Vario is a brand that I really like for several years. I’ve already talked about some of their pieces here and today I’m giving the floor to the founder of the brand.
Ivan is one of the nicest guys in this industry. Beyond his sympathy, he is also a great designer.
I’ll let you discover more about him and his brand in this interview.
Could you tell us a bit about you and about your story with watches?
My name is Ivan from Singapore and as a young boy, I remember my dad would buy me a watch every year at City Chain but ever since I got my mobile phone, I’ve stopped wearing watches for 20 years until I’ve got phone fatigue and decided to go back to my teenage watches which began my watch collecting journey.
When the idea to create a new brand came to you? and when do you start working on the creation and on the launch of it?
I wanted to wear my teenage watches and after replacing the batteries, they were working but the straps had disintegrated and being a designer, I challenged myself to make some graphic strap designs, put it on Indiegogo as Kickstarter wasn’t available in Singapore at that time and it was successful!
Customers started to send me their pairing and I started to get hooked on watches and I quickly gravitated towards the vintage rabbit hole as I love discovering the many beautiful designs of different era and hence the watches I make are mostly vintage inspired.
Could you tell us from where comes the name of your brand?
I wanted to help individuals to vary their dress sense through watches. I could be wearing a Pilot watch today, Dive watch tomorrow and dress watch the next day to express my personality. I also needed a catchy name like Oreo. Vary+Oreo=Vario. A few years later a Spanish customer mentioned Vario means various in their language so I guess I was lucky.
What’s the most important thing in the process of creating your timepieces?
I have a lot of ideas in my head and there’s so many watches I want to design and work on but I let the ideas fight it out inside my head and I’ll work on the idea that I feel most strongly about.
What steps do you go through to develop and produce them?
I research on the genre, finding watches that I like and try to capture the essence of that genre and infuse my own thoughts into the watch. Express my thoughts to the factory and work with their illustrators to work on a design until I am satisfied with it before we produce samples and fix any issues I have with the prototype before we produce them en mass.
From where comes your inspiration concerning the design of your pieces?
Most of my design are vintage inspired and I would like to bring back some of these styles to the attention of watch enthusiasts who are tired of the same overdone designs.
Do you have an anecdote about the design and creation phase of your timepieces?
When I look at a vintage watch, I try to imagine what life was like for the original owner of the watch and its stories. With the watches I design, I hope the customer can feel like he is in that particular era eg. My Empire watch is based on the Art Deco period and my Eclipse was based in the 60s Bauhaus period. With the military watches, they’re named according to the end of the wars to spread the message of peace.
From your perception, what makes your watches so special?
I don’t think my watches itself is all that special as they’re inspired by the classics and I’ve merely updated the look and size so that its suitable for the modern wrist however as a brand, hopefully with time, enthusiasts can see that Vario is not bounded by any genre and will continue to make different types of watches for watch enthusiasts to express their personality.
Could you tell us how your collection is composed and what is the price of your watches?
I’ve a few collections in the following order. Bauhaus inspired Eclipse, Art Deco inspired Empire, WW1 inspired 1918 Trench, Nautical inspired NAVI, Streamline Moderne inspired VERSA and WW2 inspired 1945 Field. I always believe a product don’t have to be expensive to be well designed and well made. Most of my watches are in the sub $300 to sub $500 range. My Empire True GMT is currently my most expensive watch at $700.
Do you have an idea of how many watches do you already have delivered?
I’ve never tabulated how many watches Vario have delivered to be honest but I do hope to attract more watch enthusiasts so that I can keep on designing new watches and accessories for enthusiasts.
Do you have an idea of what is your flagship collection?
1918 Trench is my most popular collection and we’ve expanded the collection to include Medic, Pilot and I will continue to expand on the collection over time.
Do you have a favorite piece in your collection?
I love to rotate my watches too often to have a favorite but my VERSA quartz do take up a lot of wrist time as it’s a great grab and go watch for me and it seems like I’m always in a rush.
Social networks are really important for microbrands like Vario. Could you let us know how and why do you use them? and what’s your strategy to stand out from other brands in your price range?
I haven’t really spent enough effort on social networks or the promotion of my watches. Judy and I have been handling the daily tasks for the longest time and as the sales volume grows, we’ve started to hire 2 packers to help Judy with fulfillment. Hopefully I will be able to pass on the customer service to someone capable so that I can spend more time on brand communications and marketing.
Let’s talk about distribution. Obviously, you use the direct sales strategy which is better for a young brand like yours. Could you explain us your distribution strategy?
Vario is not geared towards traditional distribution strategy. We’ve priced our watches based on what we think is sustainable via direct selling and since we’re doing most of the work ourselves and have little overheads, it works out fine for us but if we were to hire more people to work with us and if we want to find more distribution partners, we have to raise our prices and/or sell a lot more watches to make sure everyone is properly compensated. However, I don’t have plans to hire a big team. I would love to stay small and be able to take risks and not worry so much if a watch sells or not like big companies do.
What is your first market? Will you try to develop other markets in the future?
US is our best market and it’s always easier to put more efforts in the best market but I prefer to take the harder route to grow different markets. I’ve been attending shows in different countries and it is interesting for me to understand a bit more about what different market likes.
Do you plan to participate in watchmaking events in the coming months?
I try to exhibit in 4-6 countries per year and try to make an effort to find new shows to go to so that I can reach enthusiasts from different countries or cities. If anyone knows of any watch show that I should attend or exhibit at, do let me know.
Now and more generally, what are your plans for the future?
Vario is coming to its 10th year in business and I think it’s time to shift gear and we’re ready to build a small team to serve customers better and reach more watch lovers. The mission will still be the same- to help individuals wear their personality through watches. Perhaps what I hope for my work is to try to continue to push the envelope and bring something new to the table even if they are small steps.
What aspects of your brand you think people should know more about?
I just hope more enthusiasts would have heard of Vario in general. I feel encouraged when watch enthusiasts drop by my booth and mentioned I make interesting watches. I do love to make conversational pieces that can help the wearer strike a conversation with others.
OK, now something more personal. For you, what’s the most important thing to find in a watch?
I’m a visual person so the most important thing to find in a watch is its looks. Movement doesn’t bother me much as long as it’s durable and parts are relatively easy to find to service or replace.
To finish, are you also a watch collector? If yes, what kind of watches do you collect?
My collection consists of mainly vintage watches with some microbrands in the mix and whenever I buy a new watch, I tell myself it’s for research purpose. Good excuse, eh?
Hope you guys have enjoyed this interview. You can follow Vario on the social networks :
Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / YouTube
If you’re interested to buy one of them, or if you want to know more about the brand, just click HERE.
More about Vario just HERE.
Jonathan Kopp
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