Online Watch Giant Watchismo Acquires Watches.com
Watchismo (now Watches.com) curates and sells the world’s largest online collection of diverse watches. Established in 1998, the company has a long-standing mission of providing unique and affordable timepieces to the masses. As the number 1 selling independent online watch store, the company plans to stay true to their core mission, while taking the brand to new heights with a larger online audience.
Founded by brothers Andrew and Mitch Greenblatt, the company focuses on finding, curating and providing interesting timepieces to a strong community of watch lovers. For over 15 years, Watchismo (now Watches.com) has been contributing to the online watch market. As the watch market moves away from the pure utilitarian perspective and towards design-friendly aesthetics, Watches.com will continue to feature and sell specialty watches with mass appeal. The online store’s diverse product offerings are carefully sourced domestically and internationally, highlighting the uniqueness of each timepiece.
Founder Mitch Greenblatt explains, “We believe that the modern watch represents more than just a functional mechanism to tell time. [The watch] is a unique form of art, design and personal expression.”
Mitch Greenblatt
Watches.com is an authorized dealer with dozens of major watch brands such as Diesel, Nixon and Shinola. However, the company also designs and manufactures their own unique watches under the brand Xeric. Watches.com recently gained considerable exposure after raising over $2 million on crowd-funding site Kickstarter, across 3 different campaigns for their in-house watch brand. Mitch Greenblatt commented, “We value Kickstarter as a way to reach those unique individuals who share our dream of making highly unusual mechanical watches affordable. We feel a kinship with Kickstarter culture and the visionary people who support alternative concepts like the SOLOSCOPE.”
Watches.com is an authorized dealer with dozens of major watch brands such as Diesel, Nixon and Shinola. However, the company also designs and manufactures their own unique watches under the brand Xeric. Watches.com recently gained considerable exposure after raising over $2 million on crowd-funding site Kickstarter, across 3 different campaigns for their in-house watch brand. Mitch Greenblatt commented, “We value Kickstarter as a way to reach those unique individuals who share our dream of making highly unusual mechanical watches affordable. We feel a kinship with Kickstarter culture and the visionary people who support alternative concepts like the SOLOSCOPE.” While many brands focus on designing high-end watches for the luxury watch market, the Xeric brand focuses on bringing unique watches to the market at an affordable rate for watch enthusiasts of any level.
Watches.com is now the home of all watch collections, including Xeric. The company has sold hundreds of thousands of watches, but is passionate about bringing unique timepieces to an even larger audience. “In an age when growing numbers of people tend to look dangerously alike, a watch’s capacity to suspend, even for a moment, our habitual ways of presenting ourselves may well prove to be one of its greatest benefits” founder Andrew Greenblatt commented.
Andrew Greenblatt
About the Company
Watches.com is the singular source for unusual, modern watches from around the world.
Founded in 1999, Watches.com grew organically from two brother’s deep, shared passion for unique timepieces. Owners Andrew and Mitch Greenblatt founded their watch company to bring unique and affordable timepieces to a broad cross-section of watch enthusiasts. Fundamentally, they believe that the modern watch represents more than just a functional mechanism to tell time: the watch is a unique form of art, design and personal expression.
For over 15 years, the two founders scoured the globe to find, curate and provide the most unusual and affordable timepieces to a community of watch lovers. Watches.com is now the home for the original online store Watchismo.com and their uniquely designed in-house brand, Xeric.
- Today, Watches.com is the world’s #1 independent online watch store.
- Their in-house watch brand, Xeric is the most funded mechanical watch brand in crowd funding history. On Kickstarter alone, they raised $885,594 for the Halograph™ watch, $444,370 for the Xeriscope watch and $679,310 for their Soloscope™ watch.
- Growth: 63% YOY since 2008
- Over $30 million in sales since 2008.
- Hundreds of thousands of units sold.
- Xeric reached $3 million in sales in the first two years
- Watches.com is headquartered in Danville, California.
The Origin
Ironically, Mitch Greenblatt has an acute sense of time and formerly prided himself in not needing a watch. It wasn’t until 1998 that for the first time a watch captivated him at a fair in London. It was love at first sight, as Mitch became fascinated with vintage watches as an elegant form of art. Before long, he was sourcing, curating and selling vintage watches on Ebay. The hobby turned into a passionate obsession with tracking down unique designers from around the world, contacting factories and getting a hold of the world’s most special vintage watches.
At this time, Andrew Greenblatt was in the computer business as the Internet was just blossoming. After selling his 2nd successful venture, Andrew joined forces with Mitch to bring his acute business acumen and retail know-how to the watch trade, effectively turning the productive hobby into a fast-growing business.
They quickly found that there was nothing cool or interesting about standard watch businesses. There weren’t any places to get something different. Andrew and Mitch wanted to curate what they wanted to wear themselves — pieces that were interesting and unique as well as affordable. They doubled down on the original website Watchismo.com, and watched it skyrocket exponentially for its first years.
In 2013, the Greenblatt brothers hired Danny Hunsaker to help with design and production of their own line of unique watches under the brand, Xeric. Hugely successful with a big launch, Xeric became the most funded mechanical watch in Kickstarter history, having raised over $2 million across 3 Kickstarter campaigns. In addition to carefully curated interesting watches, the business now features their personal line in the collection. They’ve successfully made a smooth transition from curators to creators.
Danny Hunsaker
WATCHES.COM EXECUTIVE TEAM BIOS
Andrew Greenblatt , Co-CEO
As Co-CEO, Andrew oversees all facets of Watches.com and directly manages operations, finance & accounting. Andrew is a lifelong entrepreneur, with a track record of success growing seedling businesses to fruition. At the dawn of the PC industry in 1988, Andrew launched a profitable personal computing company. In 2008, Andrew merged retail forces with his brother Mitch to found the parent company Watches.com (formerly Watchismo) and focus on truly unique and affordable contemporary watches. Andrew has a critical eye on retail market objectives for Xeric, the in-house watch brand. Andrew’s experience in scaling a business allows Watches.com to be nimble in the ever-changing online retail environment.
Mitch Greenblatt, Co-CEO
As Co-CEO, Mitch heads the creative direction and marketing of Watches.com. As the creative heart of Watches.com, Mitch brings his deep knowledge of historical watches and innate sense of style to Watches.com. His creativity is also key to the concept development of their in-house watch brand Xeric. A true artist, Mitch has a career path that spans film, television, music and advertising industries. After receiving his first watch (ever) in 1998, Mitch began collecting and selling unusual vintage watches via their original online store Watchismo.com , with special attention to mid-century modern design. With years of dedicated passion for watches, Mitch is an influential watch blogger and authority on the subject of modern horology.
Danny Hunsaker, Vice President
As the Vice President of Watches.com, Danny runs day to day operations, including but not limited to production, marketing and vendor management. He joined the Watches.com team in 2013 to help grow the online retail business as well as make Xeric a reality. With over 15 years of experience in product and brand management, Danny knows the ins and outs of bringing products from concept-to-market. He applies his sharp eye for detail and boundless creativity to help create unique in-house designs and usher them through the production process. Danny brings an acute awareness of design implications to all aspects of the development trajectory.
For more information please visit Watches.com and Xeric.com.
