I think watches look beautiful, but I don’t see something worth looking at.
Is he looking out for something better?
Modern luxury watches have no meaning beyond their intended purpose. Which is a shame because for an industry that IS Time Pieces and Time Keeping, that literally has history on its side. Not a lot is taken from history, except for watch history itself. It’s luxury that’s become insular to itself, only referencing itself, forgetting that people didn’t want to have to think about these. An athlete or astronaut doesn’t want to have to think about about their watch. Reliability, craftsmanship, and prestige is the heritage of many watch brands, however their legacy is only their function and price tag. Maybe they got lucky and somebody famous was pictured wearing it (unpaid wink wink). Maybe a brand is really lucky and the person isn’t only famous but also important.
Can a luxury watch not be a clear homage to cultures, ideas, ways of living, being, movements (ideas again), philosophies, myths, legends, science, folklores, fables, nature, the Universe or Cosmos itself? I'm on/off again learning about watches and the people that seem to have any sort of adventure with luxury watches are some of the grey market sellers. They get the most bang for their buck because watches are their workday and life. They have to go out and find these or deliver them personally in some cases. For the buyer there's not much outside being in a luxury boutique or shop being catered to. Of all the things that go into making a watch, meaning doesn't get a lot of importance. From the outside looking in, to me there doesn't seem to be anything left to make, mechanically. It is a pointless bracelet that tells time, so what of it can actually be timeless? The answer to me is the same thing that makes art timeless, the reason people make art in the first place; to express something greater than itself or the person or people that made it.
If I was a baller I'd be bummed there is no luxury watch equivalent to a lot of the things I'm interested in. If the Ancient Egyptians or Sumerians were making luxury watches today they'd have their beliefs etched right into the dials. You'd know it's a watch but you'd also know it also carries more significant meaning as well. That's not to dump on why people shell out what they do for what they want. What I mean is as humans we used to inscribe things that were important or significant to us onto even the insignificant things we made. Even the most ultilitarian thing in the long term still maintained it’s cultural meaning and significance. Often because it was the only reminder left, the valuable stuff is always gone first.
Where is the luxury watch dedicated to humanity’s most important discoveries, ideas, knowledge, understandings, or pieces of Wisdom? Art makes us think, realize, or understand something greater than ourselves. That's why Art is made, is what it is; to express a greater idea, knowing, understanding or Wisdom. It's what raises something to the level of being an Artifact. The industry is all about the dollars, I get it, they're massive corporations and watches take expensive skill to make. However these companies are in the business of making something that’s useless and worthless in the modern age and inherently expensive by design while still exploiting customers on the price.
Watchmaking has plateaued.
This industry lives on people seeing value in status, however the world is moving towards appreciating genuine value. Where's the watch of Osiris that a Pharaoh would wear? There's no watch being made for the reason of expressing the deeper things we value or care about. Mechanically we've got keeping time, accurately, figured out, so what else is there? Why keep making these things? Like the things we inscribed we did so for cultural, religious or spiritual, or ideological reasons. There's no luxury watch for an idea, sounds weird I know. There's no luxury watch like the painting Starry Night, and I don't mean just painting the face. I mean in expressing the ideas and themes behind the painting in the complications used in the design. A swirling, luminous dial that shifts with the light. Complications like tourbillons, perpetual calendars, or minute repeaters are feats of engineering, but they’re not innovative in purpose anymore; refinements of old ideas that can’t stand on their own in the modern age.
I get that a watch is a mechanical device, but so is its industry. It's a billion dollar skin deep industry, more so than makeup. Makeup is what people do with it, watches that's it, that’s all it is a watch. It has no other significance or value outside of maybe other people wanting it and maybe what it's made from. Watches aren't a representation or expression of anything that is or was important to the people that made it. They're function is to keep time but they're made to make money. I think there's something there people may feel which might be part of why prices and demand swing the way they do; other than economics of course. That "is this stupid" thought, even if they can easily afford it. I understand the notion that a watch is a piece of jewelry, however because it tells time that aspect brings it down from whatever else it might be. A watch has a bracelet but is not a bracelet; it’s simply a different kind of jewelry. One that should be as dynamic as the time it keeps.
When people see a watch they might see something beautiful but they don't see anything important or a piece of art; not in the deeper sense. Beauty in itself isn't a goal, it can’t be, it's a byproduct. Of what, something the industry lacks. Watches are beautiful in craftsman and workmanship for sure but that's kind of all they’ve got. There are watches famous because that one guy wore it that one time in or during that one thing. But a lot of things in pop culture are like that. It might just signal how easily influenced people are. Willing to pay A LOT of money to be like someone else, just like them but not really, Total Recall was right. Beauty sells, obviously, but meaning and purpose endures.
If I were the decision maker at one of the brands, at a certain luxury price I'd start overhauling certain things, from the styles and themes to how watches were boxed and displayed. Box and Papers are important so change the way box and papers are done, make those a piece of art as well. Conceptually I visualize something like a Crpytex Codex like in Da Vinci code but for watches. A luxury collection like that on display would look beautiful. It could be as ornate or reserved as need be working within a theme or motif. Move away from “here’s your fancy watch in a not so fancy at all box.”
My vision is a time capsule for a timepiece. Luxury watches designed within a motif of significant or important themes or ideas, discoveries, achievements. It gives a brand or company the flexibility of hitting the manufacturer quotas they want in a line, while also flexible enough to have the variety that demand and collector hype in the secondhand grey market needs. If times are slow now for brands maybe there's a silver lining that there's time to set up for something new. Not a rebrand just a shift or a rethink, highlight this thing they're all about, Time. The things that happen in it, the things that make it. The thing that we use to tell time doesn't express or tell anything about our time spent here.
Time’s been right there alongside us throughout our history, and looking at the luxury watch market, is that really all people can think of? Nothing’s changed in this industry that’s literally about changing time. There’s nothing that connects us to this thing some of us are well-off enough to pay a lot to bring into our lives. A luxury watch is highly coveted yet highly insignificant and unimportant. Where’s the nod to Newton and a gravity-based complication or Voltaire and a complication that expresses the idea of free-thought? These timepieces could be little time capsules and it’s a shame they’re not; tell both time and who we are. Luxury watches are made from all sorts of precious minerals, metals and alloys yet none are a direct nod or acknowledgement to humanity’s obsessive pursuit of Alchemy. That Osiris model would have a Rebirth-Complication that resets at midnight; sarcophagus puzzle-style box and papers. Go crazy, make it a puzzle that the buyer needs to go to an Ancient Egypt historian to help them unlock. Hieroglyphic engravings, luxury watches need fine details. How many watches could a manufacturer put out for a pantheon and their story?
From brands to retailers, dealers, and resellers I can imagine what they would have to say about a shift and change like this. But before they even say anything if we look to Philosophy, the arts, politics, medicine, etc it’s always been the radicals, the fringe, that were scoffed at by those who knew better, those entrenched and risk averse, the fearful, that changed the dynamics of whatever realm they were in. It’s those people and their ideas and innovations people remember. The problem with status markers is that they’re just that markers. The nature of a maker means we’re always after the next one. If we can’t get there, that’s because we couldn’t. A person could lose their status but maintain their marker, then it becomes what’s known as a “painful reminder;” the irony.
There’s a lull in the action right now which I see as an opportunity to remake and rebrand these things as a reminder of what can be. A watch can be more than a status symbol and be status statement; something that tells the time accurately and reflects what’s true eternally. Something beautiful in its technical brilliance but not solely made for it. The industry is content to recycle its own mythology rather than draw from the well of human history. There’s no practical meaning left in mechanical watch making or ownership, how much time is left before the novelty of luxury wears off? The industry has been coasting by on aesthetics and flirting with meaning, so why not give meaning a try? When the gimmick is the embodiment of ideas, culture, or beliefs that’s wearable philosophy, that’s an artifact. An industry that reaches across time does not reach across disciplines to make anything unique. It’s a great reflection of humanity’s wallet but not its Soul.
I understand a brand’s need to balance the art with the commerce, ensuring the craftsmanship justifies the price while the story justifies the purchase. But when has story actually really mattered outside of someone famous wore this watch? Brands lean on how long they’ve been making watches and who famous wore one in that time. Luxury watches already signal wealth and taste, markers of status, but what about brains? Playing on the vanity of the collecting circles, it’s a great way for someone to flex how intellectual they are (or think they are). It’s not just “I got this’ but “I get it too.” People are looking more and more for substance and authenticity over flash, soon enough they’ll be looking for their accessories to say more than, “I’m rich.” As much as people are looking for experiences, they’re also looking for a story. The focus in design and marketing is the only thing that would change. The industry as I said has designing complications all figured out, now it’s time actually to do something with all of it. Would a Patek with a story and motif be harder to sell than the same one it’s always been with only a tweaked bezel and at an additional $15,000?
With the need for exclusivity at the forefront If a brand made a line for a motif and story centered around myths or legends. Exclusivity is inherent because while the motif remains the same, each drop could be different. I keep going back to Egypt but one year the motif could be the underworld with an ankh-engraved rotor, the next it’s rebirth with that midnight-reset complication I mentioned. A ladies Reverso Isis, Athena, or Hera watch even? Exclusivity is in design as each new release would change the overall design. In that set up every release is a chapter in a story not just an update, exclusivity through design evolution. It’s not rehashing “heritage” or banking on a celebrity or influencer endorsements, it’s tapping into stories that have endured millennia. It’s a flex, intellectual, cultural, and aesthetic, that doesn’t need a rapper or a racecar driver to prop it up. Each release shifts the design entirely, keeping the craftsmanship top-tier but letting the narrative dictate the form. Scarcity comes from the uniqueness of each release, not arbitrary or artificial limits. A brand like Jaeger-LeCoultre, with the Reverso’s versatility, could pull this off, they have the technical expertise and a history of artistic dials. Or Vacheron Constantin, already known for bespoke, mythology-inspired pieces. it’s a model that can maintain intrigue without being repetitive. Big brands like Rolex or Patek are risk averse, banking on what’s worked for decades. They’d argue that their buyers want familiarity, not philosophy. But their buyers are entrepreneurs, business types, and generally people who’ve made something of themselves. I’d imagine they’re not just looking for a marker of status but something that reflects their deeper understanding of who they are and or want to be.
They’re individuals who have to shift and move as quickly as time does or else they may not be able to reach that next milestone and acquire that next “marker” for it. At some point though they’re looking for more than I’ve made it. Maybe they want to something that reflects what they’ve learned to be true or understand or something that’s helped them on along their way. Reflect the things they recognize as milestones in humanity, maybe those that make these luxuries possible.
I doubt buyers and collectors would be put out if a brand began making models that reflected evolving and changing values and steadfast beliefs. There was a point in time where high-minded pursuits and the expression of that was a mark of luxury. Expensive because it was expensive to pursue not because it had to be expensive.
Buyers Experiences
The buying experience from what I’ve gathered needs to change too. That’s easy for me to say from the outside looking in, but if I’ve seen one luxury experience I’ve seen them all. They’re all the same, bend over hand and foot to cater to the whale. Again though, I get it, I’m not knocking the hustle or customer service. Simply pointing out that this unique luxury experience isn’t that much unique from every other luxury experience. You’re in a posh room beautifully decorated with expensive things dotted about, lots of glass and display cases in a very reserved atmosphere. Or you’re haggling over the phone or text with your watch guy, who knows.
As I stated previously the secondhand dealers and sellers are the only ones really getting the most out of their love of horology. The most ambitious find themselves all over the world meeting people and making deals. They more than the average collector actually have a real use for a watch with a dozen time zones. Prestige is a huge factor in the appeal of many popular luxury lines. It’s what made famous brands famous, the association with fame. Now it seems their association is only with themselves. There’s this pattern in consumer relations between corporations and their clients where the corporation begins to look down on the clients. The corporation goes from being dependent on the customer to being more important than the customer. Forgetting the fact that they exist not in spite of that person but because of them. There is a point in many businesses where the shift occurs, where things are no longer about why they got into business in the first place, in this case to make watches. Whereas now they’re in business to make money. I get the need to make money but it can’t be the primary reason anyone does anything, even business. Businesses need to make money else they won’t be around long, but somewhere along the line this need that was just a part of doing business became an all consuming drive. Making money because it’s there to be made. Creating revenue has superseded creating something unique.
So what’s the buying experience like? From an AD it’s waiting years on a list to one day hopefully receive a random phone for a watch that you found secondhand at better price and already had an updated release. The experience you read about is buyers feeling like they’ve made a mistake in wanting to buy something. But once their through the door, or on FaceTime, no matter how pleasant it is, it’s still a transaction. A lot of expensive transactions simply boil down to a casual meeting, my guess the is the novelty is being well off enough to afford that sit-down.
The prestige factor despite what I’ve said still shouldn’t be underestimated, yet. Many watch collectors themselves will fly around the world to find something unique that they really want or haven’t seen before. Aligning themselves with the people or icons they admire that made brands famous. For an industry that emphasizes wealth, it doesn’t take advantage of that or it’s own strengths; precision and coordination.
If a segment of my client base are an jetsetters, then I’d lean into that and send them on a scavenger hunt around the world. Lean into the nostalgia of going off far and away to find a macguffin. I have a vision of selling a pair of watches as a set in a box. However one of them in the box is locked needing a key or puzzle to open. Their purchase comes with a key, however not the key to their own lock because that key is sold with a different set somewhere else. You’ll just have to wait until the other gets sold somewhere in the world, or track it down and buy it yourself before you can open the second watch. The idea could be taken further by having designer boxes who’s motifs don’t correspond to the watches sold in it. Mix the straps of the second watches, with those of another sold elsewhere. Perhaps something like this is a yearlong limited release at the end of which people are invited somewhere to exchange keys, straps, and lock boxes. In a sense it’s a global activity that brings like minded individuals together to share in something larger than themselves. A global community engaged in something global.
Pulling something like this off would rely on the core strength of the watch industry itself, precision and coordination. Coordinating globally with retailers and outlets to make sure keys are going out at the right time if keys are involved. It would take a massive effort but given the industry I imagine it would be something that’d be second nature.
I’m not sure how resellers and flippers would sort out such a sordid product history but it’d make the story of ownership far more memorable. Using the lifestyle and health they’ve amassed for themselves to able to afford themselves to be part of something global. Until civilization ventures off into space permanently, there are no more new lands or worlds for us to explore and conquer. Man has no more great adventure in the world. The people investing in these watches aren’t living the life of the grizzled explorer taking on the world. There is no real “great adventure” to participate in.
Younger buyers who might recognize a brand name do not have the same idea of prestige for legacy brands as the older generations do. The younger generations more and more quickly than those before them are emphasizing having experiences over stuff, especially expensive stuff. It’s not something that’s likely to change either as they get older. One day the legacy brands that have priced themselves out of reach to most consumers will find themselves the old head at the kid’s table looking weird. These kids coming up are also looking for deeper knowledge and wisdom at a far younger age than their older counterparts. They’ve watched those who came before them over and over again not be happy with things people say they’re happy with in life. People are waking up to what’s really important and want their lives and the things in it to reflect that.
Sooner not later portions of the luxury watch industry won’t be a marker of wealth, status, or taste but bad decision making. A marker of stagnation, exploitation, and sameness. These ills aren’t unique to any market or business but they’re different in a high end luxury one. They’re more emphasized with watches because rarity and exclusivity are big lifelines. To the point they’re artificially manipulated, as many luxury goods are, to exploit the consumer and maximize profits. Forfeiting such control may give way to inherent rarity. If a company is releasing chapters to a story, then being the creator, these brands can have as many chapters they want, as long a story they wish. As many stories as they can manage for as long as they can manage it.
Unless brands are willing to turn things around, people will realize that many of them have forgotten or never really knew how to be cool. They‘ve been getting by on association, not really for what they’ve been doing lately. I see what’s possible in what these brands are capable of, and with that, a huge gap in what’s available and being offered. There’s a disconnect between why so many people buy expensive watches and why they’re made; personal markers of accomplishments. There’s a lot of great design work but no art. Art is what would give real meaning to design beyond function. Is there a deeper philosophical reason to putting in the effort it takes to complete one of these pieces?
A watch is practically and technologically obsolete but is still being made at the level of luxury; the reason it exists no longer exists. It is decoration without substance, the antithesis of art. I get that people will remark about craftsmanship but craftsmanship isn’t art it is a means to an end, a purpose. The purpose for these is gone, the elegance is hollow, a flex of skill in search of a purpose. The only purpose is the one the customer brings alongside their cash. A beautifully made thing with no reason to exist can still be beautiful, but it’s hard to argue it matters; there’s nothing of it that does.
Many brands are far larger than their starting point but they haven’t strayed too far. They’ve all made breakthroughs and innovations of their own but as stated there's no if few artifacts. If Luxury is a tier then an artifact is what lies above it. An artifact commemorates a people, their beliefs, knowledge, and wisdom. It may not be the intended purpose when something is made but if it survives the ages it becomes that. Because whatever it is has them written all over it.
It’s not so much the industry or business has strayed, it’s that as we’ve progressed as a people this industry’s raison d’être died. Humanity did away with it, now it needs a new lifeline. The industry much like it’s product is functional at best, nostalgic at worst. A regular watch tells time, a luxury watch reflects an image. But why not reality or the things we know to be true?
The Disconnect
From the outside looking in I see a disconnect in the reason watches are made, what they are, and why people typically buy them. The companies that design and make watches want to build a timepiece that will outlast any of us. They’ve been great at doing this and maintaining that ethos. These products are made with high value by people but they do not reflect the high values. Not in the way people used to reflect their values. Nowadays it’s politically incorrect to make known and honor in our works these things that are important because it might offend. It’s not graceful or elegant to be offensive. Where fearful of putting the things that make us on display.
As I said luxury watches are decoration without substance, as decoration is the sole purpose of a luxury watch. Yes, they have practical functions and applications but that’s secondary to the intended purpose of being aesthetically pleasing for the people buying them. There’s plenty of significantly cheaper and more even practical options available today compared to what a luxury watch, any watch can offer someone. With that in mind, why else would someone purchase one of these things then? Because there’s something more that the consumer wants to put on display. But what does it say to show off something which sole purpose is to be expensive? There’s a disconnect there between the elegance and refinement behind the brands and their products and the reason they’re valued.
The disconnect is vanity. Watches are made well, for vain reasons, and sustained the same way. No person or brand is directly vain, however the modern sentiment behind luxury watchmaking indirectly are. We gloss over them with nice words but there’s still something off about it. Some of the personal reasons people buy luxury watches are to mark the ability to do so. To many who grew up poor in poverty this is important. A businessman may make the leap to personally mark milestones and successes in his field. There’s nothing wrong in wanting something for yourself that is refined, elegant, and tasteful. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating craftsmanship and tradition, attention to detail.
One detail I can’t ignore is obsolescence. As I’ve stressed any watch is obsolete. In all the talk of elegance and refinement, before we can look and reflect those things a person has to embody them. A refined elegant individual would abhor waste, but we find ourselves participating in an obsolete industry who’s purpose has long been extinct. It can’t be argued that its continued existence isn’t a waste of the time, money, effort, and resources dedicated to it. Practicality is everything and short of specific circumstances a watch generally has none. Can we admit we’re keeping tradition alive for vain reasons; because there’s really no reason too. The industry and markets survives on self-referential prestige, while there’s nothing wrong with being proud of accomplishments, there’s nothing tasteful about blowing smoke up your own ass.
If there’s a lack of a reason then there must be a purpose. A purpose for the time, effort, money, dedication to craftsman and workmanship that watchmakers and brands put into luxury pieces. If they’re made to last then why not inscribe them with the things we need to last that do last. They’ve already proven that they can outlast their practicality and utility while maintaining their value both financially (relatively) and culturally. Watchmaking doesn’t have to change, but what they reflect and why they’re made should. It’s time for an industry which has been insular for a long time to become larger than itself. Rather than a watch with their borrowed glory and retrofitted meaning being a relics of culture, it can be a showcase of it.
If such a watch were all that was left of us, the next peoples on this planet would at least know a little bit about us… and what time it is. Is there a timepiece other than time itself that reflects what we’ve learned, dreamed, and believed across millennia? The industry’s plateaued mechanically, but it hasn’t even scratched the surface of what it could mean culturally.
Where is the luxury watch of the watchmaker? The watch that is a nod to their tools, their knowledge, their ancestry to legacy of timekeeping, the nod to the hands that make. Something which reflects how raw material is given form and something immaterial as time becomes something tangible and real in the physical? If a person loves horology they’ve no doubt love watches, however there is no watch for sake of horology. Where are the nods to the grand concepts that dot human history, experience, and existence. These highly valued tools of time often don’t reflect of our time here, the good or the bad, who we are or were. Luckily our art does.
What was utility became a symbol. What was a symbol lost it’s utility. Now it needs a purpose.
Does a watchmaker’s obsession with time not translate to the things that happen within it?
…Not all puns intended.
If you made it this far here’s a nice sunset and a taxi to help you on your travels
