On the sidelines of Dubai Watch Week, we caught up with Calim Bouhadra the CEO of Rebellion Timepieces, here is what went down.
What is creative rationale behind Rebellion?
I like the fact that you ask about a rationale while there was no rationality involved when the brand was created. The brand was created at a moment when the market was already saturated but we thought that with our passion and expertise we could do something out of the ordinary.
So it is all driven by passion?
That is it. First and foremost, we are all about passion. I am an engineer by formation and my partner owns the Lemo group and our perfectionism and passion push us beyond to create unique and reliable pieces.
Do you think that the brand could have grown that fast without social media?
Today you cannot run a brand without digital and especially social media. We are a young and modern brand so social media made complete sense for us. We tap into influencers; we have a big presence on social. Our racing DNA is something that helped the brand grow, social media allowed us to take it further.
This is your first Dubai Watch Week How does it feel? And why now?
We have wanted to be at DWW for several years but never really had the opportunity until now because we always had a lot of events, races. I thought about it but often missed the boat, I was always too late. As we are racing in Saudi Arabia, it has become an important market for us to focus on. It didn’t make sense for us to participate in the Dakar and not be present at the DWW. It also allows us to announce that we are opening our first own store in collaboration with one of our partners in Abu Dhabi.
Everybody opens in Dubai Why Abu Dhabi?
We have a retailer in Dubai and our Abu Dhabi partner has market insights that suggested Abu Dhabi as a better destination for the brand today. Like all our partners we trust him and followed his advice.
