Anoma finally delivers its first model, the A1, with surprising results
Andrew McUtchenIt is one thing to exceed expectations when you open pre-orders for your first watch. It is another thing entirely to exceed expectations when those watches arrive in the metal in your trusting first customers’ hands. It is another thing again to have your first model ever arriving in the hands of some of the most wizened and prestigious watch collectors in the world. All three challenges have now been overcome by Matteo Violet-Vianello, founder of Anoma, who sat down with me in a candid moment in the White Room of our new London Discovery Studio to reflect on his first weeks of feedback as the Anoma A1 reaches its highly discerning first cohort of customers, among which there are many famous collectors I can name (including Roni Madhvani) and many others that I can’t…
What’s the experience like of delivering? And what surprised you about it?
The experience of delivering is very stressful. You’re so wired when it’s your first product to basically be like, “it’s a pre-order, people always expect for there to be delays, for there to be issues, for things not to live up to expectations…” Especially for something like this that’s got so much positive attention, so much positive press, and so you’re so keen to overdeliver on any and all expectations.
For all the watches, I hadn’t shared the box and papers – that was something I kept a little bit secret – but the whole box, this solid walnut, almost vessel-shaped box in layers and layers of cardboard paper that I hand-selected for certain colour… There’s all these little Easter eggs I’d hidden in the process. So it’s stressful, and I think I was so focused on that and not fucking it up that I forgot that after that, once you’ve delivered them, [you’ll see] people’s reaction to it. And getting those positive messages? That’s awesome; that’s the end goal; that’s a reminder about why you do this. It’s for the pictures that people send you of the watch on their wrist.
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Like, Alex Ghotbi [Collector, Head of Europe and Middle East at Phillips Watches] and his son both bought one, and they sent me like, father and son wrist shots. One of my clients is in Hong Kong – he’s got this beautiful window overlooking the bay, and he’s got his Anoma A1, this incense holder from Aesop in the same shape, and the sun rising… That kind of stuff feels amazing.
What are the themes that you’re getting in the feedback about the A1 that are consistent?
I’ve put so much into it, and there are so many aspects of it that I’ve thought through a lot. Like the curvature of the bezel, the way the bezel and the mid-case connects, the way that the dial appears and disappears… All these little things where I wasn’t sure if people would pick them up, and I was surprised to what extent they did. I was surprised to what extent people were like, “I appreciate all the little thoughtful details.” Or, “I’m frankly shocked by the quality of how this all comes together.” I think it’s a good reminder that people are actually probably not as obsessed with the details of your product as you are, but they do notice them! And if they don’t notice them, the overall object and the energy that it has that has an impact. So I think that’s been cool.
There’s even been other things, like the weight of the watch. I got a long email from a guy who was like, “this is how it wears, it’s very heavy, and I could feel the weight, but it’s super compact, and I feel like I both wear it and I don’t wear it, it’s not worn like any other watch I’ve had…” These are all thoughts that I’ve had, but I’m wired differently, and it’s my baby, so it’s cool to see that people are as intense about it in their emotions. It’s very emotive.
A lot of the messages I get are people being like, “I’ve had it on the wrist, and it’s making me feel certain things…” It’s all very emotion-driven, very intimate… That feels awesome. People either see the stuff that you’re trying to do, or they have their own interpretation, and they live with it in a different way. But it’s a nice feeling. It’s just also a nice feeling to, of course, promise something and then deliver it on it.
Is there a part of you that worries about the sustainability of that level of detail as the business grows and scales? Because that’s what happens, right? The first one’s hand-delivered, and is all fussed over, and you know everyone by name… Is there a part of you that worries that that soulful connection gets lost as it scales?
Not really in the sense that I think it’s so tied to my approach, my obsession, and the way I want to do things. The goal is not to scale at all costs and compromise. I think the goal is really to keep this level of quality and to keep that obsession with detail. Because otherwise, what do you have, really, as a product? You have the shell of a thing that was formerly great, and a product like this, because it’s so simple, it’s so reductive, there’s not much there, it all comes as a part of the detail.
There’s a version of this watch that’s 70% there, that doesn’t work because it hasn’t fussed over all those little things. And I think it’s just who I am. But you look at the first series, which was 245 pieces. I delivered a handful of those to, like, Roni Madhvani and Richard Benc [founder of Studio Underd0g], but the vast majority was sent out to people. And it took me a day and a half to write 245 cards and verify all the certificates. I’m happy to do that, and I’m happy to do that as we keep going and as we scale.
Richard still does. 12,000 a year.
And that’s a perfect example. If you care, you care. That thing doesn’t really fade. I think if your motivations are too, you’re obsessed with those little things. Because even making, for example, my walnut boxes… To make 245 of those, I had to go to a supplier who’s never made watch boxes, because nowadays, finding actual suppliers who still make solid wood boxes is quite a rare thing. And I wanted this kind of shape, and there’s a lot of back and forth, and they were like, “we don’t think we can do at this scale”, but we did it, and I think we’ll be able to keep going.
I think if it’s in your DNA, that’s probably the kind of stuff you don’t compromise over. I think people like Richard are a good example: he has scaled, but that obsessiveness doesn’t fade, and that’s also what people are coming to you for. So it’s both your personality but at the same time, if you stop that [attention to detail], why? Why were you in business in the first place? What are you actually offering to people?
What do you perceive to be your biggest challenge right now?
The biggest challenge right now is the classic challenge of anyone who’s created anything that people like, which is “is it a one-hit wonder? Can you do more?” I think in my head, I have so many ideas of what Anoma is, what it can be… For me, it’s so much more than the object that’s in front of people. And so I think the biggest challenge is showing to people that we can do more than this and that it has legs. But it’s watchmaking. Things take time.
So I think that’s going to be the challenge, but that’s also what’s exciting, right? It’s like, if you built the brand on the idea that it’s creative and it’s about doing things differently and breaking the mould, then you’ve kind of set yourself up for this. I think that’s probably my biggest challenge, and that’s the thing I worry about the most.
It was an unprecedented amount of hype for a new brand with a single watch. It was pretty crazy.
And that was intentional. Coming out with a single watch in a single colourway, it’s also an exercise in discipline, if that makes sense. I’m not saying it’s an iconic watch, but I’m always conscious of the fact that icons never come in seven different colours as a baseline. They might evolve into that, but I think there’s something quite powerful to reducing and doing a little bit less.
Even as a design, it’s fairly reduced, it’s distinctive, but there’s not a huge amount there. But, yeah, that’s the flip side of all these things. It’s something I got a bit stressed about over the last six months because I was like, there’s all this good press and all this enthusiasm, and I was so conscious that I still hadn’t delivered a watch – and ultimately that’s the thing that matters most! The press is nice. It’s a nice boost. It’s really cool, actually, for a lot of people who ordered early on, I got a sense they liked that as part of the journey. They told me, “I’m so happy you’re getting all this positive attention.” And so I think it made the waiting a little bit easier for people. But ultimately, the only true test, the only one that really matters, that no one might see, but that really kind of like sets you up, is this stage that just went by with actually delivering them and meeting and exceeding expectations.
We found with our Studio Editions that the second wave of love is when they get delivered. Suddenly there’s a mega spike in social media, and people are sharing their experience… We fuss over our collaborations far beyond what is probably necessary because we are aware of how potentially uplifting or crushing that phase could be.
If this was wrong, everything fizzles out, right? Hopefully, it gets easier from here in some way (and it gets harder in other ways). I almost forgot that there’s a nice bit when people are happy, but I was so conscious that this is the place where most people fail. This is the biggest hurdle that you can’t fail at. I think most people who had worn the watch were like, “oh, you haven’t delivered watches yet? I thought you’d been around for six months?” But no, that’s when they’re first delivered! So it feels nice when you’re then able to [deliver] and that everyone is not only happy and excited, but feels like it’s even greater than they would have expected.
It must be a relief as well.
It’s a huge relief, because there’s moments where you live with something for so long, and you’re so close to it that you lose perspective. And there’s moments like… Even with the dial. All my dials are a search for subtlety, right? I take things and I try to hide them… They’re hard to understand. And some people don’t like that. Some people say, for example, “I wish it was more obviously two-tone“… You second-guess yourself! I was looking at the dial of the first series, and the evolutions now, and I’m like, “is it too subtle? Am I just over-complicating my life for nothing?” And people receive it, and that’s what they like. So that’s a great reassurance. When you spend too much time on your own and too much time close to this stuff, you can completely lose perspective. So it’s a nice reminder of like, “no, no, your instincts in the first place were the right instincts – stick by those.”