Meet David Meylan, the founder of the elite watch company Olivier Meylan Ltd. Based in the south-west of the UK, they’re about to celebrate their first year in business. This has been a dream for the brilliant and determined entrepreneur David for many years now. Before the launch of the Swiss Watch company, David has spent recent years focusing on the entertainment and hospitality industry, managing tours and events with star names including Snopp dogg, all over the UK and Europe. However, when the pandemic hit, it gave David a fantastic opportunity to focus on his dream and, after 4 years of planning, launch Olivier Meylan.
Technology is ever growing in the recent decade, we have seen the likes of tech giant Apple, Samsung and many more venture into the world of watches. There were many concerns with the launch of the first Apple watch back in April 2015, that the luxury watch industry may take a huge blow. However, the reported size value of the luxury watch industry in 2020 was a staggering $7.48 billion USD, expected to grow to $9.28 billion USD by 2025. (Grand View Research).
David believes that although there are several affordable fashion watch brands in the market, none of them share the genuine Swiss watch heritage that Olivier Meylan has, with all their watches boasting Swiss movements.
“Watches have always been in my blood”, claims the half Swiss, whose grandfather was from the Valle de Joux, Switzerland, considered the watch capital of the world. His grandfather worked as a watch maker for the likes of Jaeger LeCoultre before moving to the UK to work for Smiths watches. The founder also has a long line of family links to the likes of Audemars and Piguets.
David puts a lot of his success down to passion and hard work, but most importantly, he has great belief in his own ideas and wasn’t afraid to take some risks to make his dream a reality. “No one is going to knock your door and give you an opportunity”, he says.
Although the global pandemic has caused a lot of problems for people all over the world, David included, he tried his best to turn the situation into an advantage. The industry he had been working in and built up for 15 years had shut down. However, this gave him the focus and motivation to finally go after his long-term dream and launch Olivier Meylan. As he said himself, “the pandemic did kill my spirit but also gave me time to re-think, re-calibrate and plan the next big thing”.
When we asked David what tips he would give to aspiring entrepreneurs he said, “Never give up! Most importantly, be passionate about whatever dream you have, and the rest will come”. He also says, “accept the losses and stay motivated when they come, which they will”. This is something he truly believes in, having had many projects over the years that haven’t gone to plan. However, he finally emerged with the brilliance of Olivier Meylan and is creating a brand-new legacy as he goes.