I'll admit to having had never heard of this firearms company. From Texas no less. But, the F-1 Firearms are some of their most ridiculous looking and most expensive ARs out there.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yo...htower-firearms.html

By BEN SHIMKUS, CONSUMER REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 02:24 EST, 6 March 2025 | UPDATED: 07:29 EST, 6 March 2025

A gun manufacturer, known for its high-end rifles and military-style firearms, has filed for bankruptcy.

Just over two years since its launch, Watchtower Firearms, the Texas-based manufacturer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the end of last month.

Watchtower, which set up shop in 2022, made a name for itself by catering to civilian, military, and law enforcement markets.

Last year, it acquired another manufacturer, F-1 Firearms, as it attempted to expand.

F-1 Firearms received a massive shout-out in 2022 after Donald Trump Jr. brought his son to the the luxury manufacturer's facilities to build his own AR-15, Chron reported.

Watchtower, led by former Raytheon executives and veterans, blitzed through influencer deals to raise brand awareness.

Social media ambassadors included artists, competitive shooters, and content creators like Nick 'Pew View' Johnson and former Arizona Republican Senate candidate Mark Lamb.

But the acquisition of the headline-grabbing company couldn't keep Watchtower's finances afloat.

Commenters on Reddit chided the company for its content strategy.

A Redditor joked, 'So you're telling me that collaborating with gunfluencers won't make a company successful?'

'I have yet to hear a good thing about them from people other than guntubers,' another alleged gun shopper said.

Products sold for anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000.

The manufacturer's signature Apache Double Stacked 9MM sold for $4,199.

Watchtower is not the only gun company that is struggling to meet sales expectations.

Gun sales in the US have been cooling off after spiking to a record 21.8 million in 2020.

In 2024, that number dropped to 15.3 million, according to the nonprofit gun violence publication The Trace.

Even Texas - arguably one of the most gun-friendly states - has seen sales nearly cut in half compared to the early pandemic rush.

For years, Republican presidents have typically meant bad news for the gun sales business.

Fears of tighter gun restrictions during Democratic administrations has historically driven sales of firearms in the U.S.

During the last Trump administration, United Sporting Cos filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after overstocking its supplies.

Remington Arms, the oldest American gun manufacturer, also filed for bankruptcy in the previous administration.

For now, Watchtower is still taking preorders for its latest product, The Bridger, a hunting rifle named after frontiersman Jim Bridger.

Maybe they just didn't have a good business plan. Still doing (wasting money) on the PR thing, even as they go down for the count.

During time of massive firearms purchasing, failure would only be the cause of the company itself.

Initially I read it wrong, the company wasn’t blaming anyone.

I may be in the minority, but I don’t watch gun review videos on YouTube or other media. They are just paid advertisements.

If you can't sell guns in America you're doing it wrong.

Not a good business model to have your only headline be your bankruptcy.

Never heard of them but a $4k pistol ? Eesh. High end AR ? I’ll stick with a bravo or colt or even aero and upgrade the trigger. If I’m feeling rich I’ll get a Daniel or Noveske. And save the difference for optics and ammo and range time.
Sucks to hear people losing jobs etc. but it happens. Blaming influencers is weak.

A lot of the public is turned off by influencers... this definitely includes the hunting, outdoors, and shooting markets. The inauthenticity is evident and there are only so many "new" buyers. People who are already into guns are more discerning buyers.

Also, how many AR companies can there possibly be when you can just as easily building your own? At some point, that bubble has to burst...

Anderson is cranking out 800,000 lowers per year, both for their own ARs and other customers. Not hard to do when you see how short the cycle time is to machine 3 forgings and 6 per cycle are loaded. Two Mazaks running around the clock can produce a lot of lowers. Redundant work for certain.

Not sure what to make of the agenda and purpose of the article?

What are we supposed to take from all of this?

Well, it's the Daily Mail

the article smells of AI

quote:

Products sold for anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000.

The manufacturer's signature Apache Double Stacked 9MM sold for $4,199.

I'm sure that had nothing to do with it.

My take is that the market for "high end" expensive firearms is drying up... particularly AR's. I would thing the average consumer who want's an AR pattern rifle is not looking for something that costs 4 digits... certainly not something that is 4 digits and the first digit isn't a 1.

I have heard of Watchtower and never once considered buying one... If I was going to buy a higher end AR I would certainly choose a bigger name with a longer history than some fresh start-up.

The gun industry is too volatile and re-active to politics to build a niche high-end company, in my opinion. I remember several years back new gun stores were popping up all over the place in CA because consumers were spending gobs of money on individual guns, scared by politics. Prices shot up and a bunch of people jumped into the retail side. Within a few years they are pretty much all gone because the market can't sustain that much supply of the higher end gear when a $500 rifle will do for 95% of us.

Just my take...

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
During time of massive firearms purchasing, failure would only be the cause of the company itself.

Initially I read it wrong, the company wasn’t blaming anyone.

I may be in the minority, but I don’t watch gun review videos on YouTube or other media. They are just paid advertisements.

You're not by yourself, I don't watch reviews either.

I don't pretend to know guntubers promotional fees, but I do know one YouTube influencer who was charging $16,000 USD per video to promote products and that was 2 years back. Was also misleading on the paid promotion by making it seem like only sent the product for free and neglected to divulge that was paid as well. The vendor whom outed the YouTuber said they could make 8 internet commercials for that.

One other thing, in times of "slumping sales" isn't the traditional response to lower prices so as to preserve customer loyalty? This does not seem to be happening broadly in the industry except perhaps for smaller and more plastic CCW pistols. The higher end products from long-time manufacturers don't seem to be coming down at all.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:
My take is that the market for "high end" expensive firearms is drying up... particularly AR's. I would thing the average consumer who want's an AR pattern rifle is not looking for something that costs 4 digits... certainly not something that is 4 digits and the first digit isn't a 1.

I have heard of Watchtower and never once considered buying one... If I was going to buy a higher end AR I would certainly choose a bigger name with a longer history than some fresh start-up.

The gun industry is too volatile and re-active to politics to build a niche high-end company, in my opinion. I remember several years back new gun stores were popping up all over the place in CA because consumers were spending gobs of money on individual guns, scared by politics. Prices shot up and a bunch of people jumped into the retail side. Within a few years they are pretty much all gone because the market can't sustain that much supply of the higher end gear when a $500 rifle will do for 95% of us.

Just my take...

Could be anything, in business ~ many things can lead to restructuring Ch. 11.

Seems so many want to attribute it to something that fits their narrative but the fact is that we don't really know.

Wish them well and many companies do survive and move on, some do not, but that's life in business .... not politics.

I rented one of their 2011s at my local shop and put a couple hundred rounds theough it. It was kind of "meh". The safety was poorly fit and mushy, the slide to frame fit was decent and so was the accuracy. It was very heavy and the finish (i think it was DLC) felt very slick. The mags would not drop free and kept hanging up in the magwell

quote:

Watchtower, led by former Raytheon executives and veterans, blitzed through influencer deals to raise brand awareness.
.

So defense contractor executives payed off people they felt had influence, Then showed up with an overpriced product that provided no actual advantage over commercially available products that cost a fraction of what they were charging.

I mean, I can understand given their past career why they would have expected that to be successful......

IME everyone who starts in the “high end” is BS.

Unless there’s a history to point to, of working for established high-end makers - SVI, Colt Custom, Wilson, etc etc etc.