Businessweek
How Two Friends Built a Hot Swiss Watch Brand in Just Five Years
Norqain’s founders leaned on family connections—and cash—to quickly build a popular brand.
Norqain Wild One Hakuna Mipaka watch.
Source: Norqain
When Ben Küffer started Norqain SA in 2018, he knew it wouldn’t be an easy sell. “We did it when nobody wanted another watch brand,” says the 35-year-old chief executive officer. His family is Norqain’s majority shareholder.
At the time, the industry was just recovering from a multiyear decline. In 2017 the chairman of watchmaking giant Richemont, Johann Rupert, lamented that retailers were being “force-fed” timepieces wholesale “like geese producing foie gras” and that stores were choking on the volume.