Jordy cobelens biography

Editors’ Note

Born and raised in Amsterdam, it was Jordy Cobelens’ father Ton who forged his son’s interest in timepieces as a watch distributor in the Netherlands. When Ton started his own watch brand, Jordy honed his entrepreneurial skills at school, selling watches to the fathers and relatives of his friends. During this time, as an accomplished DJ, he also founded his own record company, JC Records. In 2005, he entered the watch business full-time and seized the opportunity to head up TW Steel and front its development. Cobelens was named Ernst & Young’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 in The Netherlands.

Company Brief

TW Steel (www.twsteel.com), the name meaning “The Watch in Steel,” concentrates exclusively on continuing to develop and lead the oversized watch market established with the introduction of its first collection in 2005 in Amsterdam. With 140 models in the collection, TW Steel is currently available in over 100 countries, with leading sales in key areas such as Europe, North and South America, and Asia.

What was your initial vision for TW Steel and how did you feel you could differentiate the brand in the market?

My dad and I saw an opportunity in the oversized watch market in that at a certain price point, there was a gap.

After the initial launch of four pieces, we saw that the products were selling and I looked into international interest for the brand.

I had positioned TW Steel in a couple of stores in Spain. Our Spanish distributor saw the brand there and contacted me about taking us on.

So we met and wrote an order for 800 pieces. He put the watches in other stores and the product was flying off the shelves. He then informed his colleagues that TW Steel is hot and new and they should take it on.

So once I started to go international, it grew quickly.

Are you focused on the male market or are women wearing the pieces?

The whole brand has been more male oriented, but the ladies love it

tw Steel is a Dutch watchmaker known for its large, oversized watches and chronographs. The company was established in 2005 by father and son team Jordy & Ton Cobelens in the Netherlands.

History

The company was founded in 2005 by Jordy Cobelens along with his father Ton Cobelens, and they celebrated their 5th anniversary on the 20th of June (2010) at The Bloomingdale Club at Bloemendaal,North Holland.
The father and son team has a history with watches which began in 1980 when Ton became a Raymond Weil & Maurice Lacroix distributor for the Benelux region, this being when Ton started designing private label watches for airlines such as KLM & Martinair. Ton went on to start a promotions and advertising company which created campaigns for the Swatch group in the Benelux before selling this company to design and market a small Swiss-made watch which was popular in the Netherlands and other parts of Europe. In 2005 TW Steel was born with his son Jordy as the CEO.

Current models

TW Steel watches use Japanese automatic movements from Citizen Miyota and Swiss quartz movements from Ronda.

TW Steel's range of watches come largely in 45 mm and 50 mm diameter variants made from stainless steel. The "Canteen" models feature a crown cap attached by a "hook" or "hinge" to the side of the watch case. At BASELWORLD 2011, TW Steel launched its new CEO (Collection ExtraOrdinary) Goliath collection, which is a more formal, dress-look for the brand. This also makes it perfect to be worn at the office grounds. The collection also introduced Swiss Made watches to the TW Steel line, with the CE3015, a Swiss-made watch with a Swiss Ronda

With a dark, large and stylish TW Steel Maverick on his wrist, Cobelens shared the thinking behind the current direction the watch brand is taking – and it’s a natural evolution for the Dutch-born, Swiss-made brand with a strong sense of heritage.

Growing up in Amsterdam, Cobelens loved two things: music and watches. So as a youngster he was either behind turntables or selling his father’s bespoke watch range to family and friends. Now he brings the two passions together as head of the company.

His father Ton is chief design officer alongside Cobelens who cuts an energetic, highly mobile and media savvy CEO. He has carved out a brash positioning for the family business with a signature oversized timepiece, a strong brand alliance with dance music and a sponsorship deal in Formula One with Sahara Force India.

As a new kid on the block TW Steel’s growth (more than 100 countries worldwide across about 5000 retail outlets) can be attributed in part to Cobelens’s social nature and massive ambition.

At 19 he opened his own record store. Three years later he started TW Steel with his father, signing some of the biggest celebrity names as brand ambassadors, among them Kelly Rowland and David Coulthard. Next was securing an F1 sponsorship deal.

Calling himself a natural “closer”, his other venture is Steel Entertainment Group, a talent agency for DJs who also flash TW Steel at events, an indirect marketing tool for the watch business.

As part of the vanguard of Millennial-generation captains of industry he seems to navigate social media with an effortless merge of work and play. He is unashamedly open to his fans across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

“I make an effort, I use different apps and edit them, I try to inspire, I’m not secretive — it’s usually personal and I make sure it represents my reality.”

In between posts of New York Fashion Week, the Monaco Grand Prix and beach vistas, there are also images of hi