Two months since launch: update

Hello everyone!

It’s hard to believe it’s already been two months since the Ollee Watch launched. I’ve been delighted, humbled—and honestly, a little terrified—by the response. What began as a personal passion project to build the kind of smartwatch I’d actually want to wear every day has grown into a small business.

I’m incredibly grateful for the enthusiasm from customers, the general public, and fellow watch enthusiasts around the world. I think what’s resonated is that Ollee Watch truly is a love letter to our favorite classic timepiece. The countless hours poured into its design were worth it as it seems to have connected with so many people, which I find amazing.

Customers showing off a variety of Ollee Watch installs

Launch and Early Momentum

The launch itself went as planned, with sales landing right where I’d expected. Our very first adopters came from the little Reddit community that’s been supporting this project from the beginning. Enthusiastic discussions about the product, installations, and features quickly spread across Reddit and Discord.

And then… the algorithms kicked in.

About three weeks ago, demand suddenly tripled after YouTube audiences discovered the installation guide and shorts. Then last week, @retrotechlab shared a fantastic collaboration video (amazing work!) that sent demand soaring by 10x. While Ollee Watch was always meant for a broader audience, I didn’t anticipate the pull being this strong, this fast.

Operations and Inventory

As you can imagine, my focus shifted overnight to operations, logistics, and inventory. I’ve even onboarded a small team—friends and family—to help manage the day-to-day.

Fresh inventory will begin arriving at the end of September, with a steady ramp-up over the weeks to follow. The goal is to cut down today’s 5–6 week lead time to something much shorter.

Ollee Watch is not difficult to manufacture, but all of the programming, testing and packaging is done in-house for now. As it’s a first generation product, with many learnings to come, I wanted to focus on quality first, scale second (As the old saying goes: good, fast, cheap—pick two). Out of the first few hundred units shipped, customer-reported defects are under 1%, and shipping accuracy is above 99%—a record I hope to maintain.

Ollee Watch Kits waiting for circuit boards to arrive

Balancing the Experience

From the beginning, user experience was a top priority—not just wearing the watch, but also buying it, unboxing it, and reaching out for support. That’s where my energy will be over the next few months: smoothing the customer journey from end to end.

The tradeoff? New feature development will be slightly delayed. A backlog update will be shared at the end of September, and one significant feature release is still planned before the end of the year. Many of the brilliant ideas from our community will roll into development in the new year.

A Thank You

If you’ve placed an order, thank you for your patience—it will be worth the wait. In the meantime, I encourage you to join the conversations happening on Reddit and Discord.

This community has already made Ollee Watch bigger than I ever imagined, and I can’t wait to see where we go next!

—Gregor (Founder of Ollee Watch)