Anthony Dzamefe: From Airport Signage to Building Ghana’s Luxury Watch Empire

Born in Ho, Ghana, he attended Saint Paul SHS in Denu studying Biological Science, then pursued Business Administration and Management at UPSA. Anthony started working at a hotel as a sales and marketing officer but was later demoted to human signage at the airport. After resigning, he began hawking wristwatches, initially reselling from boutique displays with a markup. To scale, he connected directly with suppliers importing replica watches from China and reinvested profits to grow his inventory.

He sold watches in car parks and university campuses, facing ridicule and family pressure to take a bank job arranged by his mother. Determined, he learned deeply about the watch industry, studied watch repairers, and even apprenticed with a cobbler to craft leather straps. After unsuccessful investment pitches, he used all his savings to produce his first original watch, the Blue Volta, priced at 250 cedis ($40) – under TimepieceGh, which focused on selling imported branded watches.

In January 2019, he launched Caveman Watches, Ghana’s first watch brand producing handcrafted timepieces, now with three showrooms and a factory. In 2021, he funded a fully functional borehole for the community of Kuroboi in Ghana’s Upper West Region with a donation of GH¢20,000.