Today I am talking to Jonny Garrett, founder of William Wood watches. William Wood is, in Jonny’s words, a luxury firefighter watch brand. The brand produces watches that are dedicated to Garrett’s late grandfather William Wood, who served in the British Fire Service for 25 years. All of the watches are made from genuine upcycled firefighting materials and the brand gives a percentage of all sales back to international firefighting charities. Garrett takes upcycling very seriously, including taking 100-year-old British brass firefighters’ helmets, worn by firefighters in the 1920s, melting them down in Hatton Garden in London and pouring the residual brass into a mold that forms the inside of every single one of their watches. Additionally, every one of the brand’s straps are made from genuine upcycled fire hoses in the different colors used by fire departments all around the world.

Ross Povey: What is your first watch-related memory in life?
Jonny Garrett: My first memory of watches is my old Casio watch. I’ve always loved going to the gym and I remember every few years, I would pick up the exact same black Casio watch, normally from Argos, for less than £10! Whether at the gym, on the running track or doing any kind of outdoor sports, I would wear and hammer my Casio.

RP: So, was the setting up of a watch brand always your plan? Did it happen by accident or was it just ‘meant to be’?
JG: I’ve always known that one day I would run a business, and more importantly, do it for the rest of my life. No exit plan — just run it just like a family business. I have always wanted to try and grow the business as far as I possibly can without investors or debt, and just reinvesting profits on a long-term, sustainable basis. I want to be making decisions today that will impact the business not just for the next year or 18 months, but for the next 10, 20 and 50 years. I want William Wood to be a real legacy.

RP: Tell me about the early days of running the brand.
JG: Looking back, the early years were some of the most fun and exciting. When you’re in that moment, however, it really doesn’t feel that way because you’re just trying to make ends meet and hustle as much as possible. The early years for me were working out what our first collection was going to be, finding a designer, building our website and growing our social media presence. It was also important that I refined the story about how my grandfather’s legacy would resonate in a watch brand and how we could recognize not just my grandfather, but also firefighters and first responders internationally. That’s when I knew that one of our core values was going to be ‘giving back’. A huge part of what we do is donating to charity and we’ve donated over £88,000 to international firefighting charities in the last five-and-a-half years. Finally, design; we want to make sure that our designs are completely unique with a focus on upcycling, which you’ll see in every single one of our collections.

RP: What was the biggest challenge you faced when setting the brand up?
JG: I thought it was going to be very difficult to build a watch brand without capital. There were numerous times prior to setting it up when I thought, “I would love to own a brand that involves luxury craftsmanship.” I’ve always had a passion for the craftsmanship that goes into a product that could be built up over a period of months, with all of the components involved and all of the suppliers, to create an incredible work of art. The hardest thing, however, for me initially was just working out where to begin! I had previously worked in a bank and have a very structured way of working, which helped in the initial stages, in planning and executing how to start from an idea, launch the brand and unveil our first collection. We began on Kickstarter with our first two collections being crowdfunded. We managed to raise our funds within less than seven days on the first project, and within less than a few hours on the second project. The collections since have been produced using our own capital, like a proper watch business does!

RP: What has been the biggest lesson that you’ve learnt?
JG: I think the biggest lesson, and one I’m still learning today, is that marketing is everything. You can have the most incredible product in the world, you can have the most amazing story in the world and you can push upcycling further than anybody has done before. You can also be the only brand in the world producing luxury watches for firefighters… Yet, if you don’t get the right marketing, you don’t get the right support from the press, and you don’t get your social media plan correct, no one’s going to know about you! I believe that there are so many founders out there who will produce something brilliant and focus just on the product, but then forget that nobody is going hear about it if you don’t actually get out there and talk about it.

RP: What has been your biggest achievement?
JG: Maybe our biggest achievement was in June of this year, when we finally got approval to produce a watch for the biggest fire service in the world: the New York Fire Department (FDNY). My fiancée and I flew out to New York and we put the first New York Fire Department Bravest Watch built by William Wood watches into the FDNY store in the Rockefeller Center in New York. Those watches are still available there and that was a really proud moment. To think that my grandfather retired in 1982, and now all these years later, his name is on the dial of a watch that resonates with so many people around the world and represents firefighters in one of the most iconic buildings in New York.

RP: Who inspires you?
JG: The person who continues to inspire me and initially inspired me to produce the brand, is my grandfather. He was the most charismatic man that I’d ever come across and was the biggest role model who’d ever touched my life. I’ve been very lucky as he was the only person in my immediate family whom I have lost. He passed away in 2009 from a lung disease called pulmonary fibrosis. My Gran, Joyce, is still alive and it’s really beautiful to see her wearing the watches and seeing her husband’s name on the dials. I always knew that if I succeeded in founding a business, as well as running it for the rest of my life, I would dedicate it to something or someone who inspired my life. I’m so passionate about who he was and what firefighters stand for, and how they give back so selflessly.

RP: What is your view of the current watch market?
JG: The luxury watch market is a funny old beast at the moment. At one end of the spectrum there is Rolex, where some customers are seeking appreciation value and purchasing pieces purely from an investment standpoint. This is a real challenge, because it’s pushing out the passionate purchaser who has saved up all their money to purchase a luxury watch, to recognize a promotion, a wedding anniversary, engagement or a birthday. What they’re finding, though, is 18- to 24-month waiting lists. As a result, we’re certainly experiencing consumers asking us the question as to what the future value of our watches are and what the secondhand market is like. “Are these going to be a good investment in the future?” or “Should I look to get in early on your limited-edition collections?” are very common queries now. I’m also seeing a real rise of the independent brands, not just in the watch space but in general, where customers would like to support an independent business potentially over one of the larger global conglomerates.

Is British watchmaking important on the global stage?
JG:British watchmaking is very important on a global stage, and I think that people often overlook the prestige of British watchmaking, and also the prestige of being British — that quintessential British label that people know and appreciate all around the world. I know it sounds quite cliché, but often when people think about the UK, they conjure up images of chivalry, James Bond, luxury and class. People really do buy into that and I think it’s cool that through British watch brands and British luxury, we have the ability to carry that torch. I believe we have a responsibility to do that. Interestingly, our second-largest market, which we expect soon to be our biggest, is the USA. A big reason for that is because they appreciate the quintessential British heritage that we bring and they appreciate our story; it resonates right across the pond. I think there’s a real camaraderie in the UK too. I don’t feel a sense of competition in the British watchmaking space, but feel like we’re all on this journey together. I’m actually really pleased when I see other British watchmakers getting a big piece of publicity, because it raises us all together and that’s what I find really cool!