INTRODUCTION The Moodie Report brings you the latest in our ‘Ten easy pieces’ series, in which we get to know some of the personalities of travel retail through ten questions.
In this edition we meet Filip Tysander, Founder of Swedish watch brand Daniel Wellington. Since its founding in 2011 the brand has sold four million items at price points between €99 and the upper range of €250. Tysander is a well-known figure in the watch industry and has a big following among consumers through Daniel Wellington’s lively social media presence. The brand has an impressive 1.8 million followers on Instagram, more than 370,000 likes on Facebook, and thousands of followers on Twitter and Snapchat.
1. Tell us about Fillip Tysander. Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Sweden in 1985 and raised just north of Stockholm in a city called Uppsala. I have a background in marketing and have always been interested in business.
2. How did you get involved in the business world and in retailing?
I have been involved in the fashion industry for about nine years, and I started my first business in 2007 together with my brother Kristian. It was a web shop focusing on affordable, yet stylish bow ties and fashion accessories that were popular at that time in Sweden.
3. Your brand is based in Sweden and yet named after an Englishman. Why?
While travelling in Australia back in 2006, I met an intriguing gentleman from the British Isles, Mr Daniel Wellington. He had an impeccable sense of style and wore his vintage watches on weathered NATO straps. Inspired by his style, class and look, I decided to design my own line of watches, but with a slightly thinner case to go with the colourful NATO straps. It felt very natural to name my line of watches after him.
4. What prompted your interest in watches?
To be honest, I had no great interest in watches before Daniel Wellington. I had a small watch company before DW, which was inspired by the plastic trend a few years back.
Eventually the trend faded and I started to look for new business opportunities. I thought there was something missing in watch design, when it comes to a watch that was slim, thin and minimalistic. I couldn’t find what I was looking for in terms of style and a financial standpoint. The ones I had in mind were usually very expensive.
Then I remembered my meeting with Mr Daniel Wellington a few years back. Inspired by his sense of style and way of carrying his watches, I founded DW.
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Daniel Wellington watches are inspired by the style, class and look of an “intriguing” Englishman of the same name | |
5. How would you describe the Daniel Wellington style? Which section of the market have you focused on and why?
With an elegant and classic watch design, available at an attractive price point, I believe Daniel Wellington successfully has filled a niche in the market. Our ambition is to come up with affordable timepieces without too many features, suitable for every occasion. After a few years and over four million watches sold, this concept is still very much a part of what makes Daniel Wellington so special.
6. In a very short space of time Daniel Wellington has become an internationally known brand. How did you achieve that? How important is social media and how do you embrace it?
It has been, and still is, a priority for us to work with contemporary methods. Pushing through social media felt like a natural choice from the very beginning.
Social media plays an important role in our marketing, and it has also proven to be a great way to interact with the most important people: our customers and fans around the world. It is a true privilege and incredibly energising, and we appreciate every single question and comment.
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Filip Tysander describes his watches as “affordable timepieces without too many features, suitable for every occasion” | |
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7. Any advice for someone looking at starting their own business?
I quickly learned that if you want to be successful, you need to welcome challenges and learn by mistakes. Without the lessons I have learned along the way, I would not be where I am today with Daniel Wellington.
When setting up a new business, it is important to come up with something different in the market, something that will stand out and catch the customers’ attention. Put a lot of effort into building a business you are proud of. Stay true to your dream and figure out how to keep on going. Have fun and the success will follow.
8. You are a ‘hands on’ owner who spends time studying the latest ideas, designs and developments. Do you rely on your gut feeling or is consumer research core to the brand’s make-up?
It’s a mix of both: gut feeling infused with marketing research and feedback from our fans. Social media allows us to interact with people from all over the world, and we appreciate all feedback and points of view. We try to take every thought into consideration in our quest for perfection.
I am very fortunate to be surrounded by a team of talented and dedicated colleagues, and by utilising different competencies, experiences and knowledge, we will keep pushing Daniel Wellington forward.
9. What other watch brand has most interested or inspired you and why?
I am fascinated by Swiss watch manufacturer Patek Philippe. They have an eminent design and manage to balance simplicity with artistic details. It is also hard to talk about inspiration within the world of watches without mentioning Rolex.
10. Travel retail accounts for around 5% of your business; what are your plans for the channel? What is the outlook for Daniel Wellington in the future?
Our future looks extremely promising, and we are committed to growing and developing our travel retail business even further. It will play an important role in our future growth, and we are currently investing a lot in our organisation and in our teams around the world to better support this vision.
Our extraordinary journey over the last five years gives us the confidence that we can achieve the heights we believe are possible.
PREVIOUSLY FEATURED IN ‘TEN EASY PIECES’
(1) Meet ‘Mr Danzka’, Torben Andersen
(2) Meet Tumi’s Fernando Ciccarelli
