The Omega Moonwatch Dilemma: Buying the Hesalite vs. Sapphire Sandwich vs. MoonSwatch

Here is my version of @Omeganut ‘s POV.

TLDR; it does not dilute.

Why? Allow me a few analogies:

Analogy 1: If you are Lexus owner, and Toyota comes up with a scooter and puts a Lexus branded leather seat on the scooter, will you suddenly overnight feel your Lexus in your garage loses value?

Analogy 2: Assuming you have a Picasso on your wall which is authentic and tomorrow the Museum of Modern Arts issues detailed color posters of the same artwork framed up for sale as souvenirs, do you suddenly wake up feeling angry with MOMA because you feel your Picasso suddenly loses value?

Let me reveal to you where the root cause of this value degradation perception comes from: it is the amount the person associates his/her watch purchase as purely a status symbol.

In the world of luxury, if you know, you know. If you own a 1861, any omega fan will know that it is a professional moonwatch. If you own a 3861 sapphire sandwich, any enthusiast will know once they look for the clues. Because if you know, you know. Will the true watch enthusiast now look down at your 1861 or 3861 just coz of the MoonSwatch? If they are out to troll you to see you squirm coz YOU care - of course yes! But if you knew what you bought and why you bought it and it had nothing to do with being a flex - the moonswatch has nothing on you. 

The only people who are all hot, bothered and flustered now are those who spent money buying the moonwatch ‘coz a major part of why they bought it was they wanted to brag or flex that they are better than others. You will have to ask yourself honestly: Are you that person? Well, if you are, then I actually hate to break it to you, the problem isn’t the Moonswatch, the problem is actually… the man in the mirror.

This thing about watches as status symbols is unfortunately the dark side of the watch hobby so I’m with @Omeganut - I am incredibly disappointed in the YouTubers propagating this devaluation ideology - and the truth is they do so to get the clicks and to go viral - as controversy sells!

Damn!  About 200x better said than me!!!

You know that famous saying by Blaise Pascal?  "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."

Incredibly succinct and brilliant!

I think it's a big positive for Omega, anything that pushes their name outside the enthusiast space is a good thing. Rolex didn't become what it is by only appealing to enthusiasts, they flogged their brand at every opportunity that came up over the years, and still do. 

Personally I think the Pluto is among the nicest versions, and will likely pick one up at some point when they become available online. 

I made the mistake of watching the first 2 minutes of the Bark & Jack YT review of the Moonswatches, and promptly unsubscribed from his channel.  All the YT commentary about potential "dilution" of the Omega brand is, to my cynical ears / eyes, nothing more than an attempt to get more YT views.

I do quite a bit of work on pricing strategy for multinationals, and the idea that the Moonswatch will somehow harm the Omega brand or cannibalize sales of the Moonwatch Professional is very hard to imagine.

Let me use a car analogy to make the point:

• The top-of-the-line Porsche Cayman is the GT4 RS.  It's MSRP is $141k, without any of the cool options.  After you click a few things, MSRP is gonna be like $175k.  But, MSRP is a fiction.  They'll be fetching something upward of $300k on the different auction sites, like Dupont Registry
• Meanwhile, a base 718 Cayman goes for ~$60k
• The price ratio is only 5x in the case of going from a base Cayman to a Cayman GT4 RS
• If you have the means to purchase a GT4 RS, the fact that the base model exists will NEVER influence you to forego the purchase of the top-of-the-line model.  If you are devoted to track days, if you're an enthusiast, if you're a car collector, and you have money, you will purchase the GT4 RS.  Hell, if you have the means, you probably already own 10 cars, and you're just adding the GT4 RS to your garage, which also has a Bentley Continental GT Speed, an Aston Martin Vantage, and an AC Cobra, amongst others
• Now, maybe you're rich and you just want to dip your toes in the water, and test drive the Cayman for a while, before deciding whether or not to buy the GT4 RS.  Sure, you might go ahead and buy the base model.  And you'll either decide to then get the GT4 RS or not.  But, in  no scenario did that cannibalize GT4 RS sales
• If you're a diehard enthusiast, and your GRAIL is the GT4 RS, you ain't gonna settle for the base Cayman.  You may buy the base Cayman today, but that's only because it's a placeholder for your real GRAIL.  In which case, the base model did not cannibalize sales of the GT4 RS
• There are new car buyers in the market, who don't know much about cars, who all of a sudden have some extra cash and want to get something that looks cool.  If they got enough scratch to lease a $60k car, they might lease a base Cayman.  And, then, after a few years, they've gotten another promotion at work, they fall into a mountain of cash, they win the lottery, or they off a wealthy relative who's designated them in their will, etc., etc., and then they think, "Wow, I really liked the base Cayman, and the GT4 RS is THE top-of-the-line, let me get that!"

Now, this is all a long-winded way to say, in the case of the base Cayman, in no way did it ever cannibalize sales of the GT4 RS, and the price ratio there is only 5x.  

The price ratio between the Moonswatch and the Moonwatch Professional is ~20x.

In the same way that a GT4 RS owner might buy an extra base Cayman, to use the base Cayman as their "beater" car, Moonwatch Professional owners might buy a Moonswatch as their "beater" or "fun" watch or to gift to friends and relatives.  In the same way that somebody who doesn't know anything about cars, but wants a Porsche, might buy a base Cayman, and then one day want the GT4 RS, people who aren't into watches might buy the Moonswatch for the awesome colors, and then learn about watches, and then decide their grail is the Moonwatch Professional.

In the meantime, I'm busy unsubscribing from all the Youtubers who are cynically trying to get more views by wringing their hands over "Emergency!  Emergency!  Click here to see 'What does this mean for the Omega brand???'"

I made the mistake of watching the first 2 minutes of the Bark & Jack YT review of the Moonswatches, and promptly unsubscribed from his channel.  All the YT commentary about potential "dilution" of the Omega brand is, to my cynical ears / eyes, nothing more than an attempt to get more YT views.

I do quite a bit of work on pricing strategy for multinationals, and the idea that the Moonswatch will somehow harm the Omega brand or cannibalize sales of the Moonwatch Professional is very hard to imagine.

Let me use a car analogy to make the point:

• The top-of-the-line Porsche Cayman is the GT4 RS.  It's MSRP is $141k, without any of the cool options.  After you click a few things, MSRP is gonna be like $175k.  But, MSRP is a fiction.  They'll be fetching something upward of $300k on the different auction sites, like Dupont Registry
• Meanwhile, a base 718 Cayman goes for ~$60k
• The price ratio is only 5x in the case of going from a base Cayman to a Cayman GT4 RS
• If you have the means to purchase a GT4 RS, the fact that the base model exists will NEVER influence you to forego the purchase of the top-of-the-line model.  If you are devoted to track days, if you're an enthusiast, if you're a car collector, and you have money, you will purchase the GT4 RS.  Hell, if you have the means, you probably already own 10 cars, and you're just adding the GT4 RS to your garage, which also has a Bentley Continental GT Speed, an Aston Martin Vantage, and an AC Cobra, amongst others
• Now, maybe you're rich and you just want to dip your toes in the water, and test drive the Cayman for a while, before deciding whether or not to buy the GT4 RS.  Sure, you might go ahead and buy the base model.  And you'll either decide to then get the GT4 RS or not.  But, in  no scenario did that cannibalize GT4 RS sales
• If you're a diehard enthusiast, and your GRAIL is the GT4 RS, you ain't gonna settle for the base Cayman.  You may buy the base Cayman today, but that's only because it's a placeholder for your real GRAIL.  In which case, the base model did not cannibalize sales of the GT4 RS
• There are new car buyers in the market, who don't know much about cars, who all of a sudden have some extra cash and want to get something that looks cool.  If they got enough scratch to lease a $60k car, they might lease a base Cayman.  And, then, after a few years, they've gotten another promotion at work, they fall into a mountain of cash, they win the lottery, or they off a wealthy relative who's designated them in their will, etc., etc., and then they think, "Wow, I really liked the base Cayman, and the GT4 RS is THE top-of-the-line, let me get that!"

Now, this is all a long-winded way to say, in the case of the base Cayman, in no way did it ever cannibalize sales of the GT4 RS, and the price ratio there is only 5x.  

The price ratio between the Moonswatch and the Moonwatch Professional is ~20x.

In the same way that a GT4 RS owner might buy an extra base Cayman, to use the base Cayman as their "beater" car, Moonwatch Professional owners might buy a Moonswatch as their "beater" or "fun" watch or to gift to friends and relatives.  In the same way that somebody who doesn't know anything about cars, but wants a Porsche, might buy a base Cayman, and then one day want the GT4 RS, people who aren't into watches might buy the Moonswatch for the awesome colors, and then learn about watches, and then decide their grail is the Moonwatch Professional.

In the meantime, I'm busy unsubscribing from all the Youtubers who are cynically trying to get more views by wringing their hands over "Emergency!  Emergency!  Click here to see 'What does this mean for the Omega brand???'"

I’m going to spoil the party with this one but after drooling over the Speedmaster Moon for years I finally got one a few months ago, the sapphire sandwich.

I found the crown very difficult to use which for a hand winding watch is a sin…… the crown just sits a bit lower than the half way mark on the depth of the case and this position just makes it difficult to wind, now I haven’t got huge sausage fingers and I have been collecting watches for 50 years, since I was 10years old where hand winding was the norm in the 60’s and 70’s so I can say with absolute experience that I found this to be an issue….. for me anyway, it was a deal breaker and it’s gone now, for a £5000 watch I was underwhelmed to say the least.  I will go and get my stab proof vest out now and await the contract killers ha ha.

I do agree with you, in that manually winding the crown is not as easy as I'd hope. Still a cracken watch though in my opinion. Thanks for your feedback!