Prim Watch Factory Tour

Written by James Matthews

One of the folks at the WatchUSeek Forum has been given a tour of the Prim factory! He posted some nice pictures… Enjoy his review!

I visited the Prim watch factory in the Czech Republic this February. I know it has been a little while but I took good notes and have some pictures to share with you.

Mr. Jan Prokop, the commercial Director for Prim, communicated with me to setup the factory visit and agreed to pick me up from my hotel in Prague. His sales associate Mr. Tomáš Bouška joined us as well and gave me a great history of Prim as well as Czech life.

Prim factory is located about 1.5 hours drive from Prague in the gorgeous town of Nové M?sto nad Metují also known as Czech Bethlehem.

When we arrived at the factory my first impressions were that it looked just as I expected it – like an Eastern block factory that has been there for a while.

Mr. Prokop kindly requested that I do not take any pictures inside as Prim wants to maintain a certain image of their operation. I respectfully agreed. It did not seem to me that it was a big deal that factory was old from inside since I have been on few other tours of watch factories more modest than Prim. Personally I am a sucker and impressed with buildings and machines with character and age. So all the pictures were later provided by Mr. Prokop.

During the communist rule, Prim factory produced watches, parts for military and employed over 2000 people. Now you see some modern machines but still lot of old machines and piles of machinery parts saved from old days (smart idea for inventory). Now there are less than 50 employees handling everything. It was amazing to me that the company has managed not only to survive but appears to be on the brink of thriving.

I wanted to dig deeper and find out how the company was doing so well and view the various models. The secret to success involved a bit of luck and lot of smart marketing.

Luck came in the way that right now everything retro in CZ is very hot. Czechs are longing for some of the favorite things from their childhood. Every Czech kid owned a Prim watch (my colleagues words). In those days it was the only one available.

Smart marketing plan by Prim came about as offering refurbished old Prim movements in customized watches. Prim factory has all the equipment to manufacture the parts for their watch. Infact, the rumor has it that major watch compan(ies) from Germany are dependant on Prim for cases.

Prim rarely advertises but depends quiet a lot on word of mouth marketing. Their target audience is the wealthy Czech politician, businessman and socilaite. Mr. Prokop invited me to a violin concert in Prague city center where Prim sponsors an elite “by invitation only” event each week for the Prague’s upper crest. Due to business obligations I did not attend but I will in very near future. This event features famous musicians, art and Prim watches with customization.

Mr. Prokop is not only the commercial director, he is also their principle watch designer. He showed me a lot of his design ideas on his laptop during lunch. I was interested in the Prim sports model and he would design to my specification. This is the same model of watch making we are seeing in Germany from Stowa, Laco, and other independent watch makers.

So how does Prim make money? The customization of watch costs significant cash. It can cost upwards of 1mil Kc. This is affordable to most of the target audience of Prim. If you want a non-customized Prim you can always buy from their website for lot less. I had couple of favorite, with the sport model being one.

Prim also sells a lot of watches to private and public companies with custom logos and for employee recognition. People take a lot of pride in all Czech made watch. On our way back to Prague Mr. Prokop stopped by a famous supermarket chain store HQ to drop of a box of customized watches. Due to cutomization and manual watch making, it can take several weeks to manufacture the watch. I was really impressed with the quality of the watches. The movements were nicely refurbished Prim but the simplicity of design and well made cases were the most impressive.

My colleague in Prague office heard about my trip to Prim and gave me his old Prim watch as a gift I am hoping to use that movement in a nice (hopefully not expensive) Prim watch.

I want to thank Mr. Prokop for a lovely experience and great lunch with yummy Czech beer. I look forward to attending the Prim event in next few months in Prague. Stay tuned…….

Hopefully we get to see the Movado Watches factory soon!

This post was written by James Matthews. If you have any questions or comments you may contact him at james@jewelerslounge.com