Rolex has gone to war with a children's watch

A local children's clock business has been issued letters from luxury watchmaker Rolex demanding it rebrands.

Rolex lawyers wrote to the two sisters in early January, claiming their "Oyster & Pop" company is similar to their "Oyster Perpetual" line of watches that cost between four to ten thousand pounds.

The company argues that the "average, reasonably well-informed consumer" would likely call the Rolex line of watches to mind when looking at the Oyster & Pop logo.

The letter added: "Consumers will inevitably be misled into thinking that your products emanate from Rolex."

Rolex has demanded the children's brand changes its logo, website domain and name to avoid further action.

The two sisters Emma Ross-McNairn and Sarah Davies dedicated their brand name to a street in Devon where they grew up, Oyster Bend. Their watches retail at around £20.

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Director Emma, 46, said the situation was "nonsense" and that the lawyer's letters had been "bullish".

She told the BBC: "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."

It is the second time Rolex have come after the company.

It previously beat the sisters by default in a trademark battle in the United States after Oyster & Pop proved unable to fund a legal battle over the issue.

During that battle, Rolex USA lawyers had told the sisters that changing their category filing from International Class (IC) 14 for clocks to IC28 Toys and Games would resolve the issue.

However, the sisters say now they have made the change, lawyers have since decided that this would no longer be enough.

Rolex has the largest market share of the Swiss luxury watch market.

Emma, who founded the business during the lockdown in 2020, says that the rebranding would ‘crush’ their small business.

SWNS

She has started a petition to try and stop the company.

She wrote: "The idea for Oyster&Pop was borne out of a desire to create a business that made fun, useful products for families.

"In the 2020 lockdowns, we used our savings to set up a small business to help support our families.

"We chose the name Oyster&Pop for our clocks because we were born and raised on a road called “Oyster Bend'' right by the beach in Devon. We wanted to connect the company’s identity to our family roots.

"We don’t think that ROLEX should be allowed to stop us from using a name that is not only substantially different from theirs but has personal connections to us as the founders of a small business.

"We have invested our savings in creating Oyster&Pop, including branding, stock, our website, packaging and marketing. If we were made to re-brand then the company would not have the resources to start all over again.

"We believe that there is NO RISK of anyone confusing us with ROLEX."

Their online petition on change.org has now gained nearly 57,000 signatures since it was first posted on January 10.

Oyster & Pop now have until January 30 to file a defence and counter-statement in response to the trademark application objection.

Emma told the BBC: 'You see Formula One, and Rolex sponsoring such huge events like that - you don't then think of a children's clock company.''

Indy100 reached out to Rolex for comment.

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