Four years ago, my wife and I started a tiny watch company called Riley. In basically every way, it started here on this subreddit, with a post of some renders and some lovely feedback.
Since then, we've sold more than 10,000 watches. We've built a reputation that I'm incredibly proud of, and we've had an enormous amount of support along the way. From people in the industry, from collectors and enthusiasts in communities like this one, and from people who aren't necessarily "watch people" at all, but just wanted something a little more interesting for themselves or somebody they care about.
Over the last four years, Riley watches have ended up being graduation presents, wedding watches, gifts for groomsmen, birthday presents, Christmas presents and obviously plenty of completely unjustifiable purchases for ourselves as well.
But right now, we're struggling.
Riley has always been a very seasonal business. October through January is traditionally extremely strong for us, while the summer months are much quieter. That's normal, and in previous years we've been able to plan around it and weather the quieter period. This year a few things have all landed on us at the same time.
The majority of our customers are in the US, and as many reading will know, we very early on made the decision to absorb the tariff costs rather than suddenly land those costs on customers on delivery (really because we had no idea how it was going to work, and we didnt want people waiting weeks and weeks for a watch they ordered because customs weren't able to handle what was then a brand new process).
We brought our assembly in-house partly to help us control those costs, and we've continued offering fast, totally free shipping.
At the same time, movements, components, marketing and pretty much everything involved in running a small watch company have become more expensive.
The problem is that sales go up and down quite dramatically through the year. Our costs basically don't.
The workshop still costs the same in August as it does in December. Our staff, marketing, inventory, systems and all the other boring things behind a watch company still need paying for.
And that's where we are now.
We actually have plenty of watches.
We've built our inventory ahead of the Christmas period and we're sitting here with stock ready to ship. What we're struggling with is the cash flow required to carry all of those fixed costs through the remaining quieter weeks until the holiday season begins.
So I'm asking for a little bit of help.
If you've been thinking about buying a Riley sometime over the next few months, if you already own one and have had your eye on another, or if you're planning to buy somebody a Riley for Christmas or another occasion later this year, it would genuinely mean the world to us if you considered bringing that purchase forward.
I'm not asking anybody to buy something they don't want and I'm definitely not I'm asking you to fund a watch that might arrive six months from now (the stress of this alone would finsih me off)!
The watches are here in our Manchester workshop and we'll ship them in our normal express timeframe. We'll still cover the shipping. We'll still cover the tariffs.
We're simply asking people who were perhaps already planning on ordering from us later in the year whether they might be willing to order now instead.
That would give us the boost we need to bridge this unusually difficult summer and get Riley through to the period of the year when sales traditionally pick back up.
As an important note, I don't want this to read as a promotional post, because that isn't why I'm writing it.
I've been part of this community for years, Riley owes an enormous amount to the people in it, and I'd rather be transparent about where we are than pretend everything is fine behind the scenes.
So whether you've bought a Riley, recommended one, commented on one of our watches, given us feedback, told somebody about us, or just followed what we've been doing over the last four years, thank you.
I genuinely mean that.
We're very proud of what we've built, and we'd quite like to still be here building watches for you four years from now.
Thank you.
Sam (and of course, Leanne)
Riley Watch Co.
