anOrdain has acquired Paulin Watches for an undisclosed sum.
Both are regular exhibitors at WindUp Watch Fairs across the United States.
The two Scotland-based businesses will continue to operate as distinct brands with unique positioning, but are expected to benefit from economies of scale and shared expertise.
They will be run by the husband and wife team of Lewis Heath and Charlotte Paulin.
Imogen Ayres, a founding member of anOrdain, will apply her design expertise to Paulin as its creative director and has already said there will be a relaunch with a fresh brand identity and new product roadmap.
The combined operation is looking to train five new watchmakers in the coming year, which may help to increase production and bring more manufacturing in-house.
However, Lewis Heath, founder of anOrdain, tells WatchPro that five-year waiting lists for its watches are unlikely to be reduced.
Paulin and anOrdain are at very different place in their journey.
Neither are larger enough to publish full accounts with Companies House (a UK agency to which all British-based businesses must report financial results), but the relative size of the businesses is revealed in the net assets of each operation.
In 2021, Paulin Watches had net assets value at £14,000, a figure that turned negative in 2022. anOrdain’s equivalent figure was £506,000.
2022 was a difficult year for Paulin, with it closing two loss-making retail stores in Scotland that accounted for over 70% of sales, but demand for anOrdain has continued to rise with 15,000 people on its waiting list at one point before the company decided it need to ask for deposits in order to remain on the list.
Even after that purge, anOrdain still had its production for the next five years already allocated to customers on that waiting list, and the acquisition of Paulin is unlikely to speed things up by much because the two operations are intrinsically different.
“With the highly-skilled, time-intensive nature of what we do at anOrdain, and the well-documented demand, Paulin presents our designers and watchmakers with the opportunity to explore new ideas in design and manufacturing, and make them available to a broader audience”, Mr Heath explains.
“Taking on Paulin won’t alter any of our current or future work at anOrdain; our product roadmap for the next four years is full of exciting projects, but the move does allow us to train and sustain more watchmakers here in Scotland, as well as introducing new team members for customer care and dispatch,” he adds.
The combined operation will employ 27 people, around half of which are in manufacturing including eight who are producing anOrdain’s signature enamel dials.
