Got a big job interview? Meet the brand loaning people free watches to help them to seal the deal

Luke Benedictus

It started, like so many admirable ideas, in a pub garden over a few pints on a sunny day. Nicholas Bowman-Scargill, the Managing Director of the British watch brand Fears, found himself chatting about the effects of COVID on unemployment and how there were suddenly a growing number of people looking for work.

“I started to think about how, if I had to go to a job interview tomorrow, well, I’m lucky in that I’ve already got a nice suit, nice shoes and a nice watch – the traditional things that you wear to a job interview that people notice,” he explains. “But what if someone didn’t have all those things…”

That was the light-bulb moment for Nicholas. Fears, he reasoned, could start lending people watches to wear to their job interviews. All the person would have to do is to get in touch with the company and share the date of their job interview, their name and address and whether they required a standard or shorter strap size. After that, the brand would take care of the rest, nobly covering the price of the insured postage back and forth, as well as the free loan of the watch. What they discovered was an instant demand for the service.

“Just 45 minutes after we launched the initiative, the first person emailed, requesting a watch for an apprentice interview,” Nicholas recounts.

The idea that wearing a watch can have a subliminally positive effect in a professional scenario is backed by hard-headed research. A 2015 study from Lancaster University found that observers routinely assume that watch wearers are more conscientious that those, shifty, bare-wristed types. The study also found that people who wore a watch tended to be more punctual, arriving at their appointment earlier those who didn’t wear a watch.

“Wearing a watch shows that someone is taking that little bit of extra care,” says Nicholas when told about the study. “From that, I would infer that they’d take extra care in whatever work they’re doing, whether stacking shelves or going through a legal document. Wearing a watch does convey that.”

The watch that Fears offers on loan is the Redcliff, a piece named after the Bristol street where the brand was founded way back in 1846. It’s a white-dialled dress watch that’s understated but purposeful. Perched on a goat leather strap, it sits neatly on the wrist in a slim 38mm round case, the date window it’s only real flourish. “For an interview that’s the perfect watch,” Nicholas says. “You don’t want some big, chunky watch that’ll get caught up on your cuff and look like you’re trying to flash it about. You want a watch that, when you move your hand, just a little bit of it peeks out of the cuff.”

So has borrowing the watch helped any prospective candidates to seal their dream job? The truth is we don’t actually know, because Nicholas is too English and discreet to pry. “Certainly, people have come back and said, they felt really good in the interview,” he concedes. “Wearing the watch helped them feel put together.”

If you’re a UK resident who wants to take advantage of Fear’s free watch hire click here