the loop of how we’re operating and why.

Our goal in the next twelve months is, for the first time, to have stock of everything we need to execute a project swiftly. That means buying in calibers, of course, but also cases, handsets, straps, buckles, and even packaging.

One advantage to investing in stock is the reduced relative cost of larger orders as well as being able to pivot at a moment’s notice and respond positively to either customer demand, the onboarding of new retailers, and the unexpected opportunity to collaborate with one of our media or marketing partners.

We placed our recent movement order at the end of March.

Believe it or not, those movements are not slated for delivery until the end of November 2023, which means that all orders placed this year (from now on), will have lead times of around eight months. While this sounds like a long time, it is, quite astoundingly, nothing unusual in modern independent watchmaking.

The pandemic shone a light on how greatly many small brands like ours (and even much bigger brands operating in the five-figure price segment and beyond) can be stymied by a backlog of orders for frustratingly “simple” components like, for example, a buckle.

The advantage is this: Our order is in and we know how the land lies. So too, do you. This investment is one we simply had to make for the long term future of the brand.

It will, ultimately, allow us to get out ahead of orders and improve the customer experience further down the line. In the meantime, however, we’ve chosen to adopt a position of absolute transparency and individual customer engagement whenever we can.

We’re thankful for each and every one of you for supporting our growth, for having the belief in us to deliver when we say we will, and for extending to us the greatest patience and understanding.

Without supporters like you, we couldn’t do what we do, and we certainly couldn’t hope to achieve what we hope to achieve in the coming years.

Arcanaut Watches are available to buy direct, or from our retailers in either California (Collective Horology) or Stockholm (INDP Watches).