There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/consumer/fl-bz-watch-seller-layoffs-20170131-story.html
The Florida state corporations search page at search.sunbiz.org has an Swiss Watch International that ends in 2012, the Clearlake date I think, and another that starts at that time, undergoes a name change (Swordfish Merger Sub, Inc.?), then gets shut down for not filing a 2017 annual report.
Ultimately, they were probably another Amazon.com victim, since their main business seemed to be selling their own and others' products online. Places like Jomashop have managed to live on because buyers trust them not to sell pirated knock-offs, unlike Amazon.
If you liked Red Line, the trademark and IP can probably be had for a few hundred dollars from the creditors. You could then hook up with a Chinese watch maker on Alibaba and start your own watch line. :-) The founder of Abington, a maker of pilot watches for women, got started via Alibaba for manufacturing and her network of female pilot friends for customers.
Found another article from earlier this year, in the South Florida Business Journal, with some more details:
https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2017/01/31/swiss-watch-international-closes-business-lays-off.html
Stop the presses. Their Twitter account has risen from the dead:
Worldofwatches @worldofwatchesFollow http://Worldofwatches.com IS BACK: New Ownership, New Management, New Website & Absolutely Better Deals! SHOP: https://www.worldofwatches.com/ 11:28 AM - 13 Jul 2017
The new website looks similar to Jomashop, down to the filtering search feature, although the database for the search factors doesn't seem to be completely populated yet. Is the current website different from before? Is so, maybe Joma bought them. The customer service address is in Brooklyn, just like Joma, although not the same address as Joma; before they were based in Florida.
https://websolutionsnyc.com/world-of-watches/
=====
WorldofWatches.com is the fourth largest watch retailer and number one pure-player in North America. Over 1.4 million watch enthusiasts visit WorldofWatches.com each month. In addition, WorldofWatches.com ranks higher than many other popular online retailers, including Amazon.com in customer rating reviews.
The Problem:
Jomashop had acquired an ailing rival company, World of Watches. They needed to integrate the WoW website into their own eCommerce operations, taking over its sales without losing the valuable SEO setup. The WoW servers were destined for shutdown in just two weeks. With this short of a timeline, Jomashop turned to their longtime trusted partner, Web Solutions NYC, to get the job done in just two weeks.
The Solution:
The new World of Watches site, powered by Magento 2, was launched in just ten days thanks to round-the-clock work by Web Solutions NYC. The new website looked amazing, and Jomashop was overjoyed: “It was great to see our two teams come together to hit this aggressive launch timeframe to go live in 10 days,” said Osher Karnowsky, General Manager of Jomashop. “Magento and Web Solutions NYC came through in a big way to set a new record for a Magento 2 implementation”
=====
Even more details here:
https://magento.com/blog/customer-stories/we-launched-magento-site-10-days