Kartika Winata grew up surrounded by watches. Her father, a businessman, is an avid watch collector, and for almost every birthday or milestone, Winata was given a timepiece as a gift.
Out of all the watches owned by her father, his Delacour watch always stood out to Winata. Delacour is a luxury Swiss independent watch brand and its timepieces are known for their unique, distinctive tonneau shape. “All other watches are typically round. So whenever I saw my dad wearing his Delacour timepiece, I would tell him, ‘nice watch, Dad’.”
In 2014, at just 24 years old, she took on the challenge and founded Eurobutik Bangun Indonesia with two other partners . EBIWatch started off with distributing only Delacour, but less than two years later, the company began adding more brands to its portfolio. Despite having expanded her portfolio of brands, Winata said that the company still retains a strict selection process. “It’s important that our brands don’t cannibalise one another in terms of price point, target market or branding,” she explained. “They may have a similar clientele, but their price point or DNA of their watches may be different.”
Since the company was founded, its core clientele has always been seasoned watch collectors. “They already have it all, from the Rolexes, to the Pateks, to the Audemar Piguets. As a metaphor, I always liken Rolex to Mercedes Benz. It’s the watch to buy when you’ve made a name for yourself. But our brands are like Aston Martin or Lamborghini. You must have all the mainstream brands already, so you want to go one step further,” Winata mused.
Back when Winata first started in the industry, female leaders in watchmaking were still relatively rare. Naturally, Winata faced her own hurdles. “I remember during my first trip to Baselworld, the executives from all these big brands assumed that I was the marketing intern, when I am actually one of the founders.”