How La Touraine Grew From $300 in Inventory Into a Full-Time Watch Brand

Welcome to The Micro Collector, a podcast where I talk with the founders and operators behind some of the most exciting microbrands and independent watch companies. I'm your host, Justin Dorfman, and in today's episode, I'm joined by Dave Moggio, founder of La Touraine Watches. I first came across Dave through his content online, where he shares the process of building La Touraine in public.

I was immediately hooked by how openly he gives people a glimpse into the inner workings of starting and growing a microbrand, from product development and manufacturing to inventory, pre-orders, and the day-to-day realities of running the business.

After following along for a while, I knew I had to get him on the podcast. In this conversation, we talk about Dave's background in technology and product management, the family story behind La Touraine, and how he started the brand in 2018 with just a few hundred dollars in inventory. We also get into how to build a microbrand in a cost-effective and sustainable way: starting with catalog-based homage pieces before investing in proprietary designs, using pre-orders to test market demand and manage inventory, and building in public to communicate with customers and build trust at scale.

We also talk about what gave Dave the confidence to leave the corporate world and make La Touraine his full-time focus, and where he wants to take the brand next. If you enjoy the episode, be sure to subscribe for more conversations with the people behind these incredible watch brands. And with that, please enjoy my conversation with Dave Moggio of La Touraine Watches.

All right, Dave, welcome to The Micro Collector podcast. I'm super excited to have you on today.

Thank you for having me on. I'm excited to be here.

Absolutely. I think we were just chatting right before I hit record about how I discovered your content — first on Instagram and on TikTok, maybe a couple of months ago — and I really just love what you're doing. Getting an inside look into what it takes to start a microbrand and manage a microbrand is something I hadn't seen too much of out there.

And I now kind of binge your content, right? I go through all the posts, and I'm always excited to see a new one come up, because again, it gets into the behind-the-scenes that didn't exist in this world. So I've been looking forward to this conversation. A couple of questions for you that I've been thinking about and wanting to pick your brain on. But before we get into all that good stuff, maybe for those that aren't familiar with you, give us a little bit about your background, a little bit about La Touraine, and actually, how you first got into watches — even before becoming a collector, before becoming an entrepreneur in this space. How did you catch the bug, if you will, of watches?

That's a great question. So I started La Touraine in 2018 on my dining room table with about $300 worth of inventory. My wife and I were tagging and bagging, and we set up a website on Shopify to try to see if this would even work. It's been a slow grind and climb over the last seven-plus years, as a side hustle of mine and now as a full-time position, a full-time company.

What got me into watches — I was fourteen years old and I was pushing shopping carts for my first summer job, and I saved up enough money, and I saw one at a local Costco. It was a Victorinox. I think I paid like 65 bucks for it, and I was not a watch person, especially at that age. It was just more like, this is really cool. And I know that adults wear watches, right? So 14-year-old me saved up his money, got this watch,

and I wore that pretty much every single day of my life until after high school. It stayed with me, and I still have it over here. That really transitioned into some family purchases of watches for me. They saw how much I liked it, and they wanted to get me something a little bit nicer as I got older. And then, as I went into my professional career, I started to just — that looks cool, let me see if I can get that one. And before I knew it, I was building a collection without realizing it.

That helped fuel the passion quite a bit for my watch collecting and enthusiast journey — just seeing what else was out there, what styles I liked, and kind of curating over that time.

I'm curious, at what point — obviously you got the bug early as a kid, started your collecting journey through your professional career, and I know you mentioned before we hit record that you come from the tech world, product management. At what point did you start to notice that shift from enthusiast collector to, maybe I can do this on my own?

And how did that idea for La Touraine start? Were you sketching? Were you curating pictures of watches and parts of watches, design elements that were appealing to you? I'm curious just how that transition happened, from enthusiast to, this might be something that I want to pursue myself.

Well, it was probably about 2017. I had actually started my first side hustle — it was selling t-shirts and prints. I learned e-commerce basics from doing that for a year, and then I sold it, because you had to have so much volume to actually get anywhere with it. And then I just took a look at watches, and I started to see some microbrands that I hadn't seen before.

At the time, I think I saw a Jack Mason. I was starting to see some stuff from Vaer on Facebook ads and things like that. And it kind of clicked. I saw that MVMT was all the rage at the time as well. So it was definitely like, okay, there's another way of doing this other than just going and buying a Timex, or a Victorinox like I had before, or a Bulova. There's other stuff out here, and how are these guys doing it?

And that's kind of where the product management mind took over — product development. Like, what goes into actually building these things, and what's popular right now? What are people building? And then it was like, well, I've already started a website before, and I've already done e-commerce before, even though it wasn't out of the water. What would happen if I tried it? And how do you go about it?

So I started to research on Twitter at the time. There were a lot of microbrands starting out, because they were starting to figure out the whole manufacturing and sourcing thing that was being used at the time — still is today. Learning, okay, here's how I go about this, here's how I can get watches in that I can actually test myself, put my hands on, make sure they're not bad. And then, what changes can I make with them that they will allow?

And that kind of just brought out the creativity that was dormant a little bit when you're doing PowerPoint slides and giving presentations on business cases. So it was like my side project that was keeping the artistic flair alive a little bit within me, while I was getting through my corporate career.

Yeah, and the story of La Touraine — the name — is really interesting as well. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about when that spark happened where you're like, you know what, I can connect this to my own story. And maybe share a little bit about that story and what that name means to you, to the brand.

Yeah, absolutely. So I knew when I started the brand I didn't want something that had no meaning behind it. I wanted something that was more heritage and historical and had some sort of tie into a family story, because to me watches are always kind of about capturing moments.

Everybody kind of remembers when they got that watch, and what time period in your life you got it — like graduating high school, a major milestone, usually. Or, as you become a collector, just because you like it. But that's really what I was trying to tie to: what major event happened in my family that you could record? And I went all the way back to the crossing of the family from Italy to Ellis Island.

They took a French ocean liner named the S.S. La Touraine. And then I started thinking — the product marketing remnants from my early beginnings kind of started to appear — of like, okay, well, there are so many metaphors here that I can use with a ship crossing the ocean. This is a real journey they had to take. This is a real gamble they were making, that they could find a better life in a new world they didn't know about. And it takes a lot of guts to drop everything you've known from a family and take that voyage to an entirely new culture and country with nothing more than just enough money to get over there and start something new.

And that was really the tie-in I had. I wanted my brand to represent that a little bit. And S.S. La Touraine it was.

I think about that a lot, actually. A lot of us have that similar type of story, so I think La Touraine is a great brand name, and that story behind it can resonate with a lot of people. I think about that as well — how brave our ancestors were. Some of the things we think about today in terms of the risks we take, or the leaps of faith we take, in some ways it doesn't compare to some of these leaps of faith that our ancestors made. So it's a really, really cool thing to tie into the brand.

How about those first watches? Tell me about the first designs that you did, how you tried to connect the brand to those designs. You mentioned researching manufacturing and getting those first watches done. What was that process like? If you're somebody starting out, how do you go about learning that world and getting those first watches produced?

So I started out doing what I think is not uncommon — I didn't have original pieces at the get-go. Because there's a difference between what manufacturing would call OEM and ODM. ODM is where you're doing custom cases and everything, right? And that's what I'm doing now on quite a few of my pieces. OEM is where you take a catalog watch and you make your changes to the provided case, the provided movement. You can tweak a lot of the things on it, but at the end of the day, it's from a catalog that you choose from.

So that's how I started, because the cost of entry is a lot lower. First inventory buy was $300. I didn't have a lot of money to just throw thousands of dollars at a custom case design out the gate. So you had to work your way up. For these first watches, it was really me putting the product manager hat on and saying, what's popular right now? What style is selling the best? And it was 2017, 2018, so a lot of that minimalist design was in fashion. And so that's what I was trying to do: I was like, okay, I'm going to find who can make a good one of these that doesn't fall apart, uses better materials, and work from there.

And those were the first watches, because 300 bucks, you know. So I got my first set of watches, and I was just testing it out — can I even be successful selling watches on the internet? That was kind of outside of the realm of working in software, right? Friends and family, of course, but then it slowly started to snowball over time. And like I said, it probably took four or five years of just getting better pieces and improving the watch, getting different styles in, before it started to finally feel like a cohesive brand.

And now we have the ability to segment a bit, and the ability to provide stuff that no one else can provide. So it's definitely been a journey, from starting from that dining room table of just, let me try to see what people like, and if this design doesn't work, maybe we'll try something else.

This is one of the things that I love about your content — that you talk about this stuff. I think when you start to look at the watch manufacturing world, there is this catalog-versus-custom-watch conversation, and in some ways a critique of catalog watches that I think is unfair in some ways. Especially if you don't come from the watchmaking world — you're not a designer who worked for a big brand before launching your own brand — this is a whole new world that you have to figure out.

And what I've learned a lot from your content is that the catalog approach is a great way to get your feet wet and just get started, right? Number one, figure out all the moving pieces, but also figure out if this is something for you, that you want to do long term, before you invest your entire life, savings, and entire being into it.

Maybe talk a little bit more about that. I know you've talked about it a ton, but I think it's worth touching on, because there are probably people listening to this, watching this, who are interested in starting their own brand. They've heard that debate and think of catalog watches as a no-no. But this could be the thing that actually gets them to say, you know what, that's a great way to get started — I've been a little afraid to take that huge leap into custom watches, I don't know how to even start with that. Maybe you can talk a little bit about how you can get started in this way.

Yeah, well, you're right. I have done videos about this. Look, I'm a product manager by trade — that's where my thinking always goes. You're talking about, I'm going to bring a new product to market. Well, I need to understand the market. I need to understand what customers want, what's available in the price range I'm targeting, what type of watch I want to make, what design I want to do, what the specs are going to be on that watch, how I'm going to distribute it, what channels I'll be targeting with my marketing and go-to-launch plans, and obviously a sales forecast to make a business case for it too. So you have to figure out all those business-y things.

And as part of that, if you're just first starting out — back in 2017, 2018, we didn't have access to what we have now for information on customer trends, on what watches people like, at least not at an enthusiast level. I think that was probably within the departments of those bigger brands, but now the information's a little bit easier, it's more out there.

But getting back to the point of catalog: that at least allows you to take a design that's proven to be reliable, proven to be higher quality, and put your own spin on it, so that you're not just doing a logo exercise. Put your own spin on it and see if people like it. See if people like your design language, see if people like your brand and how you're handling these things, and what type of pieces you've selected to run with. I think that's a great way to market test.

And in today's world, with AI, you don't even have to do that anymore. You can just throw out mock-ups and see what people's reactions are. That's saved countless dollars from being spent on an idea that's not going to move. But yeah, the catalog, I think, for someone starting out makes a lot of sense, because you can get in with what's called a lower minimum order quantity, so you don't have to buy 500 watches and overcommit yourself on this custom design just to be able to say it's a custom design — and then no one buys it, and you're out of your investment and you're sitting on inventory, and you're not in a great place, right?

So to help avoid that, sometimes it doesn't hurt to lean into a catalog when you're first starting out, if you're in a certain price range. Price range dictates a lot of this too. If you're trying to sell a watch for $3,000, $4,000, you're going custom — if you want to do it right, you're going custom. But if you're selling a $200 watch, reinventing the wheel at that price point is kind of difficult, and I think financially it makes a lot more sense not to.

Yeah, I can kind of see your product management, tech background in this, because in the tech world we have this idea of a minimum viable product, right? MVP.

Yep, MVP. Yep.

And they talk about even the Wizard of Oz approach, where you create a website for an app with a waitlist and see if there's demand before you even build the product, right? And I can almost see this as a similar sort of thing, where you're using catalog parts, or in the case of AI, mocking up something and testing the market before you make that huge leap.

And again, I think people have made comments on this approach, and I think it's unfair, because it's a really practical, logical first step, right? And, to your example, once you've gotten through that stage and built a bit of a portfolio of products and gained some experience under your belt and built an audience, you start to create your own custom designs, right? I think I've seen some of the models now that you're producing, and you're definitely in that stage. And who knows, you may not have gotten there if you didn't even start somewhere, right? So I think it's a really, really smart approach.

Well, thank you. And I think it's also something — the product lines are not finite and forever, right? Unless it's obviously something that just lands well and everybody loves it, then you keep running with your product. But a lot of it goes back to software, right? Iterative releases, iterative improvements. You're getting an MVP, but then you're making fast follows, and you're trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

And when you're in that testing mode of trying to figure out what your brand is going to be, what language you're going to use, who your customer is, and building up that fan base — you could really go wrong if you were to take a traditional approach where you're going to do custom everything, spend a GMC Yukon on inventory, and then just be sitting on it. That would be a much worse outcome for a lot of people than just starting small and building it.

Starting small, of course, takes time. It's slower, but at the end of the day, I think it helps you at least understand: is this something you even want to do long term? Because I've known a lot of people who started watch brands back in that time period, because they were following a blueprint, right — and they burned out, or they just didn't gain any traction, because they learned that maybe entrepreneurship's not for them. And that is absolutely okay. But it's just one of those things where — what's better for them? Sitting on 10 watches they can't get rid of, or five hundred?

Yeah, exactly.

You know, I think it's just the way of doing things that might make more sense for more people. But with that said, yeah, you're right — I started out that way. I still have a couple of catalog pieces in the portfolio just to make the brand accessible for people, because I don't want to price people out. Going back to being 14 — can you imagine being priced out? I would have never really gotten into the hobby.

But now I'm really focused on my own stuff, and that's out on the site now, and we have stuff being built right now that's going to be fully La Touraine design. So I think you can have both worlds, and you can use one world to help the other one.

Maybe tell us a little bit about the collection, and some of those models that represent those different periods of time. Maybe some of those accessible entry points that are more catalog, and then, as you evolve the business and your own expertise, starting to bring in your own designs — and then even where you're going. You mentioned there's some in production right now. Maybe you can give us a little bit of a preview on some of those as well.

Yeah, sure. So for entry into the brand, one of the things that guides me is that 14-year-old, right? It's really hard to get a $500 watch — it's just out of reach. So I wanted to do an accessible watch that would look good, based on a classic design that everybody knows, and that's the Maritimer, which I'm wearing today. This is a sub homage. I got rid of the Mercedes hands and made small adaptions to make it a little bit higher quality — it's a catalog watch, just using Legos and making sure it doesn't have some of the weaknesses of the other ones in that price range. And that has been probably the biggest seller for us, because it's the accessible piece that everybody can buy and enjoy, and it has quality that's a little bit better than what they tend to see at that price.

Then I have the Commodore, which is the GMT variant of it, and that's out there and does well. And then there's — well, I just had the Subnautica, which was a limited-edition re-release. But those are the core of accessibility.

And then, with the originals, we have the Heritage Racer, which is the mechanical tachymeter watch — a ground-up design from me. And then the Seafarer, which is our premium dive watch, and we have a restock on that coming in very soon, which I've posted some of the production photos about where that's at this week. And then we have a field watch coming in, which I'm really excited for. It uses a totally different case design than people are used to seeing in a field watch, and a dial design that's different than most people see. And we've got more planned after that. So there's a lot you can do, in both directions, that I think makes the brand accessible and also able to appeal to enthusiasts and people who want a little bit more as well.

By the way, just as an example: I got a text message a couple of weeks ago from my teenage cousin, who has been getting into watches. Knowing that I'm the cousin who's been in the watch space and been a collector, he's been reaching out to me about different models and brands and things. And he's gotten to the point where I know he's a collector for sure in the making, because he asked, do you know of any GMTs available out there that are in my price range? And, to your point, I actually struggled at first to find anything. He's looking for sub-$200, right?

And I struggled to find stuff out there. And then I did come across your GMT and sent him the text, because, like you said, he's somebody who's eager to get into this world and scratch that itch. Having an option for somebody like that — who, obviously, as he pursues this passion, learns more, eventually gets a job and all that stuff, he's going to move up the chain — I see it as definitely something amazing to be able to provide him. So very cool to see that in your collection. And then, as you said, all the new things and the higher-price-point things you're also bringing to the table — the full gamut is really cool.

Yeah, thank you so much. And that's what it's about. I think watches should be fun and enjoyable. It's a hobby. It's an optional thing that we wear — you can find the time on your microwave or your oven, or anywhere throughout the house, on your laptop. But we choose to wear watches because we love and enjoy wearing them. So I think it's just getting back to the basics of that, right? I know there's status wrapped up in this too, but when you're first starting out, you just want something that looks cool and doesn't fall apart. So that's really where the aim has been for those pieces.

Getting back to some of the business strategy that you've implemented over there — one of the other things I've seen you do, and I see this with some other microbrands as well, but it's a really great learning for those looking into starting their own brand: the whole pre-order approach. I've seen you write about this and talk about this. Maybe, again, for those that aren't so familiar with how it all works and the thinking behind it, the reasoning, what it allows you to do as you think about growing the brand — tell us a little bit about your pre-order strategy and how it all works.

Yeah, so the strategy is really simple. It goes back to that background of market testing. Rather than ordering a bunch of inventory and then waiting for the six-to-seven-month process for brand-new watches to be made, I'm testing it. I'm seeing how much demand is actually there. And it serves two different purposes. Number one, it helps to pay for production. When you're not floating in cash, like a small microbrand like we aren't, you need that cash flow to come in so you can make these investments. So it helps you with the investment strategy of doing a new model.

But it also gives you the market feedback. So you get to make the change to the design, if it needs to be changed, before you put it into production, based on what people are telling you. And you can also right-size the inventory order. I talked previously about a 500 MOQ. Well, it doesn't have to be 500. You can negotiate and work with different vendors over time, and you could drop an order from 500 down to 100 if you only get so many people interested in it. And then everybody's happy — they get their watches, and you're not sitting on 400 watches you can't find an audience for.

Where the pre-order strategy hurts and has the downside, of course, is that it means people are waiting a long time for their watch. And that pain is where my empathy comes from with this process. That's why I want to give constant communication, constant updates, show behind the scenes as much as I can — because I want people to see why it takes that long, what's going on, where their money's gone, why they don't have their watch in three days, right? And then, as soon as they come in, ship it the very next day. But it's definitely one of those things where it's a bit of a journey, and you're kind of getting a taste of what the product development cycle looks like as the customer.

In the future, my goal is to increase the inventory counts over time — and I have been — so that I'll have more in stock, so that when people come to the website, they'll be able to click, buy, and get it within three to five days. But first starting out, market testing, finding out which models work, what colorways work — I did a test on this last round of Seafarer where we had like eight, ten different colors, and I'm able to see how many of which ones are selling, which ones aren't. And I know, okay, next time around we'll order more of these, less of these, and that helps me predict a little bit around what the sales are going to look like, and the inventory planning. So the pre-order strategy's been helpful in all those realms, other than the fact that it takes a while — and we've been blessed to have very patient customers. But aside from that, it's how I've been able to grow the brand too.

I was going to ask you about where the build-in-public stuff came from. You talked about it as a way to keep people updated, right, as they're waiting for their pre-ordered watches. Did you start doing that from the very beginning? Is it something that came from your background in the tech world where — I think we chatted before — it's more common? When did you start doing that? And it seems like it's evolved beyond just keeping people updated, to also teaching people a little bit about how the business works, which is really cool as well. I'm curious to hear where else you could see yourself going with the content.

Yeah, that's a great question. So basically, I left my corporate job and I was applying for new jobs, and really wasn't getting very far with where I was aiming and what I was trying to do. And I had previously not gotten in front of the camera really that much, because working in corporate — I'm blessed to have been able to get to the executive level, so the last thing I wanted to do was go into a board meeting and have someone be like, I just saw you go viral on TikTok or Instagram, right? That would have pretty much been the end of that story.

So it took a little bit of nerve for me to basically just say, I have nothing left to lose, and I just went in front of the camera. And from that moment forward, it really just became like, what do you want to know? What do you want to know about what it is to own a microbrand watch company? And I'm a guy with a laptop working out of my closet. So I'm starting out just as much as anybody, to a degree. I mean, I know I've been around a long time, but to do it full time, I'm pretty much just starting out. So it's evolved from some educational things.

I didn't want it to be overly commercialized and marketing, because I really just wanted to be able to connect with the audience and get to know people and build relationships and learn more about what I could be doing differently or better. Because, going back to the iterative process, my next watch is my best watch. So that's really where I'm trying to just continue to improve at my craft and improve the business and improve the customer experience.

And it seems like it must have had a great impact on the business. Me discovering La Touraine came out of other people I follow sharing your content — the content you're creating out there, essentially, right? Not paid advertising or anything like that. It came out of your personal content. Do you also take inspiration? You mentioned sharing early designs and stuff. What are some of the benefits you've experienced from being so open about the process?

Well, I think people value the transparency. They value the transparency into how it works, to a degree. I've also been told I don't have to be as transparent as I have been, and I agree. But it's one of those things where I sleep better at night knowing that I haven't hidden anything, really.

I mean, there are things I can't talk about — I can't talk about releases for 2027 openly yet, or anything like that. But there are definitely things where it's just like, so what if they see it? So what if I share this? It's not an industry secret. If you see how I package a watch, or that I timegraph every piece that's leaving here, it's not an industry secret. If you want to know about manufacturing and all that stuff, literally go to the website Alibaba and you can see all the different rules I've been telling people. It's all open, in public. It's not as if there are any NDAs at play here. So I never felt the need to be, well, I can't say that.

And the community on TikTok, WatchTok, has been crucial and instrumental, and the keystone for really adopting La Touraine, bringing me into the community, and really just embracing what we're doing. It's made the watches better, it's made the company better, and I think I've also had some good personal growth through it as well. So it's just been kind of the catalyst for all of this.

You mentioned that now you're full-time working on La Touraine. Tell me a little bit about that transition. When was the moment that you were like, okay, I'm ready to do this full-time, this is going to be my full focus? And what have you learned going from corporate exec to founder and entrepreneur?

Well, two entirely different worlds. But I will say that working on La Touraine as a side project, and learning how to own a company and run a company and all that stuff, gave me a perspective that helped me in my corporate career tremendously. I went from a product manager to head of IT — running the global ops, right. So that climb up the ladder was fueled by knowing that more holistic viewpoint of how a business functions, the different pockets of it.

And by nature of getting better at my day job, that fed into LT. So I had gotten to the point in my corporate career where there was nowhere else to go up. I saw what my poor boss had to deal with all the time as a CEO, and that ain't the life for me. I didn't want to have to manage that large of an organization. I didn't want to have to deal with that many direct reports and stakeholders. I didn't want to get sandwiched between what the board wants and the board above the board, and have to deal with all that as well.

And so I was dealing with a lot of long hours, high stress, very political environments, and it just ground me out. After twenty years of it, I just — I had enough. I've got a family at home, and I wasn't very fun to be around. So I needed a break. I took the break. It's been wonderful. And then I was trying my hand at different things — I published an app on the App Store, wrote a book, just trying my hands at different things. I joined a startup and took over their product development and helped build up their software stack for them using AI tools, just to stay fluent. And then I was dabbling with LT like I'd always been doing.

But once I found the community and I saw that they really liked what I was making — which was the first time I ever got real market feedback on a lot of it — that's when I was just like, well, wait a minute, I might actually have something here all along. And then it just kept growing and growing.

And I think it was, from sales forecasting, from the product manager mind, right — you take a set of data and you're like, okay, how can I forecast out? And after a certain point I was just like, I've seen enough. This is good. So that's when I abandoned the job search, abandoned all the other projects, and I've been full-time since probably about March.

Well, it's really inspiring to see you doing what you love and building in public and learning about all the different pieces that go behind it. What's next for La Touraine? For people listening, watching this — what can they expect coming down the pipe for you? And also, where are places that they can connect with you, either online or in person, in the near future?

Yeah, absolutely. So what's coming up next for La Touraine: we've been a very social-media brand and e-commerce. I'm going to start going out to more events and having booths at more events in the future. The first one I'm doing is at the Philly Watch Fair, September 12th to 13th. Myself and a few other microbrands from TikTok especially are going to be there, and we're going to have a great time. So that's going to be the first stop, and then we're going to be doing some more events starting next year, so that more people can get their hands on the watches and actually have them and see what they're like, as opposed to just looking at photos on a website. And also get to meet more people and network and learn more about the industry as a whole.

So that's what's new for La Touraine. And then we're also going to be adding to the product portfolio. We're going to have more watches that are original for LT, and we're going to be offering things that will continue to provide a lot of value for the price they're in.

Very cool. Well, I also am going to be traveling to different shows, so I'm hoping I'll get to see you, get to see La Touraine, in the metal. And, as I said, I was really, really looking forward to this conversation, and it didn't disappoint at all. It's just so fun hearing about your story and digging into the business side of the watches. I'm going to continue binging your content, but I really appreciate you taking the time today to share that story with all of us, and wishing you the best of luck and cheering you on for great success along the way.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you inviting me on. And I hope to see you online again, and in person, more importantly.