The Archetypes of Shopping Channel Watches

Okay, it's a guilty pleasure of mine, but I love watching online watch sales. Doesn't matter if it's QVC, or obscure German or Swiss channels. Interestingly enough, they seem to sell the same categories of watches over and over.

The Fashion Watch

Probably the most honest category. The watch is horribly overpriced, but you get the exact

odd design you asked for.

The Made-For-TV-Watch

Usually produced by a large manufacturer and relabeled for TV, these watches are designed to connect through naming them after historical events, locations, or anything of cultural significance. A subcategory of this are revived brands, even if they had nothing to do with watches. Generally overpriced for what they are, but relatively solid watches.

The Mystery Movement

Feature-rich mechanical movements one may or may not be able to identify. Often branded to suggest a local assembly, which isn't the case. A $300 tourbillion watch sold at $1000 falls into this category, which ties into the just-like-watch.

The Just-Like-Watch

This is often a homage, but doesn't have to be. It can be a watch using an ETA-2824 movement, and the presenter states that Tudor used this movement before. Similar to a Submariner homage, especially if produced by a Swiss company, the comparison is made to suggest value.

Precious Metals

There are watches being sold with cases made out of precious metals. A look at the weight of the watch as well as the current spot prices is very sobering.

Rare Watches

In the strict sense rare watches are not being sold on TV, because it is a consumer audience. To create a sense of urgency, every other watch is limited. Sometimes you will see watches with very low availability and high prices. For example, a watch under an acquired brand name, with a rare ETA movement. Why is the movement "rare"? Because it was last produced in the 1980s. Yet the watch is being sold as new.

The Bargain Bin

Not as common anymore as during the pandemic, but I've seen watches being sold as buy-one-get-one-free. Not sure why this would appeal to consumers.

What did I miss?