Interview with Eric Genazia & Jeremy Wells, Co-founders of Vierra Watches

How did you get started with Vierra Watches?

We first met in college, as members of the same fraternity and instantly bonded. Several years after graduation we both recognized each other’s desire to get out of corporate America and head down the path of self-employment. Eric has been a watch collector since a very young age, starting with collecting them through happy meals. Jeremy was a casual watch owner, but has since turned into an enthusiast. We first began meeting in a town named Vienna to go over ideas and watches just made perfect sense for us, why not build a business around something you love.

Where do you get the idea to create this brand. What inspires you when it comes to design?

The idea for the name was to acknowledge where it all started. We wanted to give it that garage band feel. (where a band will name their group after the street they first practiced on, etc). The inspiration for the design comes from the gap we identified in the well-established watch market. We’ve found that many of the watches on the market can be identified with two groups, stylish (or dressy) and durable. We set out to bridge the gap between the two. Our minimalist designed watches are versatile for you to wear from the boardroom to the beach. With 100M water resistance & a sapphire crystal display, they’re durable enough to take in the ocean and not have to worry about getting damaged. We want our customers to be able to strap on their Vierra in the morning and to have full confidence that their watch will stand up to whatever the day brings.

Our motto that really encouraged us to start the business and also spilled over into our marketing is “time’s ticking. do what excites you”. We want to inspire people to do the stuff that excites them. It’s easy to get caught up in the monotony of responsibilities. Sometimes, you just need the reminder to live life and get that adrenaline rush. That’s why we wanted our watches to be stylish and durable, so it can be your one watch for everything.

Let’s talk about your various markets. Which countries and/or cities do you think will be your biggest market for this launch

We’ve been doing a lot of local marketing here in the Northern VA area. We’ve talked to quite a few people that really enjoy supporting local businesses, so that has been huge for us. Also, a majority of our friend base is here too. So far we’ve seen customers from all over the US and we also got featured in an Indiegogo newsletter, which brought tons of international orders. To date about 25% of our contributions have come from about 25 different foreign countries.

Do you plan to create more watches in the future, or will this be more of a one-time, one-design idea?

Absolutely, our goal is grow this into a company that offers a full range of men’s & women’s watches. We decided to launch with these six men’s watches as a proof of concept and will look to add new designs later in 2016.

Is there anything you’d like to highlight to the Gracious Watch readers related to your current model?

Couple of highlights:

100M water resistance is safe for swimming & surfing (most watches in the same price range offer 30M – can’t shower with those)
We upgraded our watch to sapphire crystal to make it even tougher and more scratch resistant (most watches in the same prices range offer mineral crystal, which scratches easily)
We offer an unbeatable lifetime warranty that not only covers manufacturer’s defects, but also accidental damage. We’re not in the business of selling a watch to be worn for a year or two, we want customers to be satisfied for life.
All this wrapped up with an affordable price tag (retail $125)

Where will the watches be available after the launch?

We will sell the watches through our website (see link below) and will ship worldwide. Shortly after the Indiegogo campaign is over, we’re going to start approaching online retailers and brick & mortar stores to carry our watches. We’ve actually already received interest from several online retailers.

What are your goals for Vierra Watches in the next 5 years?

It’s pretty simple, to just keeping growing and moving forward. That entails establishing Vierra in the watch industry as a trusted company that offers customers quality products that last. We want to increase our watch offering and have our watches be sold in stores all throughout the world. We’d like Vierra to grow big enough to have it fully support us and to the point where we can add a full team.

What do you personally look for in a timepiece?

What we touched on above, a sleek design that gives the watch versatility to be worn in formal and non-formal situations. Also, a watch that can withstand the elements so you don’t have to baby it.

Is there anything else you’d like to add to this interview?

First off, we really appreciate you taking the time to cover our story and hope that our story adds value to your site and readers. If this is posted in time, we’ll actually be running a cyber Monday deal, starting Monday morning. We’ll be offering the watch a pretty heavy discount and we’ll have limited spots available. Also, for your reader’s knowledge, our Indiegogo campaign ends on December 17^th.