The Beginning

The company was founded by Albert Cooper shortly after World War II., Cooper leased small service counters inside department stores where he repaired watches and other household items. The business was originally more of a repair and service operation than a watch brand.  

The Mall Era

As enclosed shopping malls became popular across America, the business evolved into a kiosk and mall-store concept known as Cooper’s Fixery. Customers could have watches repaired, batteries replaced, and bands adjusted while shopping.  

When Al Cooper’s sons, Martin Cooper and David Cooper, took over in the early 1970s, they made a strategic decision to focus almost entirely on watches and watch services. The stores were renamed Cooper’s Watchworks.  

The Dakota Name

In 1999, the company officially adopted the name Dakota Watch Company. By this time, Dakota had evolved into both a retailer and under the guidance of Martin Cooper, a designer of its own branded watches. The Dakota brand expanded well beyond its own stores, reaching thousands of retail partners across all seven continents through trusted global channels. As digital commerce emerged, the company also established a robust direct-to-consumer presence, positioning itself for long-term growth in the online marketplace.

Wholesale Expansion

In the early 2000s, the company began developing innovative outdoor and clip-on watches designed for activities such as fishing, hiking, and hands-on work environments. These products gained significant traction in the outdoor market, prompting a strategic shift in the business.

Dakota expanded into wholesale distribution and repositioned itself as a standalone product brand rather than solely a retailer. This transition was supported by earlier groundwork, including the creation of a dedicated sales division around 2002 to grow distribution through outdoor shops and catalogs, which ultimately scaled into thousands of wholesale accounts over time.

Global Commerce

Dakota Watch Company expanded the reach of its brand by strategically leveraging online sales marketplaces and building a global distribution infrastructure that allowed products to move efficiently from factory to customer. By shifting toward a direct-to-consumer and marketplace-driven model, the company was able to place its watches in front of a significantly broader international audience beyond traditional retail and wholesale channels.

This approach included developing a streamlined supply chain that ships watches directly from manufacturing partners into online channels worldwide, enabling faster fulfillment, improved scalability, and consistent product availability across regions. As a result, Dakota successfully extended its presence into global markets, strengthening its position as an accessible and widely distributed outdoor watch brand.