Created eight years ago, the Watch Garage brand’s reputation was built up over years of online work. The transition to a physical space in partnership with watchmaker Pedro Soares (Atelier do Relógio) has allowed the experience offered to customers to be expanded, with the prospect of holding events and workshops, all in a welcoming environment for watch lovers.

The purely online presence was a challenge?
Trust is fundamental. That’s the difficulty of working online. It takes time, because it has to be built, it’s something that comes from your customers. About two years ago, I saw people on forums asking if it was safe to buy a watch from Watch Garage. One of the things that made it click for me, that said: “OK, I’ve done it”, was when I saw people asking those questions and someone replied: the good guy from Porto. Then it’s about maintaining and continuing to work. A client to whom you sell a watch can make a post and reach 10,000 people. A very large audience.

What was it like to move from a totally digital experience to a real world?

Every year I had people visiting Oporto who already knew me or had heard of me and when they arrived they would ask where my store was. In the last few years my business grew a lot. When my friends would come to Oporto I always had to pack everything up. It’s not practical nor safe so it was inevitable having to open a place exclusively for this. I knew almost everyone who worked with watches in Portugal. For example, Pedro with whom I created this partnership, already worked in the real world for seven or eight years. It was a natural progression.

What was the concept and mood to create this space?

“Don’t let anyone call this a store” was one of the comments a friend who came from Lisbon made when he came to the inauguration. People can come here even if they don’t want to buy anything. Here we have time and space to socialize, share experiences, questions and suggestions. People can come and say hello, have a coffee, a drink of water, read a book… and talk about watches. We don’t want to be a private club, but we do want to have more intimacy than a store, where people can come in, be among friends and enjoy the space. Anyone who wants to come here doesn’t have to make an appointment, it’s open to everyone.

Full interview in JoiaPro Luxury 11.