Is the luxury watchmaker having an identity crisis?
(Image credit: Rolex / Oyster & Pop)
In the image above, we have a Rolex Oyster Perpetual priced at £5,400 and an Oyster & Pop children's educational clock priced at £20.87. Could the similarity between the two cause confusion? The Swiss luxury watchmaker is concerned that it could.
In the latest example of a potential David vs. Goliath branding battle, Rolex has ordered a little-known UK company to rebrand. It argues that consumers could be confused by its name and logo (See our guide to the best Apple Watch Series 8 prices or our pick of the best Apple Watch alternatives if you're looking for a watch that can do more than tell the time).
Oyster & Pop makes no claims as to the waterproofing of its clocks (Image credit: Oyster & Pop)
Rolex is the world's best-known manufacturer of luxury timepieces. The Devon-based family-run startup Oyster & Pop isn't, but it does make very colourful and didactic clocks to help children learn to tell the time. According to Rolex, that could lead to confusion with its famed Oyster range, which takes its name from the sealed case that the company invented in 1926, named after an appropriately high-end mollusc due to its waterproof properties.
According to the BBC, Rolex's legal team reckons that consumers will connect Oyster & Pop, which also sells stationery, highlighters, chore charts and fraction sets, with its brand, so it's told the company to change its name, logo and website url. It's already managed to block the company from applying for a trademark in the US since the British company couldn't afford to pay lawyers to argue its case, causing it to lapse.
Oyster & Pop, not to be confused with a luxury Swiss watchmaker (Image credit: Oyster & Pop)
But sisters Emma Ross-McNairn and Sarah Davies, who founded Oyster & Pop in 2020, say they don't believe anyone could confuse the brands. They insist that they didn't take their name from Rolex's trademarked brand but from Oyster Bend, a road in Torbay, South Devon, where they lived when they were growing up.
Ross-McNairn told the BBC that changing the brand name now would "crush the business." She added: "You see Formula One and Rolex sponsoring such huge events like that, you don't then think of a children's clock company. If someone says oyster to me, the first thing I think of is the Oyster Card on the tube, not Rolex watches... I don't think anyone could confuse our clocks as coming from Rolex."
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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.
