Skagen watches began with the story of two immigrants who came to New York from Denmark. This couple was here to begin marketing a brand of watches in order for the Danish company to expand worldwide. This brand was a nice watch to have and began the Skagen men’s watches line.
The immigrants found that there was a liking of the design as well as the European brand, but watches with just the logo of the company could not make the Americans buy the product. There had to be quality designs to go along with the brand name.
Because of this, the immigrants ordered four designs and over eight-hundred time pieces from the Danish company and branded them as Skagen. The order shortly sold out as did another order. This is when the new company took off.
After the success of the four designs, the immigrants in New York went to work on designing more than thirty models for the upcoming year. The strong passion these two individuals had, along with a perception of what they thought people wanted in a watch, made these new models begin to sell.
The watches were handcrafted and reliable with a Scandinavian flavor as well as being reasonably priced in order to satisfy the average person. An unexpected meeting with a local catalogue producer would put the Skagen line on the map. The catalogue placed one of the designs on the back of the publication.
From their New York apartment, the couple earned a staggering $800,000 from the catalogue advertising. Every bit of stock was sold and additional orders had to be filled. The catalog watch was a woman’s design that the immigrants from Denmark had developed themselves.
Bloomingdale’s decided to take a chance on Skagen, but only on a trial basis. The designs stocked by the store sold out within hours and the revolutionary Skagen line hit the worldwide market after this. The company soon became the new rising star and other publications named them as the local up and comers in the watch market.
An office was set up in Denmark and eighty stores grew from there. Then they turned their interest to the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. The company now has over 250 designs being sold throughout the world in more than 5,000 stores. The original investment of the immigrants has blossomed into a multi-million dollar company that continues to grow and be creative in their designs.
The little apartment where the first designs were launched from has turned into a 170 employees, all being involved in designing and developing new models. The passion of just two individuals has made it back to their home country of Denmark and now the rest of the world.
The first ideas that brought the Skagen ladies watch to be the nice ones to have are still being kept by the rest of the company. A mission statement from the Skagen company concentrates on a unique men’s watches at prices that can be afforded by everyone and used in almost every situation.
