Rosenbusch Watches – The Building Of A Micro Brand

The watch industry has witnessed a surge in micro brands in recent years, where enthusiasts, designers, and craftsmen have turned their love for watches into business venture. I receive at least one or two emails from micro brands on weekly basis introducing themselves and their watches.

While it is hard to decipher from an email the sincerity and quality of a micro brand, there are certain clues that can easily weed out the bad ones. One clue is that if the watch is similar to many of the throwaway watches on AliExpress, it is just a white labeled watch from Far East with no intrinsic value.

However, there are several micro brands that are making well-made watches, often with a niche – that could be an interesting design like that of Furlan Marri; it could be a special dial like that of Havaan Tuvali; or an interesting mechanical complication like that offered by Otsuka Lotec.

Whether a micro brand starts building watches in their own workshop or designs a watch and outsources the manufacturing to third party, it requires a sizable capital. Often, the owner(s) invest their own money if they can afford to, get a small business loan, or crowdsource the funding to start their business.

For the past few years, I have noticed the trend for micro brand to launch their first watch via Kickstarter. If they succeed in getting enough funds required for producing their first watch, then it raises enough capital for the next watch or even collection. One good example of a successful Kickstarter campaign is Furlan Marri, that managed to market themselves very well and raise over a million dollars for their first watch. But I would consider them an exception rather than the norm.

Late last year, I was contacted by a German micro brand, Rosenbusch. While not knowing much about them, I decided to reach back to them and meet them in-person. Eli, Nicolas, and Jonas are based in Munich, and all have a diverse background – Eli in architecture, Nicolas is an attorney, and Jonas is a finance professional.

According to Jonas, the three of them are watch enthusiasts who met in got together in beer garden to talk about watches. As a watch enthusiast myself, this is a very familiar activity. Over several get together, they decided why not start their own watch brand since they shared same likes and dislikes in a watch.

Then came the shutdowns of pandemic, which allowed them to collaborate and finalize the design. They named the first watch “The Quest” that was inspired by the industrial designs of integrated sports watches of the 70’s. It was their twist on the familiar integrated sports watch.

In 2023, the trio chose the path of Kickstarter campaign to launch The Quest. Jonas states that they raised over 51,000 euros, which exceeded their expectations with hardly any marketing and brand recognition. The initial funding enabled them to receive a start-up loan and produce the first batch of The Quest. Rosenbusch positioned itself in the competitive sub-1000 euros segment featuring Swiss movements.

After the Kickstarter campaign, Rosenbusch founders were quick to capitalize on the trend of various micro brand watch fairs in Germany and abroad that got them right in front of their potential customers. This required investing in a booth at these fairs and bringing their watches to showcase and sell. While online advertising yielded mixed results, face-to-face interactions with potential customers was more effective.

They had measurable success at the fairs that they decided to invest further in 2025 to attend regional fairs and larger fairs like Time to Watches in Geneva and Windup Watch Fair in San Francisco.

This brings us to Rosenbusch’s second watch, Horizon. Jonas tells me that they again decided to launch the watch via Kickstarter campaign in March 2025. He explains that Kickstarter is a great platform with global reach, customers know and trust this platform, and it offers incentive for the early supporters with special pricing.

Horizon maintains a hexagonal shape but features a curved profile. It combines elements of sports and dress watch. The thinner case and softer lines provide a more refined shape compared to The Quest. The steel case is 39.5mm in diameter with a lug-to-lug of 46mm, and thickness varies from 8.1mm to 9.8mm due to its curved profile. Horizon is powered by manual winding Sellita SW210 movement. The Kickstarter pre-order price is 875 euros.

Starting and operating a micro brand is full of challenges, from raising capital to securing parts in small quantities from large Swiss companies. Rosenbusch’s experience gives valuable insights for others looking to start their own micro brand. Jonas offers his advice that in a direct-to-consumer model, personal touch can lead to stronger brand loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.