Agado watches is the new kid on the block, so to speak, in the space of analogue watches. Launched last May, smack in the middle of the pandemic, it has been gaining traction even in a market that has been slow. Brainchild of Dubai-based Canadian Milvin George, it is positioning itself as the lifestyle ‘traditional’ watch for millennials and Gen Z for the moment, although speaking with t2oS from Dubai, he said that many more types of watches would be included in the lines in future and for him it’s ‘never say never’. For the moment, however, he is focusing on getting things right for his primary customer and adding variety within the current line. He shared his vision for the brand with The Telegraph. Excerpts.

On why Lagado is a watch brand and nota fashion brand

Today, if you go to shops you will see brands such as Omega, Tag, Rolex, Panerai, and then you will see brands like Tissot, Calvin Klein, and also lots of fashion brands. So what I wanted to do is create a brand that is not a fashion brand. I can give you an example. Lagado watches is made out of the 316L stainless steel, we use sapphire crystal, we have two lines of watches in which we use bevelled sapphire crystal and domed sapphire crystal, these are all pricey components.

The stainless steel is the same as used in a Cartier, Panerai and other brands. I make sure that I have Italian leather, and the movement is Japanese. We have a chronograph movement and a typical movement with the hour, minute and a small seconds, we use Miyota movements.

On watchmaking for Millennials

We hired an international marketing consultant, she is specialised in millennials, she is a trend forecaster focusing on millennials globally. So she worked with us for six months to understand millennials, how they live, how they spend their time, weekdays, weekends, we looked at certain areas, the kind of food they like, the kind of sports. So we had a full research and we tried to understand what is their idea of a watch brand. And then we conceptualised Lagado watches.

Then we worked with our manufacturer to create the watch brand that is suitable for the multi-hyphenate customer with a multi-hyphenated lifestyle.

The Tempo collection consists only of two lines of quartz watches with diameters of 41.5mm and 33mm. While the first is a unisex size, women who find it too big can opt for the smaller version of the same design Sourced by the correspondent

What Millennials want

We understood is what this customer wants in a watch is style with design and quality, and the most important thing for them is a reliable movement. We did choose a Japanese movement but it does not mean that we will stick with it. We will use it but we are working on a project now to launch a GMT watch this year and the most suitable movement for that watch is the Ronda movement. So we’ll launch Swiss.

Our designer designs everything with the understanding that we want the flair and influence of Italian design. And we did understand that to be global and have that embedded in the brand DNA we would have to go digital first. So we did launch the brand last year in May, not the best time to do so, but we had been working on it for almost the previous 24 months and it just coincided with the corona when we were ready to go. Luckily, with corona, people are more conscious about their spending — you want real quality, you want value for your money. And that’s the philosophy of the brand. When I started out, my idea was to create a really nice watch brand that can stand out within the price range of $300 to $500.

On the name and the logo

If you see the logo of the brand, it is Lagado. My wife was the inspiration for that name. She grew up in Venezuela and she speaks Spanish, and she told me ‘What about Legado?’, which is Spanish for legacy. So we changed the ‘e’ to ‘a’ and it became Lagado.

The logo is like different triangles coming together, which shows that we are here to source the best material, technology, knowhow, expertise, from all over the world to really serve our customers.

It’s the millennials who are driving e-commerce today but we are also keeping a very close eye on Gen Z, or what we call them today, the Zoomers. This is the age of my daughter, she is 18. So these people are already consuming online. Even if they don’t buy online, they research online and compare the pricing before they buy. So we are also keeping a close eye on our Gen Z.

On making Lagado watches available

In terms of distribution we are almost done finalising a deal with a retailer in the US, a retailer in Dubai and a potential partner in India. It will be on a pan-India level. We are in advanced talks with TataCliq for online. In Dubai we are with Ounass, which is a major luxury online platform. So we are building a very solid platform of e-retailers.

On building in versatility

Our target audience wants a versatile watch. You can change the strap yourself, you can have a leather strap, you can put on a rubber strap if you are going to the gym. So, again, there’s versatility because you have a versatile lifestyle, you are doing many things, you’re always on the go, and you can change your colour whenever you want. So we want to be that brand for you.

On developing new product lines

So when we started we did with two lines and 27 models, which we will build up to 50 to 60 models through line extensions or adding new lines. So that’s the whole idea.

The Evolve line collection has chronographs at the moment but will have a GMT series of watches added to the collection later this year Sourced by the correspondent

On current watches

There is the Evolve line, which is 44mm. The Tempo line — tempo means time in Italian — has 41.5mm and 33mm. The 41.5mm is usually bigger than the typical Nordic watch you see in the market, but it is a unisex size where a man and a woman can both wear it. But if the woman is not comfortable with it she can wear the same model in 33mm. The dials might look a little minimalistic because as a new brand you need to find your ground, find what people are looking for, we do social listening also. The watches are made in Hong Kong, the design is Italian, and an in-house team conceptualises it in Hong Kong.

On buyer response

The US has been a good market for us. We’ve been doing quite well in the UK. Also we have good responses from Turkey and Saudi Arabia. We are looking at selling 10,000-15,000 watches in Year One.

On upcoming products

In the Evolve line we are coming up with the Evolve GMT (It gives two time readouts, usually a 12-hour one for local time and a 24-hour one for either GMT/UTC or home time). Currently, this line is only with leather straps. We will launch a new bracelet too for it. In the Tempo line we are looking at watches with different dials, mother of pearl, etc., and also considering watches with stones.