How a ‘timely’ advertising opportunity led to an international watch business
Published: 8 January 2024
Selling over a million watches to customers in the US is how Lifeline IT client ‘Timepieces International’ has become a successful global business over the past 25 years.
The company, which has offices outside London and in America, began by advertising watches in top-end US magazines before going on to set up its own mail order catalogue business. Due to the international retail nature of the business, having robust and secure IT systems is crucial and the company has been with Lifeline IT over 15 years. We talk to Timepieces International’s Director of Operations Michael Rampton to find out more about the company.
In essence, we sell watches, jewellery and accessories in the US via a catalogue and direct response adverts. We send our catalogue out to 250,000 households in the US who then order items direct from us via a dedicated toll free US number, and we also have a website which people can buy from. Timepieces International was started by our original owner who saw a business opportunity to advertise in magazines like GQ in the USA. It went so well that he went on the publish his own magazine to distribute to customers. We’ve sold over a million watches and our business has grown steadily over the years – we now have 25 staff in the UK and US.
When is a key sales time for Timepieces International and what are you best-selling items?
Definitely the Christmas period – from November through to January is when we do a lot of sales. We release new product with every catalogue, as well as showcasing bestselling watches and jewellery.
How important is IT to Timepieces International?
Lifeline IT support everything we do – we could not run our business without them. They do everything from back of house support to running our security and storage. If we had a major IT issue and all our systems died or if our building blew up, Lifeline IT could get us fully back up and running in four hours. Knowing this gives us a huge amount of peace of mind and confidence.
Lifeline IT have my absolute trust and I rely on them utterly. I can always reach them when I need them, and their communication is excellent. They have been in integral part of our business since they joined us.
What do you enjoy about your role as Director of Operations?
Definitely the variety – there’s always something interesting to do. It could be solving a specific problem or trying to find ways of doing things better, and Lifeline IT are extremely helpful in supporting this.
What are the challenges the business faces?
I’d say keeping a competitive advantage can be challenging – there are a lot more competitors around so we need to make sure we keep our offer appealing and give great service, so we stand out from the crowd. Making our company more profitable is the bottom line – a lot of businesses focus too much on sales. You can have excellent sales, and even excellent sales growth, but that does not necessarily mean strong profits.
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About
We work with clients as partners. Our role is to:
- Listen & learn
- Give expert advice
- Be there for you
- Help you grow.
Meet the Team
Lifeline IT was founded by current owners Daniel Mitchell and Adam Woolf.
They remain actively involved in the delivery of our premium service together with the rest of the Lifeline IT team: managers, engineers and other support staff.
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