I am heading out to the airport first thing in the morning on the 16th of March. If last year is any indication (and hopefully it won’t be) I was up for about 30 hours before my flight. Then got 2 hours sleep and pounded coffee and 5 hour energy shots to keep the car straight while I drove up to JFK. Hopefully this time will be more civil but it gives one an idea of how things get more and more hectic as the departure time gets closer.

I should have Internet access while in Basel but I will have to see what it is like. Last year I had good access but I had no where to sit while I was at the computer. If there is a similar situation this year I probably won’t be online or be able to reply to e-mails very well. But I will have a computer with me so I hope that I will be able to set up place to do some work where I am staying.

Hopefully I can keep everything on an even keel but I did not want to assume that it will go smoothly over the next 9 days.

If this is of interest I will keep posting these so let me know.

Tonight, among other things, I prepped the cases for 2 QUAD10s, and a DLC Sea Fighter that is destined for some time in the Middle East. I had to push the SF order up to make sure it was ready for the customer’s deployment….

Work done….

* Set the AR coated crystals in the QUAD10s and pressure tested the cases empty to 20 ATMs and -0.5 ATM
* DLC Sea Fighter got a new case tube, AR coated crystal and pressure tested to 20 ATMs and -0.5 ATM
* Thankfully all three passed the WR testing.

Here is a custom LRRP with a DLC coated RN bezel that I finished in January when I “in the weeds”.

It turned out a lot better than I thought. I wasn’t sure about the 2-tone combination but both my wife and I were surprised how much we liked it.

* The cases and bracelets are expected to be ready by the end of this month
* Movements are in stock
* Crowns and case tubes are going out to the case manufacturer before I leave for Basel
* We are currently working on the ordering page. I hope to have it up before we leave.
* The matte black date dial you see here is going into production this month
* The glossy gold dial is in stock and I am currently reviewing them
* Hands are in stock
* All inserts are in stock

At the moment my rough estimate is that the watches will begin shipping by the end of June. Please note that I will actually be traveling to Switzerland to visit suppliers during the first full week of June so that may effect the actual date stuff begins to ship.

In the mean time I do not mean to seem like a dick but have to I ship orders as fast as I can while I still have two legs to stand on.

I have been in a self-imposed communication blackout trying to finish up the last of the backlogged orders. Orders have been going out but not fast enough to eliminate the backlog. Over the last two weeks I have not met with much success in getting the final group of overdue orders out because of a number of issues. In reality though problems such as suppliers dropping the ball, my entire family getting sick with the flu (so far I am okay), and heavy snow storms are not the real reason that the backlog just is not getting worked down. The primary reason is that I have been working myself too hard.

Over the last year of running myself at 110% it has become obvious that I do not have the stamina to make the final push to clear out the backlogged orders in the originally scheduled accelerated time frame. What is happening is that I push myself extremely hard to work down the backlog and get burned out or worn out and then the backlog re-constitutes itself because I am forced to take a break. It ends up being a vicious circle. As a result I have re-scheduled all of the orders due after Feb 1st, pushing them back by about 3 1/2 weeks. The reason the re-scheduling should work out the backlog is because over the last 4 months I have been scheduling fewer orders to go out per week. The 3 1/2 weeks is what it would take to complete the overdue orders at the new slower pace. The end result should be a schedule that is much more accurate. This also means that lead times will not decrease significantly but at this point I think it better to be conservative with scheduling and once everything is running smoothly for a period I will re-examine the number of watches I can realistically complete each week.

E-mails with the revised ship dates went out earlier today. Since I am also quite certain that there is a large backlog of unanswered e-mails in my inbox I have also set up an online “survey” that those affected by the new ship dates can submit requests to modify the ship dates or make other delivery changes. This should improve my reaction time. A link to the survey was included in the e-mail that went out earlier today.

End of an era

After putting off a final decision for more than a year I have finally concluded that I have to stop selling watch parts (e.g. dials, hands, and case parts). Naturally we will continue to sell parts required to service our watches. We will stop selling parts that are used to modify watches in the secondary market. This was not a decision that I made lightly and one that is done with some sadness because selling parts is how this business started. However I believe that I would be doing a disservice to myself and our parts customers because…..

* I have been out of the loop as far as what watches people are customizing and I haven’t done any work on a non-Mk II watch in almost 2 years. At this point my experience and feel for what parts customers want is out of date.
* Selling parts requires a lot of knowledge and experience with watches and it is something that is very difficult to teach. In addition our parts sales occupy probably about 60% of the time spent on e-mail correspondence, order processing, and other administrative tasks but currently contributes a much smaller percentage of our revenue.
* I had hoped that as the company grew in size it would become easier to manage our suppliers. In reality it is as time consuming as it was in the beginning. As our products get more complicated and sophisticated it actually requires more time and effort to effectively manage our suppliers. In the end I need to stay focused on our core business which is selling watches. If this recession has taught me anything it is that you have to stay focused on one’s core business.

The tentative date for the closing of the parts section will be March 31st. If our work schedule is under control at that point we may extended this to May 30th (which was the original date) but given the need to re-schedule the custom watch orders it would be best to make this decision at the end of March. After March 31st Mk II parts will be available through our authorized re-assemblers through the end of 2010. After December 31st we will stop selling parts altogether.

As always I can not thank our customers enough for their support and patience. I will continue to work to make myself worthy of your trust. I should be back online in about 1 week. In the meantime I am working on watches, shoveling snow, and attending to the flu incapacitated family members

I have applied for a new merchant (credit card) processing account through one of the providers that our web host still works with. At this point it is possible that our online credit card function may not return until some time next week. I will post an update here.

For the time being if you wish to purchase via credit card we will have to take the information over the phone or e-mail you a CC processing form that you can fax into us and we will process the card manually through our online VeriSign portal.

My apologies for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: Jan 7th, 5 pm.

Problem has been fixed. Thanks for everyone’s patience.