4 ms·

I'm a big fan of mechanical watches, but I think the market nowadays is too much about limited editions and unnecessary flamboyance. How many different "limited

I'm a big fan of mechanical watches, but I think the market nowadays is too much about limited editions and unnecessary flamboyance. How many different "limited" Omegan Moon Watches are there, for example?

huhtenberg 10y ago
The mid-to-high-end watch market (in the $1K-50K range) is going through a _major_ crisis right now. For past several years they've been aggressively raising prices due to steady Chinese demand, which now has been all but extinguished by a combination of several factors. So the watchmakers are now is a pickle of situation - watches are massively over-priced, their "normal" customers are well aware of that, but they can't lower prices without damaging their "lux" image and upsetting those who bought at a current price level. Some try and introduce cheapened models (like steel Pateks), but it doesn't seem to be working well for them. Fun times. http://wornandwound.com/bloomberg-reports-swiss-watch-exports-poised-worst-year-since-1984/ http://wornandwound.com/bloomberg-reports-swiss-watch-export...
- professorumbra 10y ago
  Interesting. It seems that the luxury image is more a burden than an advantage to many manufacturers. But the brand ownership is concentrated and the owners might not care about those kind of difficulties. I'm more of a fan of utilitarian watches anyways. Sinn for example makes very affordable tool watches that are also technologically on par with many luxury brands.
  - hanklazard 10y ago
    Yeah, Sinn is a great brand and probably in a price range that seems more sane than some of the entry level Rolex, Panerai, JLC, etc. I have a Sinn 556i and it is probably one of my favorite watches. As much as I don't want to have two Sinn's out of principle, the 104 is also a gorgeous watch. Another point about Sinn is that they use pretty standard movements, like the ETA 2824, which could easily be swapped out or serviced by most any watchmaker--it's this ease of servicing that is making me think twice about moving up into some of the more expensive Swiss/German pieces with unique in-house movements. For those reading this who are not familiar with mechanical watch service costs, fancier Swiss watches like AP and others can cost 1500$ or more just for the watch equivalent of a "tune-up."
  - eps 10y ago
    You say Sinn, I say Damasko :) http://www.damasko-watches.com/ http://www.damasko-watches.com/ Very impressive line-up of in-house technologies for watches that retail for a couple of grand or less.
    - professorumbra 10y ago
      Yeah, Damasko is another good example. Their metallurgy tech is really impressive.
- blawson 10y ago
  Do you have any thoughts on these other factors, on the drop in demand? Sounds interesting to me. I'm not a collector but do fall for the lustre of high-end watches. I see a few articles on the crackdown on corruption, strong franc, and younger generations being poorer. But surely China is minting huge numbers of new solidly middle and upper-middle class customers all the time?
  - huhtenberg 10y ago
    From what I understand the dip was mostly due to an anti-corruption crackdown, because a lot of watches were bought as gifts/bribes. That's actually not specific to China, expensive watches have made an excellent bribe, but apparently Chinese were hoarding them in bulk for that purpose.

huhtenberg 10y ago

The mid-to-high-end watch market (in the $1K-50K range) is going through a _major_ crisis right now. For past several years they've been aggressively raising prices due to steady Chinese demand, which now has been all but extinguished by a combination of several factors. So the watchmakers are now is a pickle of situation - watches are massively over-priced, their "normal" customers are well aware of that, but they can't lower prices without damaging their "lux" image and upsetting those who bought at a current price level. Some try and introduce cheapened models (like steel Pateks), but it doesn't seem to be working well for them. Fun times. http://wornandwound.com/bloomberg-reports-swiss-watch-exports-poised-worst-year-since-1984/ http://wornandwound.com/bloomberg-reports-swiss-watch-export...

professorumbra 10y ago
Interesting. It seems that the luxury image is more a burden than an advantage to many manufacturers. But the brand ownership is concentrated and the owners might not care about those kind of difficulties. I'm more of a fan of utilitarian watches anyways. Sinn for example makes very affordable tool watches that are also technologically on par with many luxury brands.
- hanklazard 10y ago
  Yeah, Sinn is a great brand and probably in a price range that seems more sane than some of the entry level Rolex, Panerai, JLC, etc. I have a Sinn 556i and it is probably one of my favorite watches. As much as I don't want to have two Sinn's out of principle, the 104 is also a gorgeous watch. Another point about Sinn is that they use pretty standard movements, like the ETA 2824, which could easily be swapped out or serviced by most any watchmaker--it's this ease of servicing that is making me think twice about moving up into some of the more expensive Swiss/German pieces with unique in-house movements. For those reading this who are not familiar with mechanical watch service costs, fancier Swiss watches like AP and others can cost 1500$ or more just for the watch equivalent of a "tune-up."
- eps 10y ago
  You say Sinn, I say Damasko :) http://www.damasko-watches.com/ http://www.damasko-watches.com/ Very impressive line-up of in-house technologies for watches that retail for a couple of grand or less.
  - professorumbra 10y ago
    Yeah, Damasko is another good example. Their metallurgy tech is really impressive.
blawson 10y ago
Do you have any thoughts on these other factors, on the drop in demand? Sounds interesting to me. I'm not a collector but do fall for the lustre of high-end watches. I see a few articles on the crackdown on corruption, strong franc, and younger generations being poorer. But surely China is minting huge numbers of new solidly middle and upper-middle class customers all the time?
- huhtenberg 10y ago
  From what I understand the dip was mostly due to an anti-corruption crackdown, because a lot of watches were bought as gifts/bribes. That's actually not specific to China, expensive watches have made an excellent bribe, but apparently Chinese were hoarding them in bulk for that purpose.