The story of NOAH, the “made in Romania” luxury watches, began four years ago and is rooted in the childhood friendship between Iosif Harasemiuc and Ruben Perju, as well as a love of wood and detail. Authenticity, innovation and excellence — that’s how its co-founders describe NOAH, a company whose passion is handcrafting minimalist wooden wristwatches to order.

Let’s hear the story of this Biblically named business which, after its first year, already had a turnover of 100,000 euros.

It all started with a dream — to create an authentic product using atypical materials and technologies of superior quality. The two friends, who haven’t even turned 30 yet, began exploring what it would take to make wooden wristwatches on a small scale. They named the business NOAH after the Biblical figure, because, as the co-founders told us, they saw themselves in him: “Noah had the ‘madness’ to build something unique, never seen before.” There are a few common points between Noah’s Ark and NOAH watches: advanced engineering, water-resistance and wood.

NOAH is a Romanian business, proudly supported by Banca Transilvania. How did its founders end up working with BT? Here’s what they told us: “Back in our student days we had yellow cards from BT. It wasn’t hard to extend the relationship on the business side. We have a very good relationship with the bank and we’re glad that even people in top management believed in our business idea from the beginning and gave us the confidence we needed.”

Believe in your dream

The business started in 2012. “We believed in this dream from the start and moved very quickly, with the limited resources we had at the time. Although it’s a complex field, we knew we had what it takes to develop this project. But we wanted to do something NEW,” say Iosif and Ruben. They started with an investment of 30,000 euros to purchase the equipment needed to work the wood and make the first watches — money from their own savings as well as loans from family and friends. The first watch was produced in June 2015: “A journey of two and a half years, which also brought many joys and challenges we learned a lot from,” the two friends told us.

4 days’ work = 1 NOAH watch

Beyond passion, style and luxury, a NOAH watch means no less than four days’ work, because everything is made and finished by hand. Thanks to operational optimisations, on a good day four watches can be completed, and ahead of the holidays — like at the end of 2016 — they work 24 hours a day to fulfil orders. “Customers who understand the time it takes to make a one-of-a-kind product are willing to pay a higher price,” say the founders of NOAH.

A NOAH watch weighs up to 50 grams, is water-resistant, has a case made from exotic wood, uses Swiss movements and features a minimalist design. Each watch is made to order, so every element can be chosen: the wood for the case and dial, the style of the hands and the seconds hand, the strap, and even micro-crystals or semi-precious stones can be added. There are 12 types of wood, sourced from Mexico, Israel, Brazil and Africa, all above 2,500 on the Janka hardness scale. The quartz movements are premium Swiss Ronda. As for the crystal, it is either mineral or sapphire. It all comes down to creativity: even though there’s only a single range for now, configuring each model can yield dozens of variations. On the NOAH website you can even create an online simulation of your desired model.

“The only watches in stock are those about to be displayed at various design fairs,” say the founders of NOAH. On how they promote their products, they told us: “We promote the brand on social media. It may sound simplistic, but if you master the promotion tools Facebook offers, you can get surprising results.”

NOAH is about quality, not quantity

“NOAH is about quality, experience and authenticity, not quantity. So our customer is someone open to innovation, who loves atypical experiences and products, has a medium-to-high income and a high level of education.”

Currently, orders average 2.5 watches a day and production capacity is five watches a day. Most orders so far have come from Bucharest, Cluj and Suceava, and approximately 10% of watches sold have been ordered from the United States, Dubai and the United Kingdom. Watches sold to date are priced between 900 and 1,600 lei, but they want to produce premium and luxury watches that would cost between 2,500 and 10,000 lei.

Quality also applies to finding the “right people”, as Ruben and Iosif told us when asked about their biggest business challenge: “The biggest challenge is finding the right people. We operate in a field that has long faded in Romania and we face various problems.” If a year ago the NOAH team had just two people, today there are six.

2017: new markets, new products, orders in the hundreds per month

For NOAH’s founders, 2016 was the year to test different markets and collect feedback to be as prepared as possible for 2017: “This year we will go beyond Romania’s borders, supported by a marketing campaign in our target markets. We’ll start with the Nordic countries, then expand into Western Europe. In addition, we will launch a site for online sales. Our goal is to become the most important luxury watch brand that uses wood, and we will work at this goal every day. We want to launch two more ranges, the PREMIUM range and the LUXURY range, for which we will use top movements and materials. We believe that by the end of 2017 the NOAH team will triple, and orders will reach the hundreds per month,” say Iosif and Ruben.

Tips from NOAH for those who want to start a business

• Whatever business you choose, make sure your customer care is impeccable — especially since there’s a serious gap in customer care in Romania.
• If you respect your employees and customers, you’ll succeed in business.

This was the story of NOAH, a Romanian start-up designing and making luxury watches. Strong essences for wearers to match.