This Young Swiss Brand Is Disrupting a Market Steeped in Tradition

CODE41’s X41 - Grade 5 titanium with a perforated strap

The watch industry is certainly navigating through interesting times. Brands old and new are exploring novel avenues to remain or become relevant, just look at recent attempts to promote watch NFTs or the recent growth of online sales channels for major brands. Whether you like it or not, the industry is changing, and some are moving a bit quicker than others.

CODE41 is a young Swiss brand whose origins date back to 2016. They are disrupting the flow of traditional watchmaking and innovating the luxury watch market, and here’s how.

The three main drivers of their success are total transparency, quality and fair prices, and a strong community of enthusiasts. CODE41 offers total transparency on the origin and costs of their timepieces’ components. This gives the power back to the community of enthusiasts, who can now be safe in the knowledge that they are investing in an excellent watch at a fair price.

Watch designer Claudio D’Amore created CODE41 in March 2016. After designing watches for major Swiss brands such as TAG Heuer and Montblanc, he decided to venture out and create his own innovative business. Claudio’s mission is to remove the image of ‘luxury’ from high-end mechanical watches by offering accessible and affordable timepieces, as traditionally, exceptional mechanical watches are always associated with luxury and exclusivity.

The NB24 Edition 2 Titanium Blue Chronograph

This is accomplished in a few ways. Firstly, they sell entirely online with no intermediaries or physical stores. They sell through a pre-order system, without a budget or distribution network, and produce exclusively limited editions. Furthermore, they apply a TTO label to all watches. TTO stands for ‘Total Transparency on Origin’, which allows consumers to view all production costs, markups, and the direct origin of the watches’ components.

The CODE41 community has now grown to over 500,000 members. The aim is to gather enthusiasts around a watchmaking project, who then help make that project become a reality. In the process, said members become Project Creators. The first edition of CODE41’s X41 project appeared in March 2019. The X41 model, which is being pre-released for April right now, is on its fifth edition since the first release back in 2019. The standout feature is its incredibly low price when compared to the average luxury Swiss watch. CODE41 keeps true to the values of affordability and accessibility, while never sacrificing quality or performance.

In recent years, the company has experienced massive growth, and is widely differentiated from most major watch brands of the day.

If you are interested in becoming part of this community, you can register online and become a member. Once a member, you will be able to have access to all models for pre-order, participate in the creation of future models, and discover secret future projects. You will also be able to view the entire production process from start to finish.

CODE41 is a young Swiss brand making big changes in a market steeped in tradition.

By: Eric Mulder