NOAH produces Roman wooden watches with Swiss movements / The Chinese want to make them for the brand, but the founders want to make them “in-house” – “Value -Entrepreneur”

NOAH is a Romanian watch brand that stands out with a very interesting feature: its products have a wooden case. The project started from a small accident that happened in the co-founder’s family Ruben Perju in 2012. He received a watch from his wife that he dropped on the floor at some point. At that time, several elements that were applied to the face of the watch came off and stopped the mechanism. Some time passed before Perju took the next step towards this business.

“In 2013, I was in my 5th year at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism in Cluj-Napoca and I had continuous projects where I used a lot of wood. I took wooden rods and, with a simple cutter, I started turning and cutting from the individual wooden elements until I got a “small picture frame” the size of a clock. I took the strap from the broken watch and mounted it on the new piece of wood I had just created,” he said, for EconomyPeru. He put a wooden watch on his wrist and liked the feel of it. “Inevitably, I thought about how cool it would be to make my own wooden clock.”

After a few days, he sent them to him Iosif Harasemiucthe other co-founder of NOAHpicture with a “picture frame” on his hand and told him about the idea that came to him. Iosif, who was an engineer by profession, “a technical and skilled person”, found out what was needed to make a wooden clock. “After several visits, we both agreed to go down this path: to make a watch in Romania using exotic wood,” says Perju.

Two intense years of investment, many sketches, sleepless nights, countless tests and prototypes followed. “These two years have been difficult not only because of the level of investment required, but also because of the response of people to hearing what we want to do. Most people were skeptical and thought we were crazy,” the entrepreneur remembers.

In May 2015, they launched the NOAH Facebook page and participated in a design fair called “Made in Romania”. There they sold the first 8 watches, at an average price of 700 lei/watch. “That was when I got wings; all the media started talking about our idea, we were getting a lot of messages and a lot of orders through Facebook, without having a website”, says Perju.

The Chinese would like to make NOAH watches themselves

From the beginning, the two wanted to build a leading brand, “with strong values, which are reflected in quality, attention to detail and in the relationship with customers”. That’s why they chose quality components: gold-plated Swiss tools, 9H sapphire crystal glass or natural leather produced in Italy.

The movements used are Swiss quartz models Ronda caliber 705plated with gold and 5 rubies.

“Although we receive weekly offers from watch manufacturers in China, where the prices are much better, we want in-house production, keeping quality control as high as possible,” admits co- founder of NOAH.

The elements that the company produces in-house are: cases, dials and watch cases. All other parts are included.

Although NOAH’s journey has been complicated, with ups and downs, Perju says that “now” is the most important time, the year 2024.

“2024 is a special year because the NOAH team is stronger than ever and the marketing and sales strategy is excellent, which has brought great results from the first month,” explained Ruben Perju, who is not shy to say that he believes the NOAH brand “will go a long way.”

According to him, customers are “very good” people, who love art and innovation, who “invest in experiences”. “Ultimately, wearing a NOAH watch is an experience in itself,” says the entrepreneur.

They also made personalized watches, including for famous people, such as: Maia Morgenstern, Ion Țiriac, Helmut Duckadam, Bob Rădulescu, Nadia Comăneci or Inna.

When asked about NOAH’s future plans, Perju said that he is working on a project of automatic watch.

Through the campaign”A value-added entrepreneur”, Economedia promotes business ideas that encourage Romanian entrepreneurs to develop and sell products partially or completely locally produced, under their own brands.