Ian Sharp.
Hi folks I have just been granted permission to post on this "august" site. I will not hide behind a "username" or "emoticon" as some do.
I just wanted to comment on the ironic timing of this thread concerning "watches".
In my presentations to the SRT team I explained that I had a company (a friend) that designs, engineers and manufactures high quality watches here in Michigan. No not Shinola ! They retail for $5,000 to $20,000 and are very high quality rare collector pieces. A high ranking member of a Western Government, in a senior position, collects them. I made two specific suggestions (not the $7M figure web services company one) for additional funding to the Viper Le Mans team as a b2b opportunity whereby the watch company would return $20% of the retail costs to the team for development.
This was/is a way that Viper owners could have had a direct stake in supporting the racing and product effort depending what they would be willing to pay for an exclusive Viper watch, I mean very exclusive high end watch ! The two engineering suggestions were rebuffed out of hand, by Ralph, but the funding of course was of interest. I was told to contact the marketing dept, specifically Ms. Pareta (sp). After repeated attempts to set something up, but realizing that they "were completely out to lunch" I quietly withdrew my offer (and the $7M figure race sponsorship money - thank god) as I could see that the watch company would have been "****** around", and being small and exclusive it would have not been a good financial proposition for them.
They also make very fine high quality leather "dry goods" by real ranch hands out West, that in the winter months turn their skills form saddle making/repair to high quality leather goods. So these are real authentic quality products, all hand made and stitched.
So the upshot is - If anyone through this forum would like to participate in a real very high quality Viper watch, through a process of design iteration interaction, pricing suggestions, I would be willing to get this done.
If anyone would like me to contact me to get this done I will. But it will have to be on a very specific basis, of a down payment into an escrow account fully refundable. This will pay for design time, engineering, the Swiss movement design, tooling costs, etc, and will give the down payee's access to the design and pricing strategy. This will allow me to determine the genuine interest and at what level.
Let me know your thoughts ! I will then let you know the company, their products, etc, etc.