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What would you change?
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It's possible there's some shilling. I also think it's trends. Years ago, brass watches were all the rage and now not so much. Everyone wants to follow the it thing and be the trend setter and have the "I told you so" moment and cred.
I respect a person who tells you their preferences and biases are to things. I don't care too much for trends.
Case size, I'm a Goldielocks. I like what's right for my wrist, generally speaking. I've worn smaller dials and have liked some smaller dials, and I've worn some bigger dials and liked those. I dislike overly large, because it's ridiculous and impractical on my wrist.
I remember years ago, overly large watches for women were all the rage. It was all that "boyfriend watch" look circa 2005. Decades ago gold watches were it. I think watchmakers will play with what they can sell and try to make it a thing.
I think part of price hikes are some brands testing what their customer base will actually pay and, on the other hand, it's a brand attempting to change their branding.
We've seen this with the massive uptick in Rolexes where they were a high quality tool watch at a higher price, but still attainable to the common man, to them shifting to charging luxury brand prices.
Using an outside example: Apple was run of the mill in pricing and they changed marketing strategy by closing down 90% of their stores and reopening new ones in high end malls, etc. With that they added several hundred percent markup to all products. Gave out free junk to certain A-list celebs and paid to put their stuff in movies. So, a phone that would be reasonable at $150-$200 is now listed at over $1000. It flew under the radar because Apple held so little of the market and they still kind of hold the same small corner of the market, but just have more of a following.
I think most pushback is at this rebranding. If Casio up and decided that all their watches were worth nothing less than $120 for a F91 and upwards of $15000 for a G-shock that had slight improvements (if any), there would be an uproar. Casio is known as a solid budget brand, who does offer some more expensive models. Their more expensive watches are released under certain lines (such as Ediface or G-Shock), so they thread the needle of their base and putting out more expensive products.
Seiko was was known for their affordable watches, but in recent years they've moved out of that market. There doesn't seem to be any innovation or change in build quality to point to a price increase that doesn't follow costs or inflation. And it's such things where people may feel kind of betrayed by something they once could depend on.
Nothing against Seiko for doing such. I would have liked to have seen them maintain their typical lineup and then maybe come out with a Seiko deluxe (or whatever branding) and release more expensive models under that.
But overall I think people are fine paying for innovation or better quality. It's just when theres a sudden increase for no reason, especially when it creates a vacuum where their products used to be. Eventually people will move on and take to whatever fills that gap. Whether the rebranding works and the watchmaker succeeds is their new area is up to value for money, innovation, quality etc.
I have some hands that I'm not fond of, but would still get the watch. Then there have been watches where the hands made me not want it. For example, the Timex Waterbury GMT had some hands that blended into the background too much that would make it not very legible that made me pass. I don't like the idea of having to stop and really take a lot of time sorting out where the hands are.
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