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Are we seeing the end of the swiss watch industry?
Are we seeing the end of the swiss watch industry?
#swiss #watch #industry
“This Watch, That Watch”
Are smartwatches and wearables going to kill the watch market?
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Came for the watches, stayed for the business insight
The decline is caused by a higher cost of living and wages not increasing in accordance for the average person. Yea Rolex and other high end watches are alright because their customer base is made up of wealthy people. Tissot, Hamilton, Longines, etc, these brands cater more towards the average working man. And we just can’t afford it anymore. Everyone has had smartphones for the last 10 years at least. It’s not the phones, it’s the PRICES. For something that isn’t even necessary unless you are an enthusiast. Why do you think brands like Casio are so highly regarded. Timex too, those are the watches being naught and used.
At 42, a lot of my friends and I have reached milestones the last decade where they would have celebrated with a Rolex purchase. Unfortunately, it was the same time one had to jump through so many hoops, pay above MSRP, have previous purchases, etc. etc . .that it just turned them off of high end watches in general
fashion watches are like handbags for men. they just might go out of fashion. smart watches are all the rage. i have some fancy watches in my home. i wear the smart watch. it has utility. after the mobile arrived – you always had the time on you. watches needed to find a new role – an accessory. now my smart watch has health monitoring utility. my fathers watch alerted him before he had a stroke. he went to the doctor. got sorted just in time. rolex cant compete with that. the mega expensive watches are not for wearing, they are for investing in and also laundering money across borders.
My favorite 2024 is the Prospex Limited Edition 1965 Recreation European Exclusive in Gradation Island Blue. The dial is stunning and the contrast when on a white strap is to die for. I will get my hands on one from amzwatch
Impressive video, thanks, own 2 Omega quartz Seamaster watches, 2265.80 and 2541.80 bought 24 years ago , price around $1100/1200 dollars each in today’s money back then, new, try to buy a new Seamaster for that money today, yes, quartz, but they work and using these for 24 years, do not need anything else.
YouTube suggested this video to watch, this time it was correct, interesting content.
I just like having a full mechanical watch on my wrist. Price/brand unimportant. Prefer automatic (self winding). I have a $300 Seiko and a Rolex (Yacht-Master) worth about $15k. I can’t explain the appeal. Having that little spring-driven machine with me is comforting somehow. I sleep with one on 😅
Well done video. I tend to believe your take on the mid priced small brands. An intersting, quality watch satisfies the wearer and gets favorable notice now snd then, especially from other watch afficianados. You may impress non afficiandos with a fake Rolex, of that's your goal. Probably nobody here in that category. With the exception of two vintage Omegas i inherited, all my watches are under 1000.00. My two most recent are Islanders…interesting and affordable.
If Rolex charged the same margins as they did 40 years ago, they'd start at a couple grand.
Can you share where you got all the data from?
Thanks
Sales of cameras , land lines , and home internet is dying thanks to iphone technology watches have become jewelry
Fascinating!!
Beauty is always going to impress. That is why on my watch collecting I focus on the beauty and the story and not the brand.
Before entering watch collecting I worn a 48mm smartwatch with 2GB memory, music, speakers, phone calls, 2weeks of battery life. Gifted it as a present and now I own 10 mechanical/automatic and 2 quartz (the dress ones, small second+chrono).
I have watched you for a long time. I think you should focus more of beautiful watches instead of brand watches.
Love your channel.. As always, John Leatherworks
Mike, It is so refreshing to hear your unique perspective on the watch industry in every new video. No two are the same. Makes me think and digest your perspective. Most of the time I end up agreeing with you. I do enjoy your perspective on the watch industry all of the time because it is so refreshingly unique. I think it is because you lead the dialogue and don’t tell us what we should think. Instead, you let us connect your dots and make up our own minds like thought leaders should!
No. Apple Watch ? Seriously ?
Excellent. A seriously amount of work went into making this video. Respect.
Tldr: no of course
I do not own a Smart Watch today despite its increased functionality because of its most glaring Achilles heal— you need to plug it in every other day to keep it running! It is bad enough that your mobile computer and cell phone can’t go for days without a charge. If Apple or another manufacture could fix this issue, then they would gain the next round of buyers. On the other hand, watches are to men what jewelry is to women. There will always be a market for hand made time pieces.
I mean most swiss companies literally sourced their movements from Swiss manufacturers like ETA and many non Swiss companies like Rolex were sourcing their movements from Germany and these so called giant's of the industry literally outsourced part's everywhere, JLC ( French by the way ) was the first watch maker to aspire to produce everything in house and the so called big dog's like Patek and Vacheron were cueing at JLC's door to get their hands on the best movements, the reason these companies reside in Switzerland has nothing to do with Swiss precision and everything to do with manufacturing in a war neutral country, in short the swiss watchmaking industry is a complete fraud, the best watchmakers are not Swiss the best watchmakers from the entire globe simply decided to set up shop in neutral Switzerland, is it the end for the Swiss watch industry? Who cares mechanical watch production will be around forever and the industry roots go far deeper then Switzerland and quality outsourcing companies will simply rule again, they can put their prices up and up and up they're simply pricing them shelves out of the market giving way to newcomers like CW and a resurgence for brands like longines and Heur, eventually the big Swiss will have to revert back to broaden their market range, all apart from Rolex who have had a reputable more affordable luxury watch brand for well lets call it a century now and the recent push from Tudor is not an accident, Rolex know whats coming and one day they'll be at the pinnacle of swiss watchmaking for the super rich and the pinnacle of affordable luxury for the working and middle class ( Disclaimer this rant was brought to you by a man whom drank a lot of scotch )
I have an Apple Watch Series 3 that I use as a workout tracking and sleep tracking tool, but that’s about it. For everything else, I’ve started building a watch collection. There’s nothing that feels better than a well built watch
It's not the decline if status. It is the cost and availability of the Swiss watch upper echelon.
You want swiss?
Hamilton, Longines, Tudor.
Want affordable?
Seiko, citizen and many micro brands.
Micro brands will sell you a plethura: eta, selita, peacock, seagulls, seiko, miyota powered watches…and affordable.
Apple watch requires you own an apple phone and a need to charge.
I believe smart watches are not better than classic ones (yet). It's not about heritage, amazingness of old-fashioned timepieces and other watch fans' subjective reasons.
Smart watches are either pretty expensive or have short battery life (days/weeks vs months/years for quartz watches) but still show nothing keeping their screen freaking black literally all the time! Bothering about batteries more often than once per year and pressing buttons/perform some gestures to make a watch to tell time ruin user experience.
If you are a in a low rung job, it's OK to wear a smart watch.
As you move on to professional jobs, smart watch wearers get the frown. Then you choose any of the analog: quartz, automatic, hand wind. Even digi- analog looks cool.
Think: casio, shock, even the Arnie seiko solar watch.
One day battery power for a watch that's void of true personality, its more of a slave/cult item
It's not quite a watch and not quite a phone.
I'm happier with a watch watch , either a casio or a christopher ward or the like, it's fun and more freedom not to be tired to tec.
Casio from terrorists to presidential we got you covered. 😅
Spending over a couple of grands on a watch is overkill most of the time it will be sitting in a case rather than on your wrist thereby defying its purpose. With rise in thefts and fakes it clearly doesn’t make sense. I would say Longines sits perfectly not too cheap not too expensive. Good quality for a fair price.
The crazy price hike of the watch companies is making people look for other luxury objects 🔴
I think the threat is the hype beasts and influencers who drive u prices and make watches unaffordable for normal people
China Watch Industry is No1
I don't care what anyone else thinks about the watches that I wear. As a watch enthusiast I look for value, style and heritage. For example, I gravitate towards Squale at the lower end, Longines and high end Seikos at my mid range and Grand Seiko at the higher end.
Mechanical watches are like fountain pens: obsolete, archaic instruments where the market is largely sustained by enthusiasts and east Asians, who look upon these objects as status symbols. In the last 10-12 years smart watches/phones and cheaper laptops have screwed mechanical watches and fountain pens respectively more than ever. In 10 years they will probably all but disappear.
I'm already seeing a trend emerging amongst younger people who are getting "back into watches".
Those are the people who grew up with smartphones and like the idea of a real dial instead of a screen with a virtual dial on their wrist.
This just shows how whole swiss market is a scam. smartwatches eating upp cheap mechanical and quarts watches. only left i to raise prices to be in luxary range without doing anything with the watches. like Longines raised the prices almost double and they still use the same movement. in my opinion they are not worth what they ask for their watches. if people started to thinkl a little instead of burning money on luxary watches prices would go down.
I think they are in the same pie because if smartwatches did not exist people would buy cheaper watches. i see many women have apple watch as fashion piece and it is absolutely not that. they would maybe have swatch or something else instead. you wear smartwatch on the same wrist as your watch, of course it is in the same pie they figt for your wrist space
I love watches, but there's no way I'd drop >£500 on a watch these days. I wear a Garmin GPS watch.
I can’t get my head around spending £5k on a mechanical watch that isn’t as accurate as a £50 Casio.
I want a watch that tells the time!!
I mean, there is an elephant in the room. I will give an example of a young university graduate, for example a junior doctor( resident doctor) in the UK. In the year 2000, the net monthly salary of junior doctor in dollars were something around 2500-2700, a rolex submariner then costed 3000-4000 dollars. In the year 2024 a rolex sub from AD is something like 9000-10000 dollars, while the monthly salary of a junior doctor( a resident doctor) in the uk stayed almost the same… the problem is stagnant wages in most of western world, rising living costs, rising luxury watch prices
I'm working class in Mexico and use the train daily. I see plenty of zoomers wearing Casios, Timex and some fashion watches and you can tell those are deliberate choices. Gen Y-ers wear Chinese watches with generic designs and cheap smartwatches. Either way, apple watches and phones are the aspirational product along with Michael Kors bags or Jordan shoes.
So, I would say that here there's plenty of people wearing watches but, in the working class, watches as a flex and aspirational products have been replaced by electronics, not just iPhones and smartwatches but large HD TV's and other electronics.
Does time even really matter anymore? Almost everyone has their head in a phone nowadays. Sit down, whip it out. As far as watches go, if the name is hard to pronounce you probably can't afford it.
Smartest content in the watch game. Learning something from every video.
I buy Chinese watches and they are spectacular for 250 bucks
What about resale value on the independent