Anthony Dzamefe

From venturing into a business accidentally, Anthony Dzamefe has created the first African watch brand, Caveman and is set to compete on the global market.

Dzamefe in the last five years has carved a niche with his brand to com­pete with the best in the space.

In 2018, from a small shop at Adjiringanor in Accra, he nurtured and researched about the dream for nearly three years after which the maiden brand of Blue Caveman watches hit the market.

Five years later, Ghanaians have become familiar with watches.

But how did it all start?

In 2015, young Dzamefe, without any knowledge about watches, re­signed from a hotel job and ventured into business.

He sold suits and petty items to make a living; but that did not last. With frustration setting in, he walked into a shop to get a watch with just GHȻ50 in hand but the watch was priced at GHȻ150, to his surprise.

Dzamefe walked away and decid­ed to search online where he found a watch which he bought at GHȻ50 and posted on social media. Surprisingly, it attracted a buyer.

That birthed the idea to go into selling watches on the streets and university campuses in Accra to make a living.

The ambitious Dzamefe wanted more so he added to his portfolio the art of repairing the watches, making leather straps, breaking watches apart and essentially reverse engineering in order to come out with something since there was no African watch brand on the market amidst millions of watches sold across the continent.

After satisfying his curiosity on watches and creating a unique idea to promote his brand, the first product, the iconic Blue Volta model of about 50 pieces were produced under the Caveman brand.

The first 50 pieces took about two to three months to sell and Dz­amefe re­stocked to produce more.

Dz­amefe managed to demys­tify the idea that watches from Africa were inferior by conducting a survey to understand people’s pref­erence for watches in order to sell faster.

He was intentional about going the extra mile to guarantee quality to make a statement on the market be­cause “no one should regret ever buy­ing my brand of watches; my buyers must rather become ambassadors.”

The plan was to run the business in five-year batches. Following a great first season in Ghana, Dzamefe is step­ping into phase two, predominantly entering the global space (Dubai, UK,USA, Nigeria and other African and European countries).

The global approach demanded a showroom of international standards hence the recent opening of the grand showroom at East Legon.

Now, Dzamefe considers the brand ready for the competition in the global space, following the great work done on his products.

The brand had a few complica­tions in terms of designs and lately implemented native elements into its designs to poke the sentiments of Africans and beyond.

It was, however, not without chal­lenges as his mother did not accept the fact that his brilliant son who studied science at the Senior High School and could also become a bank­er had devoted his time to making watches.

There were also financial challeng­es as well as the challenge of working with people.

Aside producing watches, Dzamefe can also draw, write poems, play bas­ketball, golf and piano among others.

With his talent, he is able to design his own watches, create commercials, write scripts for adverts, take photos and write a book.

Dzamefe started basic school from Mawuli Primary and went to St. Paul’s in 2007, all in the Volta Region. In 2009, he went to the University of Pro­fessional Studies, Accra (UPSA) where he did Business Management and later studied Business Administration.

He recently finished a Stone Setting course in Switzerland to enhance his production.

He has won several Awards includ­ing Emy Awards, Brand of the Year, Future of Ghana Award, 30 Under 30 Awards, Entrepreneur of the Year, Company of the Year, Product of the Year and also got recognised by the Office of the President for excellence in innovation.

By Michael D. Abayateye