If Brands Only Aimed To Please Enthusiasts, They’d Go Bankrupt

I’m so glad there’s watch “journalists” out there to tell me when I’m wrong. What would I do without them to put me in my place?

Perspective is important, and due to human nature, it usually has to come from outside us.

I thought it was a good article. It also applies to brand strategies like Rolex’s AD shenanigans.

I should read the article first, but going by the title... yeah, large mainstream brands will die catering to the oddball minority. Microbrands exist to serve this niche. Big is boring and you can't take chances when the stakes are high.

Haven’t read the article, but I will click into it. But just based on the title I agree. Enthusiast are such a small group of people buying watches.

Fratello does a good job, one of my favorite sites to visit.

The article is 100% correct, and lets be honest a lot of the "enthusiast" criticisms of watches are from a small vocal minority of enthusiasts as well.

It's easy to get wrapped up in the "group think" of the watch community, sometimes it takes someone else to point out how silly it all is.

I read the article, and the author made valid points. The comparison with high-end train sets, largely a European thing, is also not wrong.

Mechanical watches are an anachronism, and we are seeing a retreat into the luxury markets by many manufacturers. The saving grace is that watches can be perceived as jewelry, and a nice watch simply looks more elegant than the blank square of a smartwatch. But would that value proposition sustain an industry?

Sure, a lot of 30-somethings bought luxury watches recently. Are they here to stay, or was a luxury watch purchase something of a meme stock?

The Swatch group, Seiko, or even Invicta understand this, and take the approach of selling whatever the customer wants, no matter how obscure the collaboration, no matter the heritage. And this is one aspect that makes the smartwatch vulnerable, meaning that it is absolutely generic. It's useful, but not much else.

I hope that's enough, but I'm not sure. I'm quite sure Gen Z is underrepresented in this forum.

If you want to please everyone, sell ice cream. Otherwise, it’s enough to just make most people happy. Enthusiasts, unfortunately, are not most people.

The enthusiast community is fractured and far from monolithic in taste and opinion. Retooling to meet every expressed preference would be a fool's errand. We as a community impacting watchmaking are most relevant in our own minds and ignoring us is often a sound business decision. I for one actually enjoy ignoring the preferences of most YouTube content creators.

Finally read the article and the general gist was that large manufacturers need a diversified lineup. He didn't really cite the risks of changing tastes, or how people claim to like one thing and then actually prefer something else entirely.

Frank Zappa once explained why popular music got worse. He claimed that up to the 60s or so, the record executive was some old fat bald guy that fairly haphazardly signed up bands and saw if they sold or not. He claimed that the problem was when the young hippie took over and thought he knew what he was doing and chose only bands he liked. This led to homogenization and lack of innovation.

I'm amazed he ducked the Moonswatch or that recent Swatchpain thing. This is something that enthusiasts tend to HATE. It's odd in being innovative and derivative at the same time. The mass consumer can't get enough.

Lots of crummy Kickstarter type microbrands play follow-the-leader and do their idea of a bestseller. We all know it. 42mm stainless diver, 200M water resistance, threaded crown, sapphire crystal, exhibition back, SuperLuminova or whatever, classic styling...it's a boring generic thing that has no unique appeal. That's the stale outcome of playing it safe and just checking all the boxes.

Then there's the whole point of whether demand leads supply or vice versa. Who the hell knew that people would want bright yellow or purple dials till they started releasing them? If they designed by enthusiast market study, everything would be that above diver with a basic black dial.

At this time most ppl who buy watches are enthusiats.