Which was the most hyped product of 2024? It was Layers’ Anarc watch.
The craze of Anarc watch was such that when this watch was launched, everyone talked about it. And it was presented like this that this watch is the best.
Apple Watch Ultra competition will be held here. But today, when so much time has passed, there are a lot of negative reviews in the market. And if we talk about the App Store, then the rating of this watch is almost 2 stars.
If we talk about Google’s Play Store, then the rating is 1.9 stars. There are 3.47k reviews and almost 10,000 have been downloaded.
That too when it was claimed that when Layers launched Anarc watch here, it sold for 3.5 crore rupees in 24 hours. It sold about 4,000 to 5,000 watches here.
But what happened with this watch, what was the problem? This is something to see. And why can’t any creator-led brand be so successful in India? Let’s talk about this.
Start of Layers Anarc
Watch First of all, let’s understand some context. We understand that this Anarc watch was made by Shlok from Tagburner.
Now, it was a dream of Tagburner and Shlok to create a tag product here. And since 2022, this idea was in their mind that they have to bring a tag product here.
But they could not build a tag product or a tag company alone. Even in this watch, they were not alone. There were some other people here, co-founders etc. who are also involved here.
Because literally, I am telling you that it is very difficult for any creator to open a company on an individual level. But when you are a tech reviewer, then you are expected to bring a product that is very perfect.
Because many times, if you are telling a product, it will also be criticized. And you will have to take that criticism here.
But anyway, let’s talk about what was the thought process here to build an Anarc watch. Because if you look at the market, there are exactly three types of smartwatches.
Diffrent Types of Smart Watches
The first smartwatch that is the most popular in the market is the RTOS. That is, the watch of the real-time operating system.
Now you can call it a smart watch or a smart band, it is up to you. But it is the most popular in the market because its hardware requirement is low. It runs on a cheap processor.
This watch can be easily made and delivered at a low price.
In the market, RTOS watches start at Rs 1,000 and their price goes up to Rs 80,000-90,000 or even Rs 1,00,000. Would you like to guess which RTOS watch is in the range of Rs 80,000-90,000? Well, it belongs to Garmin.
They also use RTOS. A company like Amazfit also uses RTOS. And one of the main reasons for using it is that here you get compatibility with both Android and iPhone.
After that comes the turn of Wear OS. The license of Wear OS is given by Google. A powerful processor is required.
Their battery life is not that special. But here you can download the experience of the smartwatch, apps, play store support. And you get a lot of other features and its functionality can be greatly enhanced.
This is the special thing about Wear OS. The problem with Wear OS is that these watches will only be compatible with Android.
The next problem here is that these watches have to be made expensive. All the cheap watches you see in the market that are with Wear OS, if you are getting Rs 6,000-7,000, they are all 1-2 years old models and their stock is being cleared.
If you go to make a new watch of this type in today’s time, the price will easily reach Rs 15,000-20,000.
The third number is Apple Watch, which runs on Apple’s watchOS. And this watch is only compatible with iPhone. It has no compatibility with Android.
And Apple Watch is only made by Apple. And Apple takes all the profits from it. So no other company can make Apple Watch here.
That’s why all the companies in the market go behind RTOS.
Problem with Anarc
Watch And this is what happened with Layers camera watch. These people took the support of RTOS and removed their watch in the market.
Its price is about Rs 6,000-7,000. But there is a small problem. They were trying to crack the market where you can get all the smartwatches for Rs 1,000-2,000. In India, the market of smartwatches is only up to Rs 2,000.
In this race, you have Firebolt, Boat, Noisewatch, and many other companies that buy their own rebranded watches. And the market here caters to those people who have nothing to do with fitness. If their sensors are wrong and give inaccurate information, then there is no problem.
These people are more focused on looks and design than fitness. That the watch should look good. Because in India, smartwatches are seen as a jewelry.
That’s why people like to buy good-looking watches here. And that’s why you get most of the watches for Rs 1,500-2,000.
If I talk about it, you start getting some watches for Rs 3,000-4,000. Because of which you start getting better sensors.
You get a little bit of accuracy. And here the claim of Anarc Watch was that we will give you the best sensors. It’s a very good thing. We will give you the best processor.
That’s also a very good thing. After that, it was also claimed that the accuracy of this watch is at the level of Apple Watch Ultra.
And in some cases, it was going up to Apple Watch Ultra. But yes, when you make such big claims, then there is also a doubt here.
Because not so much accuracy can be taken out every time. And this is what happened with this watch. When the watch was taken out here, it was with a lot of hype. And when people tested the reviews of the watch, there were a lot of problems.
Even I myself tried out this watch once. And let me tell you about my experience that it was not that special. There were a lot of bugs.
It didn’t lag. I even noticed one problem that I paired this smartwatch with a mobile phone. And when there is a call on the mobile phone, it is playing on the smartwatch.
While there is no such setting in the smartwatch that I can disable this thing. Anyway, there were different problems of this kind. This smartwatch was not fully prepared here.
The Hype vs Product
It seemed that the hype of the smartwatch, they had built up so much day by day for several months. That they had to take out the watch as it was.
Now let’s talk about what exactly was on the truth of an Anarc watch. Their claim is that they had used a design studio in London. And from there they made its design. Well, making a design is not a new thing. It can be easily made from any design studio.
They took the design from there. But they took this watch to a Chinese ODM.
Chinese ODM showed its design that we have created this design, you take it. And here they had designed the watch faces in-house. How will the watch faces look here.
All these things they gave to their Chinese ODM partner. They made its firmware also made its software. They made the UI as it was told. And they made a watch for them. Even Chinese ODM is very advanced here.
If you want to go and give some crores here, you can easily make a smartwatch. You can also set up a smart TV. Even a smart phone company can be set up. Because Chinese ODM are very flexible and do a lot of work. And if your investment is more.
Then they can also set up their manufacturing facility in India for you. Many big Indian companies in the smartwatch segment. They used to go to China and bring the goods.
They used to sell it in India. And now what they have done. They have put their machinery in India.
They brought it from China and made their watch here in India. But in the end, the components that are put inside. They all come from China.
Even the manufacturer of the highest silicon processor of the Anarc watch is Huawei. Anyway, they made all these things here. They even made the app here. They created all these things here. That is, they used a Chinese supplier.
They used a Chinese manufacturer. They used an ODM partner. And they provided their design here. They provided watch faces here.
Because of which this watch can be taken out in the market as soon as possible. But what is the problem here? Exactly, it doesn’t matter that the watch is being made in China or India. The main thing here is that if you are buying a product here.
So what is the quality of that product? This is important. If the product is of better quality, it will be sold in the market. And if the quality in the market is inferior.
Then no marketing can make it here. And this is where I think there was a big mistake.
What They Could Done Differently
Here, Shlok and Tech Banner, that is, the entire team of players should have done this. That only special and selected people should have been given the watch in the early days.
And give the watch to your core audience. And tell them that you are 100, 200, 500 people. You take this watch. This is our watch. It is not fully ready yet.
But this is a beta product. I am working on this type of watch. You use it. Give your feedback. We will solve the problem one by one. And gradually make a perfect product in the market. That is, if a product comes from Tech Banner Layers. And if it comes in the market in the end. And there are no problems or issues in it.
Then this product could have been put in the market. This is the biggest thing here. A small strategy could have been done here. For which people could have taken a very good benefit.
But I think In a hurry This watch was put in the market as soon as possible.
The result of which we have all seen. And the rating on Google’s Play Store.
Looking at it, everything makes sense. With this, one more thing They could have done here. They should not have done so much hype building on the product. Although it is the first product. Everyone wants more advertising.
More marketing. Because you can do big sales on day one. But they could have made small changes here. Exactly when you are making a tech product here.
Then the quality of that product. It can be focused a lot. The first thing I would like to tell you. That any successful company in the market.
No matter how long the company has played. They have not played at the expense of their marketing.
They played at the expense of their product. Their engineering was good. Let me give you a small example.
The iPhone was not good. It had problems and bugs. Apple had released a limited edition. It did not even come to India.
Then iPhone 3G was released. Then 3GS was released. Learned from old mistakes. Refined the product. And moving forward.
Gradually a good product was built up here. And then when people used that product. They saw that this phone is good.
Now we will recommend it to our friends. And gradually Apple’s user base became a cult. If the product would have been launched silently.
It would not have been associated with a tag burner. But if it would have been a normal watch. Made a perfect product. And it would have been popular for the market. and later tell people that I made this product, then it would have been amazing here.
Why Creator Led Brand Fail
When a tech creator or any creator releases his product in the market, he gets more criticism than necessary.
And I’m not just talking about India, I’m talking at a global level. And there are very few examples at the global level that have been successful here.
Even Mr. Beast did a lot of his ventures in USA, did a lot of hype building, but he couldn’t perform so well that he could compete with big brands here.
Even when Mr. Beast Logan Paul brought his Prime Drink and Beast Chocolate to India, what happened there? He came to India late, brought an expensive product, there was hype for some time, there was hype, after that this product also went out of the market. In the end, you should find a product understanding the need of the market.
I have seen a lot of failures in the category of creators. Some people have tried T-shirts, some people have tried merchandising, a lot of big YouTubers have tried a lot of different ventures. And most of them failed here.
Because many times the brand is smaller than the creator. And the image of the influencer is bigger. And if the image of the creator is bigger, then the brand will always be smaller.
But the brand will always have to be independent of the creator. And if the brand is independent and bigger than the creator, then it is considered successful.
This is one thing that India and globally many creators lack here.
Anyway, if I come back to NRC Watch, then maybe this was a problem that could have been faced here. And I think that in the coming time, they will be trying
How They Can Fix Anarc
Out some potential solutions and can do it. The number one solution they are doing right now is to fix the watch here with a software update.
The watch should be made better here than before. And by giving an update, all the problems that were coming can be solved as much as possible.
All the bugs in their app should be solved. And all the things in the watch should be solved.
And work on its version 2. They took a lot of criticism in version 1. And all the mistakes they made in version 1, should be solved in version 2.
And I myself would like to see how they bring version 2 and see how it is. Although I don’t think the second part of this is coming soon. But if they bring the second version of NRC, it will be a very good thing.
Here I would like to say that the price of the watch was initially very high. Because of which people did not like such an expensive watch here. Because whenever the price is high here, people resist it a lot. And the same thing happened with MKBHD this year. When they launched their wallpaper app. The wallpaper app was good. But the problem was that the pricing was too high.
Now people download wallpapers for free here. And he was asking people for money. Because of this, he got a lot of negative criticism here.
If here with the NRC watch, I think the strategy would be that we would have launched a watch for 6-7 thousand.
But when the festive season comes, we will try to sell it for 3-4 thousand. But what if the initial price of the watch was 3-4 thousand rupees? Then here you would get a very good push.
Meaning that to make a brand, take out your first product at a very low price. So that people know that there is something called NRC.
By the way, everyone still knows what exists in the name of NRC. But then people would know in a good way.
If there were small problems in the watch, then people would say that there are so many things in 3-4 thousand, what is the problem? You are getting a better feature than an expensive watch. This is how it was presented here.
And when the upcoming watches would come, then they could have been removed with a better feature at a higher price. So this could also have been done to stop the disaster of this watch. So this would also be my personal opinion.
Conclusion
I would also like to say that here, Shlop took a good move, the tech burner team, the layers team did a lot of things.
But I think they were doing it for the first time. Because reviewing a product is a different thing, making it is a different thing. And when you go to make it, you have to face problems.
Even I know some tech creators, they had to come up with a tech product, but their approach was different.
For example, I know a tech YouTuber, he has invested in a very big company. And that company is so big, that if you are watching this video, then you know the products of that company. And maybe many of you use the products of that company.
Some YouTubers work here, they invest their money in big companies. Because of which they get better results.
Because the company is professional, people are experienced, they know how the supply chain works. So the people there are experts, they work.
You are an expert in making videos, you do your job. And when you get the forces of both, you will get to see something better. So this is how things are here. This is the story of the Anarc watch.
