After being in the watch industry for 22+ years, Chaz realized there was a need for a new type of quality, precision watch. A Swiss watch. He set out to design timepieces that would speak to the people who live life to the extreme, at a price point that would turn the industry on its head. To do this, he established LIV Watches as a bold new brand for those who strove to live life to the fullest.
Chaz envisioned LIV as a brand that would be driven by the "Direct to Consumer" approach - to connect with fans one-on-one, and to price the products for the people, not the middlemen. The advantages of a direct to consumer approach? All the markups added by the “people in the middle,” the wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and so on, would be eliminated.
Also gone were royalties for designer labels and celebrity endorsements. Cutting out these costs would reduce the price of a Swiss Made timepiece significantly, enabling Chaz to price his timepieces where many more fans and enthusiasts could afford to buy.
The project was fully funded within the first 11 hours with the most backers for a Swiss watch project on Kickstarter to date at the time. Be sure to check out our video below for an inside look at the design and development process.)
Currently, this watch is available for purchase on our website, where you can also read customer reviews.
At the beginning of 2016, we launched the LIV GX1-A Swiss Automatic watch on Kickstarter, and received over 1.1 million dollars in funding! When you look at the movement we use, you can begin to understand why these marvelous works of mechanical engineering are so appealing to many of our fans.
"If you've ever wanted to own a Swiss Automatic watch, but couldn't stomach the price tag, then a sub $500 Kickstarter price for a unique watch that features a genuine Swiss Automatic mechanism is probably quite attractive."
-Neal Goodacre, Wrist Watch Review
In mid-2016, we launched a small production run of the LIV GX Base Swiss Watch on our website. It was our most basic model to that point, a three-hand quartz with a date window at the 3 o’clock position and remains one of our best sellers to this day.
In March 2017, we launched the Rebel watch on Kickstarter. Receiving over 1.7 million US dollars from over 2,900 customers all over the world who had never even heard of our microbrand. It remains the most crowdfunded Swiss watch to date.
Its rebellious design has garnered legions of loyal fans, just like every other LIV Watch. It is available on our website here.
Our Rebel campaign happened to coincide with Baselworld, the traditional watch fair, which we do not participate in as a direct-to-consumer microbrand. A reporter from Basel contacted us at the time, as he tried to figure out why the show attracted fewer visitors each year.
He wondered how we were able to do so well while the industry was dying? In a nutshell, he interviewed us, and we offered the idea that customers wanted direct relationships with brands now, and that the 'big brands' were so out of touch with consumers in that way. You can read our response in the full article here. Check out a snapshot of the article as it appeared in the print version of the paper below.
Rebels like to keep moving, and we launched our fourth, and most ambitious, Kickstarter campaign in 2018 offering, not one model and a series of variations, but four different models, each with a different Swiss movement. We offered our first dive watch and a pilot-themed watch for aviation buffs. We also introduced ceramic bezels and our first titanium case.
Posting another Kickstarter success, we are busy wrapping up the project and getting the watches into the hearts and onto the wrists of our growing fan base. If you missed the campaign, these watches are available for preorder.
Not being clairvoyant, we can’t see exactly where our journey will take us in the future. What we do see clearly are two things: