Apple Shipped an Estimated 30.7 Million Apple Watches in 2019, Beating Entire Swiss Watch Industry

[neuropsychguy]

90% of the time I see someone wearing an Apple Watch, I wonder, sometimes aloud, WTF do they need notifications on their wrist for.

They look ridiculous - they're the Pager of the current generation. Most people who had a pager them kept them as a fashion accessory.

Conspicuous consumption of a device that depreciates to $0 in 5 years. TOTAL waste of money.

The Apple Watch is primarily a health device for me. It encourages me to be more active and sleep better. It gives me quick access to texts so I can decide if I want to respond then or wait until later -- without having to pick up my phone. It has a great silent alarm that wakes me up in the mornings without also waking up my wife.

Apple Watches aren't for everyone but it's literally been life-changing for me.

 

[femike]

Apple Watch freed me from the shackles of checking a phone to a) tell the time, and b) check notifications. It is the precise polar opposite of what the non-wearers (who are often welded to their phone) think it is.

And that’s before we even get started on the utility. Controlling your home lighting & central heating system from anywhere in the world via your wrist is full-Star Trek. Likewise remote-starting your car in the winter so it‘s pre-heated when you get in it. On-wrist graphic & haptic prompts from Maps when navigating a city on foot. Etcetera etcetera etcetera.

Totally useless. Don’t know why I bought it...🤡

Yes, the last sentence is sarcastic, but the examples you gave would be really totally useless to me and it would add unnecessary pointless clutter and complexity. Each to their own.

 

[xmiku]

Comparison based on number of units sold/shipped is interesting but hardly indicative of anything.

Brands like Rolex are limiting supply in order to raise prices. To them it is not at all about the number of units sold - it is about making it an even more exclusive product and maintaining the notion of a status symbol. They do want to sell less for more.

I would think that Swiss watches are selling less because of the microbrands are getting so much better. For people who want a nice mechanical watch and not just a status symbol it really doesn't make sense to insist on buying Swiss... there are so many alternatives that are sold for much better prices with comparable or better quality.

I would also say that younger people are buying automatic/mechanical watches more than ever. For similar reasons we see sales of vinyl records go up. They are not buying expensive Swiss watches though. They are buying from brands that understand social media and offer good looking watches for affordable prices.

 

[Stars&Stripes]

and attractive design.

Debatable.

 

[LeeW]

The difference is , your 10 grand watch will increase in price in the next ten years. Your Apple Watch 4 will be worth close to nothing.

Ok, but if you pay $400 for a watch every 3 years, selling the old one for $50 each time instead of $10k for one there is an alternative viewpoint that there are equivalent gains over time depending on what you do with the $10k not spent upfront. Swings and roundabouts.

My insurance company cares about my mechanical watches so much that they charge me higher premiums to protect them, then if you want to ensure that 10k watch increases in value as much as possible you need to service it, ok not often but my last Rolex service on the oldest one was $735 it all adds to the overall cost.

Apple watch, yeah, no servicing as it gets replaced often and my insurance does not care about it.

 

[zed1291]

Smartwatch and wristwatch are completely different products. It's hard to think of a comparison, but most smartwatch buyers care about tech or the activity tracking features. Traditional wristwatch buyers are purchasing fashion accessories.

Yes, some watch buyers may be tempted to get a SS Apple Watch with a nice band or two, but give it a couple years and lets see if a second Apple watch ever gets purchased. I fell for it with 1st Gen Apple Watch, got the SS model and a dozen different leather/SS straps, but over time I had all notifications turned off (same as my iPhone) and was solely using it as a watch (otherwise battery drained too quickly). Eventually even using solely as a watch it would die by noon.

Paying almost $1k for a watch that is non-functional in 3yrs is an extremely poor investment if you're getting it as a watch (not a tech gadget or activity tracker).

 

[realtuner]

Isn’t that comparing apples to oranges?

Sort of like comparing iPhone sales to the umpteen $50-100 Android phones sold by the likes of Samsung and Huawei and then claiming they're outperforming Apple?

Ha, good joke! Counting units not $$$$ ?
I assume that the Swiss watch industry shipment is 100 to 300 fold value of Apple watches !

No time to check your figures, but I'm sure something's wrong. Take just 1 Patek for $300K and try to do the math how many Apple wathes you can buy 300K. And I was talking just about ONE watch just from ONE brand....

Figures are 100% correct. As per the Swiss Watch Federation. Most of them are also lower priced models.

Out of the 23.7 million watches sold in 2018, a whopping 60% were under $200. Another 17.5% were in the $200-500 range. 15.5% were in the $500-3,000 range and only 6.6% of Swiss watches were in the over $3,000 category. Clearly Rolex, Patek and the like aren't selling very many watches (to be expected of a luxury item).

FH - Watch industry statistics

www.fhs.swiss

 

[m4mario]

And how many Apple watches end up in landfills after a couple years?

None. All Apple Watches are recycled. Even Apple Watch series 1 is worth $30 if you return it to Apple store. Who is going to throw away $30?

 

[Mick-Mac]

I wonder how many people complaining here also pine for the good old days of a real camera with real film in it (that digital technology clobbered), or a real typewriter with real paper in it (that digital technology clobbered). What we are witnessing here is the eventual assimilation of the traditional watch. You can still buy cameras now, and you'll still be able to buy mechanical watches in the future, but things will never be the same for the watch industry. That's progress...

 

[Jim Lahey]

Yes, the last sentence is sarcastic, but the examples you gave would be really totally useless to me and it would add unnecessary pointless clutter and complexity. Each to their own.

Absolutely, and that’s fair enough. I was just being facetious in retort to the usual, myopic “it’s a total waste of money” style posts from those who can’t see past the end of their own nose. Rationally expressed personal preference is another matter entirely, I agree.

 

[Chloros]

What a useless article. Only the truest fanbois will somehow see this as meaningful.

 

[LeeW]

What a useless article. Only the truest fanbois will somehow see this as meaningful.

I don't really think anyone sees it as anything new that was not already known, smartwatches, whatever the brand are being used by more and more, that is a fact.

Apple has a limiter, you must have an iPhone but even then the numbers are still impressive in terms of the up take.

Don't need to be fanbois to see that.

 

[happyprozak]

The difference is , your 10 grand watch will increase in price in the next ten years. Your Apple Watch 4 will be worth close to nothing.

The mechanical watch industry has done a brilliant job with their marketing campaign. People believe that their watches are "forever" and that they are "investments" that will appreciate.

There are mechanical watches that increase in value but those are the exceptions and most will depreciate in value. You also need to do maintenance on them and that can cost hundreds of dollars every few years. The luminance on the dial will fade, the watch hands and inner parts will wear out, and don't let them polish your watch because that will depreciate the value as polishing is basically sanding away the casing.

Mechanical watches can be beautiful as many veblen goods can be but they are hardly an investment. They will retain value better than a piece of electronic but most will depreciate and will require maintenance to keep all the moving pieces working well.

The loss in value and maintenance of that $10,000 Rolex would buy you several Apple Watches.

 

[MacBH928]

well, kudos to Cook. This is the only non-Jobs product that actually had wide consumer adoption and success. I don't like it, I don't see a reason for it, but its a success.

Isn’t that comparing apples to oranges?

Not really, people will only wear 1 watch. If more people drop the Swiss watch for the Apple watch, the Swiss will lose. I am assuming that Swiss watch buyers buy 1 watch and use it, not buy it to form a collection or wear a different one for each occasion because then it will become an apples to oranges comparison. It won't hurt the Swiss if people wear Apple Watch all day then bring out that Swiss one when they are going to the "event".

 

[chrisbru]

90% of the time I see someone wearing an Apple Watch, I wonder, sometimes aloud, WTF do they need notifications on their wrist for.

They look ridiculous - they're the Pager of the current generation. Most people who had a pager them kept them as a fashion accessory.

Conspicuous consumption of a device that depreciates to $0 in 5 years. TOTAL waste of money.

Personally, I use it for fitness tracking, encouraging me to stand and move more during the day, easy controls for my music and podcasts, and a nice quick way to check my meeting schedule or notifications when I'm around the office but my phone is at my desk.

The fact that you think its simply "notifications on your wrist" means you haven't really looked at what the Apple Watch can do.

 

[happyprozak]

I still prefer my Rolex.
Too much notifications/distractions nowadays.
Also another device that I have to charge.

You still have to charge that Rolex if it's hand wound but I assume it's an automatic. Even as an automatic you have to keep it "charged" if you don't wear it everyday. If you do wear wear it everyday you have to adjust the timing at least a week or it'll be off a few seconds. The Apple Watch will be much more accurate with no user input.

Your Rolex is 95% jewelry. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just a different type of watch.

 

[Seoras]

Plus the health features >nearly< saved my life this year.

Rest in peace.

 

[Abazigal]

The Apple Watch isn't a direct competitor to mechanical watches but there is some overlap. The Swiss watch market is going to be just fine as a whole but I would imagine that their sub $1,000 watch category will probably lose sales to smartwatches. By and large, mechanical watches are a veblen goods, fashion accessories, and jewelry.

Over in the mechanical watch world they marvel at the accuracy of watches that cost thousands of dollars that lose several seconds per week.

But people aren't buying a $10,000 Rolex because it keeps time accurately and while that Rolex can't match the accuracy of an Apple Watch at a fraction of the cost, the Apple Watch can't match the status, fashion, and jewelry aspect of a a watch that costs $10,000.

There will definitely be overlap but I believe they will mostly remain separate markets.

I see them both as competition for your wrist.

Let’s say the Apple Watch continues to add more health monitoring features over time. Will we see a future where the opportunity cost of not wearing an Apple Watch is simply too great, because you are giving up on all that vital information about your own well-being?

And I don’t see people wearing a Rolex on one wrist and an Apple Watch on the other. In the end, they are going to have to make a choice.

You might be right in that there will still be people who like them enough to pay a handsome sum to collect them, but if your designer watch is just sitting in a case most of the time, is that something to be proud of?

 

[BonkersYonkers]

As a watch collector myself, I own many high-end (Rolex, IWC, Hublot) and mid-tier watches (Hamilton, Tag, Corum) and will continue to purchase new ones in the future. With that said, Apple Watch is a great fitness accessory and I use it every time I go to the gym. I personally would never wear it out besides that though. However, my wife wears here all the time with the Milanese Loop and it looks very nice and fashionable. So if you are not a "watch person" I think Apple Watch is fine.

 

[Seoras]

I still prefer my Rolex.
Too much notifications/distractions nowadays.
Also another device that I have to charge.

I don't. My Swiss wrist jewellery lies in a drawer somewhere gathering dust.
Less chance of getting mugged and stabbed for a watch that needs a password or it's a brick.

 

[FatMax]

well, kudos to Cook. This is the only non-Jobs product that actually had wide consumer adoption and success. I don't like it, I don't see a reason for it, but its a success.

Only product? Ever heard of AirPods?

 

[FightTheFuture]

And how many Apple watches end up in landfills after a couple years?

The answer is less than cheap PCs that slowed down after time and the owners were too cheap to upgrade, and Amazon Fire Tablets.

Apple has a comprehensive recycling plan, they will even pay for shipping. Oh and Series 3 they are paying $100 for right now. I don’t know anyone who throws away money.

 

[LeeW]

Totally useless depends on the user, for me.

Fitness tracker, even my local gym equipment can connect to it since October last year.
useful notifications so that I know whether to bother looking at my phone.
When out running I use it to take calls without having to see who it is on phone.
Change music tracks without needing to use the phone.
I don't need to carry my phone around the office to know when a call comes in.
ECG, can't tell me that is not useful.
Fall detection, there are a few examples this has saved a life.
Meeting reminders.
Pay for things straight from the watch.
Requesting an uber and getting tracking updates

Those are all I can think of whilst I type, there will be more. Again, your use case, your choice.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Not having to run with my iPhone strapped to my waist has been AMAZING. I too run with AirPods and my watch. Absolutely amazing.

I have used an AW 3 for a few years, sold mine to family (in use today) (wife/relatives all share activity stats), and now use an AW5. Can't imagine life without it. Besides the exercise benefits, activity information throughout my day, ECG reading, noise reading, sleep analysis, and pages of benefits ... I like it because I don't have to always check my phone and when my boss calls me, I don't miss it. My phone is 100% on silent with no vibrate.

Carrot weather on my watch is a must. Love being able to see the forecast for the next 5 days that changes where I go.

Traveling the world over the last few years (for work) - the watch updates itself wherever I go. Being able to see what my wife texts me without grabbing my phone, my reminders (to do list), a quick timer, automatically logging into my Mac when it has been sleeping, American Airlines boarding ticket for when I board a plane... Microsoft Authenticator approver when I log into my windows PC...

Heartwatch app is amazing.

The watch is indispensable imo. .... I had fully intended on only writing a few sentences - told ya I could write pages on this.

You forgot Apple Pay without reaching for your phone...

 

[mattster16]

I'm personally surprised the Swiss watch industry is even that big to begin with. Who buys watches these days?