Evening all! Thank you to everyone who completed the Schofield 2025 survey. You guys really committed! Seriously, it is going to take a lot longer to read them all, and I will read them all. Sorry you were misled on the time to complete it but Typeform did not know you had so much to say!
Exactly 99.5% of you pretty much said keep on keeping on with small suggestions and tweaks. Which is exactly what I was after – improvements I can work on throughout the whole business.
Let’s take a closer look. A surprising amount of you referenced Christopher Ward as having an excellent website. I agree, they do. And Rolex. Yes. These two we expect to be paragons of industry and UX. As I lecture on UX I will up my game whilst absolutely not being like CW or Rolex. Schofield is vibes first.
The changes will be slow but to start the burger menu for desktop has been replaced with words. There were approximately 150 entries that this was annoying. In a similar vein, we now have filters. There will be more wrist-shots, more on the home page and numerous improvements based on a thousand insights. Again, thank you.
The Six Pips, this very newsletter, is a fixture that you don’t want changed. In equal amounts some find the poetry pretentious, some want more. Roughly 420 suggested that it could be a little more geeky/nerdy and slightly less wanted more behind the scenes content. However, about 580 said don’t touch it! Many feel the effort of writing this weekly so have suggested I drop the frequency but very few suggested less than 6 articles a week.
One thing that opened my eyes was the fact that so many of you did not know I did a podcast (Sometime) or there was a separate site for Schofield straps in other sizes (Sugar Free – to fit other watches). Many know I am into music and hifi and wonder why I don’t talk about it but conversely some were perturbed when I get political and suggest maybe I stay in my lane.
So we will only see subtle improvements here.
You want more Sometime (For those that don’t know this is my Podcast 😉 This I can do. Guests you ask–maybe occasionally. More on design and what I lecture on, for sure.
Customer service commentary leaves me walking taller. Proud of my efforts. For the few that slipped through the net, I apologise.
For Schofield vibes, you dig them, which is good because if you did not I would be in trouble. Everyone likes the sea, lighthouses and the coast but not everyone got the sci-fi stuff. However, they did not dislike it. I love it. Which is why the next offering is from outer space (not literally), but your feedback does encourage me to push forward with the smaller bronze affair. I won’t say more on that yet.
Regarding a new book, knife and watch holder we see a 50/50 yes/no split. I’ll probably do them all.
Straps. Interesting, mostly no on a deployment but yes to making straps tougher but also more flexible out of the gate. I had already made some improvements to the design for robustness but it won’t make them more flexible. We can’t have everything 🙂
On new stuff, there were so many ideas: mugs, t-shirts, flasks, sailing kit, hunting kit, dog whistles, cufflinks, compass. Polo shirts, hoodies, leather goods, boxes for this and that and nothing in particular. Bronze things, belt, keyring, watch winders and wine aerators. So many that have already been made and sold.
One idea I would love to do.
…The Schofield Audio Box. A small device that plays curated field recordings, machine sounds, or monologues from the Schofield world. • Not a Bluetooth speaker. Not a playlist. • It plays one sound per day. Or when you press a button. Or when it feels like it. • Think: seaside static, watchmaking bench ambience, archived Six Pips spoken aloud…
Are any of you electronic engineers, can you help?
So, all said and done. Schofield is mostly on it and your responses to my questions will nudge this ocean liner towards the sun 🙂 You just wait to see what’s coming…
☮️ Peace