Peter Kožár: Today I know that the first Biatecs should have cost three times as much.

When ordinary people think about entrepreneurship, even today they still have the cliché in their minds that they have to come up with some great idea. However, innovation that changes the world does not just happen, but usually comes after years of entrepreneurship, speculation, discovery, and creation. However, sometimes it takes much less for an individual to start a business and be successful: choose something that already exists, have a warm relationship with it, and gradually nurture and cultivate your passion, ultimately doing it honestly and with high quality. This is the story of Peter Kožár, a native of Rožňava and currently a resident of Zvolen, who created the Biatec watch brand. You can also find it in the Watch de Luxe portfolio, where it appears alongside top Swiss watches. How can a new Slovak product succeed in a competitive battle against Swiss brands that are over a century old and have billions in investments? And are they even competitors? We asked Peter Kožár directly about the background and beginnings of the Biatec brand. It's an interesting read, so don't miss it.

An entire career devoted to watches

Peter Kožár, a trained lawyer, has never worked in his profession. "So you could say that I have devoted my entire career to watches," he says, pointing out that he founded his first online watch store while still in college. 

The beginnings of my love for watchmaking are quite unusual by today's standards, but all the more valuable for that. Instead of selfish motives, my work with watches began with a natural passion inspired by the beauty of watch designs. "I became fascinated with watches in high school when I came across the Breitling brand. You could say that it sparked my passion for watches," Peter explains, continuing: "I really liked the stories and the atmosphere they managed to create on their website just by looking at pictures and videos. Of course, even back then, Breitling had very good marketing and knew exactly how to present its products in a way that would evoke these feelings in me."

How does a young person come to found their own watch brand when they are familiar with the historical background of the large established manufacturers? It all started with the aforementioned online store, when he imported watches from the United States. The business model was very prosaic: buy cheap, sell dear.

"However, I quickly realized that it wouldn't be that easy. Soon, the first problems arose with complaints, replacement parts, or, for example, I didn't have Slovak manuals for the watches and had to laboriously translate them. That's why I decided to do it more officially and started contacting official distributors or manufacturers of various brands in Europe, mainly from Germany and Switzerland," Peter Kožár summarizes the background of his business. "I still remember the hours spent at customs. Fortunately, courier companies take care of that for you today."

However, critical situations soon arose here as well, when the manufacturers themselves began to become a burden on the business: "At first, everything looked very good, but over time, even though I was an authorized dealer for those brands, I began to feel that something wasn't quite right, and many times (for reasons I couldn't understand) I felt that my suppliers were putting obstacles in my way instead of supporting me. They started to control me, restricting where I could and couldn't sell, and if I failed to update their prices one week, all hell would break loose.

Peter's efforts to build an online store with a certain degree of exclusivity involved a significant decision to sell limited editions. This is precisely how to secure the favor of top-tier clients and overcome preconceptions that watches cannot be bought online. "The final nail in the coffin was when Steinhart failed to produce the limited edition we had agreed on. It was supposed to be an interesting model called "Steinhart Corsair" in a limited edition of 100 pieces. The brand owner promised me it, but later it turned out that he didn't have time or maybe he wasn't interested in it or something like that."

This unpleasant experience marked the true beginnings of his own brand. "I don't hold it against him. After all, if it weren't for this moment, I might never have created my own brand," says Peter with a smile. Today, his watch brand is also sold by Watch de Luxe.

With an offer to "design his own limited edition," Peter finally approached Miloš Jakubec on the watch forum he founded, and together they created the first model series—surprisingly named Corsair. Both considered it a great pity if the requested and undelivered model were not to be created after all. The success was enormous and heralded the further development of the brand. Miloš Jakubec is still the brand's designer today.

However, it wasn't all praise, pats on the back, and successes. A natural part of doing business and building your own brand is also experiencing minor or major setbacks, failures, and overcoming crises, which allows surviving companies to gain a stronger foundation. "Naivety is a beautiful thing," says Peter when we ask him about the pitfalls and struggles.

"We started completely from scratch. We had no capital and no know-how, which I think is an even more important aspect in watchmaking. It's one thing to sell watches and another to manufacture them. Right from the start, we focused on uniqueness and chose the Swiss brand Eterna as our supplier of the main component (the movement). It was a small manufacturer with an annual production capacity of approximately 5,000 pieces, which is unique in itself, and they also had a very good reputation and history, as well as an exceptional power reserve of 65 hours. But when we first approached them, they told us that they would supply us, but the minimum order was 500 movements. That was in the order of a few hundred thousand euros. At the time, this was an unimaginable amount for us, and to this day I don't know how we managed it. Perhaps it's like all the motivational books (or the Bible) say, that a person must have a clear goal and faith, and then mountains can be moved.

The know-how we have acquired in watchmaking is probably our greatest asset. What used to take us several months at the beginning can now be done in a few days.

Another step into the unknown was the launch of pre-orders. People committed to buying the models by paying a deposit, which was another way for the young company to raise the necessary capital. The first capital came from friends and family. In a way, customers became investors, similar to today's popular crowdfunding, but in this case with a happy ending. "I believe that our first customers/investors have no regrets. They got watches with really high added value, with a unique movement, with our own decoration or rotor, and we installed some of those movements in a few limited editions. Looking back today, such models should have had double or triple the price tag."

Despite all this, Peter admits that there were times when he wanted to give up the watch business. He encountered a typical problem faced by small businesses with big ambitions: too much painstaking work. "Miloš devoted all his time to the design and graphic processing of the watches. And I had to do basically everything else, including our joint designs. That meant everything from cleaning the office to approving technical drawings, marketing, customer service, sales, constantly commuting between the watchmaker and the office, as well as all the Slovakian administration. Fortunately, today I at least have administrative assistance, and overall I would say that we are a pretty well-coordinated team.

How to predict trends? In Slovakia and for predominantly Slovak customers? These are also questions that a watchmaking company needs to know the answers to, because they lead to the right product design. Biatec has set its standards very high, which could complicate the situation even further. Nevertheless, Peter sees the current situation in a positive light: 

"Slovak customers have reached a stage where they are just as demanding as other customers in Western Europe and appreciate not only product quality but also service. I know that customers will need service at some point, that they may want to give themselves, their children, or their friends a nice gift. For example, I really enjoy it when someone comes to our showroom in person, we offer them coffee, talk about our shared passion, and when they buy something from us, I am happy and tell myself that it all makes sense."

Imagine how valuable a watch that your father wore on his wrist his entire life would be to you. For me, it would be priceless.

Why Biatec?

"I thought long and hard about what to call the brand. I wanted it to make sense. I wanted it to have a certain meaning, to be connected to Slovak history. I wanted it to be something catchy, something that resonates with people. I mean Slovaks, of course, who have certainly encountered the name Biatek before," Peter recalls. "Biatek were coins that were minted somewhere in what is now Bratislava a long time ago. In my opinion, coin production is somewhat similar to the production of watch cases."

However, it didn't stop at symbolism, and the value of the Biatec brand took on a whole new dimension.

"We have incorporated a gold-plated coin into our collections in a unique way to further emphasize the connection with the brand name and the historical heritage of the Slovaks. This coin is minted at the Kremnica Mint, one of the oldest companies in Europe. Coins have been minted there for over 700 years! Another option is to personalize our watches with this coin. It is possible to have a coin custom-made according to the customer's wishes. For example, if a bride wants to give her future husband a nice gift, she can buy him our watch, with their portrait and wedding date engraved on the back cover. The perfect gift for forgetful gentlemen :-)"

"And the brand logo also had to be a strong symbol. Originally, we wanted a double early Gothic cross, which is on the Slovak national emblem, but we couldn't get a trademark for it, so we created something like a mix of this cross with an old Celtic cross (Biatek – Celtic coins). We placed it in the coat of arms and put the name Biatec at the bottom. I wanted a vertical logo because it stands out better when printed among other brands, which mostly have horizontal logos. We had a professional company create about six logo designs, but since I didn't like any of them, I designed it myself. The cross can also cleverly resemble the Swiss symbol, which could help us in our future expansion into the world.

What does "MADE IN SLOVAKIA" actually mean?

"This is an important question, and I am happy to answer it to avoid any misunderstandings. Many people may mistakenly believe that we have CNC machines here and do everything ourselves in Slovakia. Unfortunately, this is not the case, although we would like to gradually manufacture at least some components directly in Slovakia," summarizes Peter, revealing the reality behind the watchmaking business: "We purchase most of the components from abroad according to our precisely specified requirements. We design the watches ourselves and then, according to our technical specifications, we place an order for the production of each component separately. We then assemble the individual components in-house and test the watches. However, I must point out that in today's globalized world and with the high degree of specialization of individual companies, this is essentially what 99% of watch brands do, including the big ones. It would be extremely uneconomical for a watch company to manufacture its own dials, movements, and the like, because almost every component requires a multi-million dollar investment in such production. So they prefer to place an order with a factory that produces 3 million dials a year and can make them as economically as possible. There are exceptions, such as Patek Philippe and the like. However, they charge different prices for watches than we do.

Ambitions in line with potential

The brand has gained expertise, respect among experts, and is also attracting public attention. However, this is not enough, as the company's initial ambitions remain high, albeit without the aforementioned beginner's naivety.

"First and foremost, we wanted to establish ourselves in Slovakia, which I think we have succeeded in doing. People, at least those who are interested in watches, already know us quite well. Your Watch De Luxe chain of stores, which has included our brand in its portfolio, will certainly help us achieve this recognition. And now we can slowly start trying to expand outside Slovakia."

What other brand offered by Watch de Luxe would Peter Kožár choose for his collection and why?

"As I mentioned, I used to be a big fan of the Breitling brand, and to this day I would love to have their Navitimer, for example. Of course, icons such as the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch or IWC Big Pilot and many others. Anyway, even though I own other brands, they mostly stay in their boxes. The problem is that when you have your own brand, you're not going to advertise others

See the complete range of models from the Biatec collection in our e-shop:

biatec collection