There’s much being made about the seemingly swift decline in Swiss watch sales. CultOfMac, as is their wont, is pointing to Apple Watch sales while still others are moaning about millennials who refuse to buy a $6,000 James Bond watch. So what’s really happening?
Watch exports fell 8.5 percent in the last three months, partially due to a slowdown in Asian luxury sales as well as a surge in the price of the Swiss franc. But the primary slowdown seems to be in the low end – meaning the $200-$500 mark – even as Switzerland is trying desperately to convince younger people that a $6,000 watch is a great deal.
So what’s happening? Smartwatches are killing the low end. I predicted this almost a year ago when I wrote about how the watch industry
Massive consolidation and a downturn as bad as the quartz crisis. This is the end for many smaller manufacturers, including the OEMs who provide garbage watches for Calvin Klein, Fossil and Burberry. Cheaper manufacturers with a history – Timex, Citizen and Seiko primarily – will survive because there will always be a market for an inexpensive timepiece that gets the job done. But everyone else is toast. The smartwatch – not just the Apple Watch – is eating most of the low end
Swiss watches, we’re told, are intrinsically better. They aren’t, really, simply because many aren’t made with the care that goes into even the lowest end electronic device. In fact, at this point most affordable watches are mass-produced junk. These are the watches that will disappear.
But a subset of the high-end watches – mostly still made by Swiss and German makers – are still intrinsically important as works of art and science and well worth the investment. But how do you tell that to someone who wants an Apple Watch in aluminum with an orange band but will settle for no watch at all?
Anecdotally many of us still say that the Apple Watch is rarely seen in the wild but this doesn’t mean they aren’t selling. There aren’t many watches in the wild at all these days and most of us aren’t watch hounds who notice exactly what people are wearing from across the room. But the smartwatches are out there. Apple has probably sold about 6 million of these things and they will sell more. Android devices are floating around and I’ve seen more Samsung watches in New York than Omegas. Things are changing.
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People are often deceived by some famous brands, which they will buy as useless commodities to feel they are distinctive. People require brands to experience the feeling of being special. People spend their money to have something from famous brands, like a bag from Coach or Louis Vuitton which they think they need, yet all that is just people’s wants. Steve McKevitt claims that people give more thought on features or brands when they need to buy a product, “It might even be the case that you do need a phone to carry out your work and a car to get around in, but what brand it is and, to a large extent, what features it has are really just want” (McKevitt, 145), which that means people care about brands more than their needs. Having shoes from Louis Vuitton or shoes that cost $30 it is designed for the same use.
Developers at Apple have combined the convenience of digital watches with cellphone technology to create a watch that user cannot not only keep time with but also makes phones calls, set calendar reminders, check the weather, and track their activity level.
From Hans Wildorf's Rolex company to Ben Clymer's specialist online magazine over a century later, we remain fascinated with watches to this day
Rivalry among existing Firms: This force seems to be a strong force in the industry. Other competitors are aggressively competing with Apple. This other firms have almost the same technological strength and capacities with Apple, they are vast in innovation and some actually spend more on research and development and advertisement more than Apple making it easy for consumers to switch brand whenever they are not getting satisfaction from the brand they already
Meaning corporations purposely make products that won’t last or will be otherwise social unacceptable to own in the near future. This is all a trick to cause the consumer to buy more of a product and spend more money. According to Annie Leonard, author of The Story of Stuff, “[designers] discussed how fast they can make stuff break and still leave the consumer with enough faith in the product to go buy another one” (11). This fuels consumption further than necessary and most importantly at an alarmingly wasteful way. Nothing shows more obsolescence than the technology market with computers and phones. Giles Salde wrote an award winning book about technology obsolescence and explains “a century of advertising has conditioned us to want more, better, and faster from any consumer good we purchase, in 2004 about 315 million working PCs were retired in North America” (Planned Obsolescence viewpoint). This shows the affect caused by corporations to increase profits at the cost of resources. They use new software and products being incompatible with previous versions of electronics to force consumers to buy more. You see this commonly with televisions, gaming systems, computers, and many other electronic
Furthermore, Under Armour’s goal is to expand their wearable watches and bracelets into built-in sensors that go into the clothing they create. This product will allow consumers to be accessory free and still will be able to track their activity levels. This innovative idea will surely bring in consumers, and provide Under Armour with the push they need to directly compete
Then there’s Apple. Their products are generally always innovative and meet some consumer unmet need so well that people literally fall in love with their brand and products they pump out each and every year. Yes, there have been some duds (the Cube is one that comes to mind), but it doesn’t happen often.
People will pre-order things months in advance just so they have a leg up on everyone. There are people who stay in-line and camp out over night, just so they make sure they can get their hands on the new technology. People are willing to pay an outrageous amount of money for new ways to use the Internet like phones, tablets, video game consoles, computers, laptops, and now even TV’s have Internet capabilities. It’s becoming an Arms Race between the companies trying to make the next best product and the consumers trying to get a hold of that
Recently, the Garmin Company launched a brand new Garmin FR10 GPS watch to compete with GPS watches. When compared to other brands Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS Watch available with great functionality and features. It is the ideal choice for the people who need to track exact details about their workouts. It is the low-priced GPS watch but it includes ultimate features, first of all it is highly durable than a cell phone and the smartwatch also opens up new options. It is the stylish and elegant watch the simple GPS captures every mile.
...lity in the near future is questionable. Without the qualities of Steve Jobs at the helm of leadership in Apple, I think that the company will not be very successful in the future. This can be demonstrated by the slow or gradual capture of the smart phone market by Samsung with their Samsung S3, S4 and S5 devices which have already eaten away the iPhone market share (Chaston, 2012). I believe that the leadership and strategic foresight of Steve Jobs was too important to Apple that his death rocked the very foundation of the company.
A watch is a timepiece worn on one’s wrist fastened by a strap or band. They are a common item of purchase for men, women and children. I noticed that there are fewer people wearing watches; most if not all rely on electronic devices for the time, such as mobile phones and tablets. Personally, I feel bare without a watch. My wrist is aware of the absent weight. “For everyone who falls in love with a watch, a watch is the one item that goes everywhere with you, so that even in that lonely motel room on a business trip, or sitting as I am right now stranded in an airport, you can look at your watch and feel a sense of comfort. A watch is your best mechanical friend, wherever you go.” (Stone, 2006)
Just like the individuals who comprise the human race, these curious creatures come in all shapes and sizes, each with its own beauty. My watch, an example of those delicate timepieces fastened with a band of gold or silver, resembles a bracelet. Yet, there are watches with thicker straps; some with leather, plastic, and even bands of bulky cloth; watches with bold heavy-set numerals; timepieces with only dots or diamond-shaped accents to represent the twelve hours; as well as the contemporary digital watch. Despite the endless assortment of watches, each serves the very same purpose: creating a framework in which those who ride the roller coaster of modernized life must run th...
Despite the facts that many of the most powerful markets on the planet operate within the capitalistic principle of free trade. Despite the fact that Western Europe is now border-free within its bounds and uses the same common currency. And despite the fact that the USSR s Iron Curtain has fallen more than a decade ago, the people of this world have never expressed their need to belong to a national identity as much as they do today. In response to international organized terrorism, mass media and political pressure, the average consumer today is looking for security, truth, and for a product tailored to his need. A product that reflects the international society we live in today but also carries the cultural identity of the consumer buying it. Or at least carries one that can be compatible with it.
Another major question lies in brands. People pay attention to brands so much, it becomes the biggest factor in pricing an object. A computer with the apple sign costs ten times as much as a similar product, a Louis Vuiton handbag costs soar higher than the price of a Rolex watch, and designer shoes cost a fortune to buy-when something without that brand of similar quality costs a lot less. It seems that people pay more attention to the sign that states the product is good rather than whether the product is worth its exorbitant price tag.