RJ Watches sold timepieces made from the Titanic and moon dust — then its backer walked

RJ Watches — originally Romain Jérôme — was a Swiss watchmaker founded in 2004 that built its name on a single, attention-grabbing idea: watches made from the stuff of legend. Its early 'Titanic-DNA' collection incorporated steel recovered from the wreck of the Titanic; later pieces were built from real moon dust, and the brand went on to make watches inspired by the oceans, outer space and pop culture, including lines devoted to Batman villains, Spider-Man, Pokémon and Pac-Man.

The concept won RJ Watches a following among collectors who wanted a conversation piece rather than a classic timepiece. But the business underneath the novelty was narrow, and it leaned heavily on one supporter: its majority shareholder, Alliance Investment Group SA.

In February 2020 that support vanished. Alliance Investment Group suddenly decided to stop investing in the company, and the board, in its own words, had no other choice than to file for the bankruptcy of the company and dismiss all of its employees — 33 jobs in total. A brand that had turned the Titanic and the Moon into wristwatches was gone in a single funding decision.

RJ Watches is a case about the limits of a concept. A clever idea can launch a brand and earn it a devoted niche, but a concept is not a self-sustaining business; when the one backer keeping it alive walked away, there was not enough of an enterprise underneath the novelty to survive on its own.