Hey there and welcome to today’s article. You’ve probably heard of the latest watches in the modern watch market called MVMT. In case you didn’t know, the name of the brand is pronounced “Movement.” It stirred the watch industry when Forbes Magazine hailed the brand as the “fastest-growing watch brand.”
MVMT watches are available and sold in over 160 countries worldwide. They rely a lot on social media and digital advertising to reach their target audience. The brand has around one million followers on Instagram and more than 1.8 million likes on Facebook. They’ve managed to surpass those of other big brands such as Michael Kors, Fossil, and Nixon. Impressive, yeah? The MVMT brand was able to achieve building their name on social media using the hashtag #jointhemvmt.
Even though they’ve only been around since 2013, they are as popular as the name brands much bigger than themselves so you’re probably wondering “where are MVMT watches made?” In this article, we’ll explore your question and also give you a brief history of how the founders started their journey.
Where Are MVMT Watches Made?
Even though the brand is pronounced “movement” their official website does not actually boast about the movement of their watches. We think it’s a bit ironic, to be honest.
MVMT watches use a Japanese Miyota precision quartz movement just like other popular brands such as Citizen, Casio, and Seiko. It’s not surprising that these Japanese-style watches also use this movement seeing as they are homegrown right there in Japan.
In the case of the MVMT brand, the Japanese Miyota quartz movement it uses is produced in Hong Kong and in China.
A Brief History Of MVMT Watches
The founders of MVMT watches are Jake Kassan and Kramer LaPlante. Now, fun fact: Jake Kassan and Kramer LaPlante are both millennial college dropouts but that’s just the beginning of their really interesting story.
Their story is interesting for two reasons:
- They were teens when they conceptualized the vision and launched their watch brand.
- They achieve this despite the fact that they dropped out of college.
To know more about the brand, watch the video below. It is a really long video, a documentary, in fact but it gives you all the details you need.
A Brief History Of Jake Kassan And Kramer Laplante’s Background
Jake Kassan’s father was the main person who taught him how to make money even at such a young age. Growing up, he watched his father hustle as he owned a credit report business. This business, unfortunately, did not survive the 2008 recession.
Despite the odds, by the time Jake was 12, he was already earning his own money. He achieved this by selling the lollipops which his father brought home. Even though the lollipops were giveaways, Jake would sell them at 25 cents each or 5 lollipops for one dollar. A few weeks later, he made between $300 and $400.
By the time he was 17 years old, he started his first business which sold novelty t-shirts. His items were a hit and became a favorite in parties and clubs because they would light up when they sensed some noise.
To build his inventory of shirts, he used his car as collateral so he could get a loan from his father. On summer weekends, he would drive to Santa Monica and sell his shirts there.
Even though he was earning a substantial amount, it did not prevent him from expanding his business further. He designed a website nitelifedesigns.com to expand the reach of his products.
He didn’t stop there, he also made YouTube videos to expand his reach and each of these videos received more than five hundred thousand views. Using this marketing strategy, he was able to earn up to $10,000 in a single week.
Kramer LaPlante, on the other hand, launched a wallet brand called Articulate Wallets on Kickstarter. Articulate Wallets are affordable and stylish wallets that are designed to allow their owners easy access to their cash and cards. This project raised more than $100,000 from nearly 3,000 backers.
The combination of Kassan’s background in e-commerce and LaPlante’s crowdfunding experience led to the founding of their brand — MVMT watches.
They Identified A Problem
In the University of California, Santa Barbara, Jake and Kramer were college roommates. Jake dropped out of college first. Kramer continued to patiently attend his classes because he also wanted to be a responsible student.
In 2013, Kramer is quoted to have said “MVMT started with a simple problem. Jake and I couldn’t find a stylish, well-made watch that was affordable for people like us or our friends just getting out of school.”
“Most Millennials can’t just drop $500 or $1000 on a watch so even though Jake and I are not “watch nerds”, we saw that watches were a great crowd-funding space and we said, ‘we can do this.’”
Ultimately Jake and Kramer saw this problem as a chance to be able to do something together. They wanted to start a watch company that was cooler and would appeal to their own demographic directly. They also wanted to provide watches that were very affordably priced.
How They Solved The Problem
From the apartment they both shared in Santa Barbara, California, Jake and Kramer researched watch suppliers based in China. They used the Alibaba website to carry out their research. They spoke to quite a lot of potential vendors and researched the pricing and quality of the watches that each of them could potentially supply.
As they did this, they realized the mark-up of most established watch brands was quite huge. They made the decision to cut off the middlemen and sell their watches directly online. By making this decision, they were able to price their MVMT watches at less than half of what other brands were charging. They started to sell their watches in the range of $95 to $160 while other brands sold theirs for around $300 for similar watches.
In June 2013, the two of them launched MVMT’S first Indiegogo campaign. They used only an inexpensive camera and six sample watches which they designed themselves. Their initial investment was less than $5,000.
MVMT became the second most funded campaign for a fashion brand in Indiegogo’s history at that time. This was made possible by the combination of their millennial fan base and a successful social media strategy.
Initially, their fundraising goal was just $15,000 but they surpassed that by more than tenfold. They reached a total of $219,898. This overwhelming response they received made them realize that they were on the right track and they were on to something.
Over the years, they noticed their digital strategy worked really well as in approximately three years, their team sold more than 600,000 watches. Their product offerings also include sunglasses and watches for men and women which all retail around $150 or less.
Better still, they boast of a sleek, modern aesthetic which gives their high-end rivals a run for their money. Their designs are high quality, minimalist products at groundbreaking prices.
MVMT Watches’ Reputation
As a result of its successful digital marketing strategy, MVMT has been able to make a name for itself. Customers see them as able to provide luxurious yet minimalist watches all at an affordable price. It is the perfect watch for its millennial target market.
MVMT relies on its reputation for an affordable price tag, as well as aesthetic and simplistic designs. It also boasts of a wide range of products and offers free worldwide shipping.
1. Affordable Price Tag
Traditionally, finding a stylish watch that was also relatively affordable was not so easy. This is one of the major reasons why MVMT became an instant hit. Since its inception in 2013, the company has been committed to its core value of providing quality watches at groundbreaking prices.
2. Aesthetic And Simplistic Designs
Another key element that Jake and Kramer considered for their products is the design. They wanted fashionable watches that would shine on social media and appeal to their target demographic of millennials.
They didn’t consider watches with bold numbers and intimidating faces instead they considered watches with simple and minimalistic faces.
3. Wide Range Of Products
MVMT has a wide range of styles to offer men and women. It has over a dozen collections for men and various styles for women as well. All MVMT watches come with swappable straps. With this feature, you can change the look of your watch easily in a few minutes.
4. Free Worldwide Shipping
MVMT is one of the very few fashion watch brands which offer free worldwide shipping. Note you have to spend more than $50 to qualify.
