Watch Tiers: My Criteria. What’s yours?
I know this might be controversial but I do believe that watch tiers exist and that there’s a reason for it. My criteria is
1. Brand History/Prestige. What achievements have they made over the years in watchmaking/world history.
2. Price. Is it $20? $600? $3000? $10,000? $400,000?
3. Build Quality. How is the finishing? Is the movment robust and reliable? Is the bracelet jangly and sag?
4. Marketing. How well know does the average non watch person know of your brand?
5. Exlusive. Can you walk into a store and buy it today? do you have to wait months or years?
To me there’s at least 5 luxury tiers. Depending on what tier you fall into depends on how well you do at all 5 levels. You have your level 0, these are basic watches like timex and Casio. They have marketing and are cheap. The first lixury level is entry. These are your Seiko (just Seiko not Seiko 5), Rado, Tissot, Hamilton, Glycines. They have the brand history and some marketing and price isn’t dirt cheap but isn’t super expensive, you can buy one right now. Second level you have your Longines, Tag Heuer, Tudors. They have brand history, great finishing, price isnt something most people can’t just buy on a whim. Level 3 is your Rolex, Omega, Grand Seiko, IWC, Cartier, Breitling. They have intense amounts of history, their price makes them aspirational, build quality is excellent, non watch people have heard of them, maybe a bit of a waitlist . Level 4 are your JLCs, Blanc Pain, Breguet . These watches may not have the marketing like Level 3 where everyone knows who they are. These brands transcend the mainstream but that is because they don’t seek the attention the mass produced brands do. They have tons of history, the price is high. Not soemthing 90% of people are able to buy. Superb finishing and movements that are revolutionary. Level 5 I think is the top level because of price mostly and exlusivity . Richard Mille has only been around for the last 22 years I believe and the build quality and price is astronomical. Their marketing is celebrities wearing them, which is enough for them. This alone makes it a top level company. Then you have brands like FP Journe. The holy trinity brands like Patek have the history, top level finishing, exclusivity, price and everything else. It’s difficult to say where the lines blur between a 4 and 5 but I think you can just tell.
Anyway, thanks for reading my late night shower thought on watch tiers!
I love tool watches, from beaters to luxury. Love this community and want to learn and share as much as I can!
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Here's a list along your line of thought.
https://www.watch-rankings.com/watch-rankings/
Here's a list along your line of thought.
https://www.watch-rankings.com/watch-rankings/
I found that list years ago and that made total sense to me.
No matter the watch…
I hadn’t considered this in the past, but it’s reasonable.
I enjoyed reading that, thank you.
You’re missing a colourful pyramid diagram with all the company logos plastered over it.
All the best watch tier arguments have a colourful pyramid diagram.
Richard Mille couldn't be a waiter in the restaurant of FPJ.
There is no comparison in build, quality, etc.
The only thing RM has is exclusivity that is synthetic. These are not handmade watches from a master craftsman with years of experience and incredible skill. These are machine made watches assembled from decent quality generic parts acquired from a variety of suppliers and sprinkled with the fairy dust of marketing.
RM basically took the Franck Muller design and then used some decent Swiss movements (mostly generic quality movements) and then, the master marketer (with no watchmaking experience) that he is, Richard Mille performed a PT Barnum on wealthy people using celebrities to pitch his con. Dumb wealthy people who aspire to demonstrate that they have something that others can't buy (regardless of whether there is any relationship to the inherent value of what they are buying) are the pigeons who RM fleeced.
So, yes if luxury means you put a ridiculous price on an average watch because you can market the heck out of it, how is that any different than a Daniel Wellington? It is only a matter of scale...DW sells garbage watches at an insane markup to people who don't know any better and RM sells average watches at an insane markup to dumb wealthy people who care more about the flex than making a sound purchase.
Is it any wonder the phrase a fool and his money are soon parted came into being?
Richard Mille couldn't be a waiter in the restaurant of FPJ.
There is no comparison in build, quality, etc.
The only thing RM has is exclusivity that is synthetic. These are not handmade watches from a master craftsman with years of experience and incredible skill. These are machine made watches assembled from decent quality generic parts acquired from a variety of suppliers and sprinkled with the fairy dust of marketing.
RM basically took the Franck Muller design and then used some decent Swiss movements (mostly generic quality movements) and then, the master marketer (with no watchmaking experience) that he is, Richard Mille performed a PT Barnum on wealthy people using celebrities to pitch his con. Dumb wealthy people who aspire to demonstrate that they have something that others can't buy (regardless of whether there is any relationship to the inherent value of what they are buying) are the pigeons who RM fleeced.
So, yes if luxury means you put a ridiculous price on an average watch because you can market the heck out of it, how is that any different than a Daniel Wellington? It is only a matter of scale...DW sells garbage watches at an insane markup to people who don't know any better and RM sells average watches at an insane markup to dumb wealthy people who care more about the flex than making a sound purchase.
Is it any wonder the phrase a fool and his money are soon parted came into being?
Agree and you can add Hublot to that.
Another way to look at the watch industry is to distinguish the makers (manufactures d’horlogerie / “tier 1” if you will) from the assemblers (ateliers de terminage / “tier 2”). And within the tiers there are different standards of finishing. And, not unimportantly, things vary greatly per model. A VC fiftysix is imo a lesser work of art than say a GO Chrono Tourbillon (or even a Pano inverse) - although most people would rate VC, as a brand, higher than GO. And both assessments can be true at the same time. Which just goes to show rankings are a fun pastime as best and quite misleading in most cases imo.
PS: for those interested, this is the list of ‘manufactures’ I could quickly Google. See last entry / you can have an exclusive manufacture for less than $100 :) [whether you should is a different matter]
A. Lange & Söhne
Aquastar (watch brand)
Audemars Piguet
Blancpain
Breguet
Breitling SA
Bvlgari
Cartier (some models)
Chopard
Citizen Watch
Damasko (some models)
Frédérique Constant (some models)
F. P. Journe
Gallet & Co.
Girard-Perregaux
Glashutte Original
Moritz Grossman
H. Moser & Cie
Hamilton
Hublot
IWC
Jaeger-LeCoultre
Jaquet Droz
Lang & Heyne
Maurice Lacroix
Omega SA
Orient
Panerai
Parmigiani Fleurier
Patek Philippe & Co.
Piaget SA
Roger Dubuis
Rolex
Seagull
Seiko
The Swatch Group
Tudor
Ulysse Nardin
Vacheron Constantin
Vostok
Vulcain Watches
Zenith
Pretty cool list. I'd probably bump Rado up a tier as it starts around 2k vs Seiko and Glycine.
I have only shopped watches under 5k. I just can't justify paying more than that right now as there are so many cool high end pieces under that price point. Maybe when my company sells, I will get something to mark the occasion in that five figure range.