• Who are you?

We’re Paulin watches, a Glasgow based watch company.

• What does your business do? We design and build watches, we’re the only company to do anything approaching volume manufacturing in the UK. At the moment we import most of the components (much like the Swiss watch industry) but even in the relatively short time since launch we’ve increased the value of UK made parts significantly, and are continuing to do so.

• Where are you based?

• We’ve just opened our workshop / retail space at 61 Parnie Street in the Trongate area of Glasgow. Previously we were working out of a light industrial unit and a spare bedroom (the industrial unit was impossible to heat), so we’re enjoying the new space. It’s great having that interaction with customers, you’ll learn more spending a day in a shop than a year on social media.

• How did you get started?

We went to the annual watch show in Basel, Switzerland in 2012 and returned knowing this is what we wanted to do. Nobody has made watches in the UK in any volume since Timex closed in the 90s. Roger W Smith makes a dozen a year - completely from scratch - at the very high end, and other companies which have sprung up in the past decade trade heavily on their ‘Britishness’ - think pictures of Spitfires (I think one actually had a blog post on the Battle of Waterloo!) - but they all make the watches abroad. The marketing goes down well in the US and Asia but as a country it’s given us a bad reputation amongst real watch enthusiasts.

Scotland has an unparalleled reputation for engineering and luxury, so it was a challenge we couldn’t resist. Over the next couple of years following the show we worked on it in our spare time until launching a year ago.

A ‘Swiss made’ watch is more often than not made up of imported components which are assembled in Switzerland. That’s the model we’ve adopted to get going, but already we’ve got over half of the cost materials made in the UK. We’ve hired a GSA jewellery graduate who’ll start working on dial manufacturing in-house and we’re working with some local engineering companies too on that front.

• What is your background?

I’m a Fashion graduate from the ECA, my sister Charlotte studied Drawing and Painting there and other members of the team have backgrounds in graphics and architecture.

• What is your top tip?

To quote Oscar Wilde, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”. It’s difficult in our industry; people have been designing watches for centuries, but having a unique style is the key to long term success.

• How long has your business been running?

We launched a little over a year ago.

• Has anyone helped you get started and how?

Charlotte’s parter Lewis Heath has been the biggest help, his company RHA (Glasgow based headphone company) has trodden a similar path already.

• Where do you plan your business to be in five years time?

Our aim is to bring as

much manufacturing in-house, or into the UK as possible.

• Useful contacts

• The Cultural Enterprise Office are great for creatives wanting to get started in

business.

• Contact Details

www.PaulinWatches.com