Written by Craig Landale in Brands on the 20th April 2020

When you think of Swiss watches you will immediately think of a luxury price tag. But what if you could get the same high-quality components and features at a radically lower price? The answer lies within working against the way things are done. Usually a watchmaker will design, manufacture and release watches they think you will like. But a brand turning that on its head goes by the name of CODE41, a disruptive watchmaker who uses their community at every stage of design, taking pre-orders before manufacturing and providing transparent reports on how successful each release has been afterwards. By taking out unnecessary costs and selling direct to consumer, they’re able to reduce costs to a superb price point, so much so, for the first time in my life I can afford a Swiss watch.

CODE41 was created by a Swiss watch design workshop founded by Claudio D’Amore. In a little over 12 years, the workshop had the honour of working with around forty watchmaking brands including Tag Heuer, Parmigiani, Montblanc, Oris, Eberhard and Hautlence. In 2016 there were 889 people known as ‘founding members’ who joined the adventure by financing the project through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. This was the beginning of what first started changing the rules of the game. This new formula is put into practice by simply sharing each stage of development with the customer – which includes production, strategy, costs, and logistics. As a member you can be right there with them in the depths of the brand, voting and giving your opinion along the way. They’re also transparent on their business operation, with the 2019 in review providing details such as staff head count, number of watches sold, revenue and growth, community members and web visitors among other key stats.

What truly makes CODE41 different from others is that they share everything. The origin and costs of parts, development and strategy, as well as the ups and downs of a start-up. They address sensitive subjects like overseas production, inflated prices and the grey market, and distribution networks. New watch design ideas are submitted to the vote of their 300,000 strong community of more than 300 000 members. The profits generated are then used to finance the next production run. This allows them to ensure healthy, balanced growth in their mission to halve the retail price by cutting out all the middlemen. To see the high-quality components being assembled, the below video is a satisfying treat to your senses.

Men’s Watches 

Anomaly-01: The Anomaly-01 combines a spectacular mechanism with an affordable price thanks to a high-quality standard movement and a machined dial that appears to be an integral part of the mechanism. With features such as sapphire glass and automatic Miyota movement, the price tag of £678 is a brilliant price for the consumer.

Anolmaly-02: The Anomaly-02 brilliantly combines the character and technicality of the case with an understated and elegant dial driven by the famous Swiss ETA 2824 automatic movement. This one includes a mechanical automatic movement and Sapphire glass, retailing for superb price of £798.

X41: This is the flagship CODE41 watch and after community voting on a steel or titanium case, with or without date view, and automatic or manual winding, the X41 is currently being made and delivered to those who pre-ordered one for £5390 last year.

Brand Ambassador Nigel Bailly 

Nigel Bailly is CODE41’s first brand ambassador and he is one of those people who keeps moving forwards and not allowing personal tragic circumstances stop him from doing what he loves. Clearly in his line of work he is driven by adrenaline. He was overwhelmed by the excitement and started his journey in motor sport from the young age of just 6. At the age of 14 he took a fall while competing and suffered a spinal cord injury which left him permanently without the use of his legs. But it would take more than this to discourage him; there was no question of giving up on his passion for motor sport.

We take a look at the Anomaly-01, Anomaly-02, and X41 timepiece by Swiss Watchmaker CODE41 who makes High-Quality Automatic Watches.