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

[carambo]

Donlt worry for the swiss watch industry, everything is fine : the swiss watch industry grew by 6% in 2019 to reach 21.2 billions $ : https://www.fhs.swiss/pdf/communique_180112_a.pdf

The information about volume evolution is completely irrelevant, it's been 20 years, well before smart watches, that the volume of swiss watch produced is declining, leaving cheap watches to asian manufacturers, today for instance a quartz movement produced in China cost 60 cents with the battery...
Instead, swiss brands have focussed on value, if today you want to buy a Richard Mile, or an Audemars Piguet, please pay upfront full value of the watch and wait 12 months if you are lucky. That's a much better business model

 

[Smartass]

It's like saying KIA sold more cars than Lamborghini... I mean WTF is this article even about.

 

[HandITOVER]

SMH.

 

[gnasher729]

while i understand the use for AW...my Swiss watches, especially audemars piguet, after 10-20 years i can get them to London action house and sell them for a lot more, you can buy houses with 1 collector item
AW is good and almost a must for health monitoring

On the other hand, used CDs are worth around £0.10, used DVDs around £0.20 right now. So just because you can sell them _now_ for a lot, doesn't mean you can in 20 years time.

 

[giebe]

Well I’ve never worn a normal watch. But I’m wearing my Apple Watch every day. In my opinion normal watches are pretty useless. If apple wouldn’t build the Apple Watch, I would have no Watch at all.

 

[ginkobiloba]

The comparison doesn’t make sense to me. Analog Swiss watches are a piece of jewelery/fashion accessories first with only one function : time . Apple Watches are computer devices first with multiple functionalities, with a secondary utility as fashion accessories.
Apple to (swiss) Oranges really.

 

[gnasher729]

So when Samsung sell more phones than Apple it is “well Samsung sell a lot of $100-200 phones in that number so not a real comparison and it is pointless....blah blah.” I guess that is what the Swiss Watch fraternity is thinking and they would be right.

I have a few watches that are comparable in price to the latest Apple Watch with a decent armband. I also have one Swiss watch that was less than $100, made by Swatch.
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The comparison doesn’t make sense to me. Analog Swiss watches are a piece of jewelery/fashion accessories first with only one function : time . Apple Watches are computer devices first with multiple functionalities, with a secondary utility as fashion accessories.
Apple to (swiss) Oranges really.

No, it's not. Both compete for space on your wrist. Nobody buys, and definitely nobody wears one of each. They are direct competitors.
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In other news, Coca Cola has outsold BMW in total unit sales.

About as relevant a comparison.

There was a time when PepsiCo realised that Coca Cola was actually counting unit sales to see how successful they were, and sneakily started pushing larger bottles. It took a long time for Coca Cola to notice that they were falling behind, even though by unit sales they were far ahead.

 

[bobob]

I wonder the same for the ones that wear the bulky mechanical watches which they love to call "timeless"...

Swiss Made Irony.

 

[gnasher729]

Apple watch that lasts 3 years or a timepiece I can hand down for a few generations.
Tough call.
/s

Let's see if your grandkids appreciate it.

 

[himanshumodi]

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

says the guy who has one as his display picture

 

[gnasher729]

Who’s buying a watch as an investment? You could say the same about most purchases your tv, car, etc etc it’s a totally false comparison.

It's like bitcoin for the more sophisticated clientele

 

[ginkobiloba]

I wonder the same for the ones that wear the bulky mechanical watches which they love to call "timeless" and then I realize that these are the "old/gone" generation whos brain and thinking are fixated to a different time. They do struggle to understand that time does change and things do evolve. The funny thing is that some of the "mechanical" bandwagons people do admit that they never look at the time on it. Oh, wait.... but it is TIMELESS! Like I give a ****! There is a reason why people do not wear Roman Empire clothes or use their tools nowadays. On the other hand, Apple Watch does have so many functionalities attached to it and yes, it looks cool and elegant, though I don't expect you to appreciate or understand it and I am not gonna even bother to mention the benefits of AW versus Mechanical since you seem to be so narrowminded about it. But yeah, keep calling it fashion accessory (oh... the irony here, because mechanical watches aren't) and let us enjoy the benefits of AW.
There are just so many "shopping gurus" around here, telling people what they should and shouldn't buy, and analyzing what would be a waste of money for people. You got to love the MacRumors forum board "analysts"

I dont understand the need for rivalry between completely different things : beautiful analog watches are fashion accessories first, just like jewelry and clothing, with limited functionality (just like jewelry and clothing) . Apple watches are computer devices with multiple functionalities, but limited aesthetic aspects.

They both fulfill different needs. If you want a beautiful accessory on your hand that also gives you time, you wear a nice looking analog watch. If you want a computer device with multiple functionalities that you can wear on your hand, you wear a smart watch ( Apple or otherwise )

I have 2 Apple watches, and find them quite useful, but not really that nice looking. I also have a few nice looking analog watches. I wear both of them ( not at the same time ) for various reasons and occasions.

 

[gnasher729]

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

Or anyone working in the Swiss watch industry.

 

[dangerly]

We all have two wrists.
One for the AW the other for the Swiss automatic watch!

 

[gnasher729]

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....

60% of Swiss watches are less than $200. 17.5% $200-$500. So how many Patek Philippe are sold for $300,000 every year?
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would any of those 30.7 million A-Watch wearers have bought a traditional Swiss watch if the A-Watch didn't exist?
Does anyone wear an A-Watch because they think it's beautiful?
A Swiss watch is jewelry. The A-watch is, well it is what it is

I'll wear my Swiss watch until it dies. And that's not when the battery needs replacing, that's when it stops working and can't be fixed. (Maurice Lacroix, making watches from £500 to £15,000, guess how much mine was). The next watch after that will be Apple Watch. By the time I buy one I hope they will be thinner, and it will have a nice armband.

 

[Maetzle]

A high quality watch that'll probably work for decades vs. a (also high quality usually) smart watch that is obsolete after a few years.

 

[Valkyre]

Wait a minute, wasnt Tim Cook supposed to be an incompetent that has no idea how to create new markets and promote successful products? The internet has told me so numerous times, especially this past year, so this must be fake news and Apple is certainly doomed... please MacRumors check your sources next time ok?

Thanks.

 

[nickgovier]

.

 

[Aston441]

Fancy Swiss watch is a Boomer phenomenon, they are the last generation of show offs. Trying to signal wealth to women by wearing jewelry and expensive clothing crashed at GenX during the grunge 90s, and never recovered. Also some recent immigrants in the US try to use fancy watch to try to show off wealth to pick up women, often along with a Benz/BMW, but that’s a much smaller market.

As the Boomers die off, so will the Swiss Watch market.

Rolexes on the used market will be a practically worthless in 20 years.

 

[petef1]

After years of research and saving, I've bought myself a Tudor Blackbay 58. It is a work of art. I LOVE my apple watches, had the original 0 and currently wear my 5 everyday. There's a place for both. My Tudor is for special occasions, my apple watch is for everyday wearing.

I disagree with many here saying that Swiss watches are for the boomers. I'm no boomer, a Swiss made high quality watch will be on my wrist for the rest of my life, an Apple Watch will not.

 

[calstanford]

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.

Then don't buy one. You frankly come off as a know-it-all.

 

[petef1]

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.

You could use this argument with pretty much any material object. What's the point in buying a £20k BMW when you can buy a £7 Kia which does the same fundamental job. It's horses for courses and the materials, functions, manufacturing and aesthetics vary on what you pay for.

 

[Binher]

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

You’re right. Apple Watch 5 costs ~ $650 and an entry level omega will set you back ~$4000.

 

[BvizioN]

I dont understand the need for rivalry between completely different things : beautiful analog watches are fashion accessories first, just like jewelry and clothing, with limited functionality (just like jewelry and clothing) . Apple watches are computer devices with multiple functionalities, but limited aesthetic aspects.

They both fulfill different needs. If you want a beautiful accessory on your hand that also gives you time, you wear a nice looking analog watch. If you want a computer device with multiple functionalities that you can wear on your hand, you wear a smart watch ( Apple or otherwise )

I have 2 Apple watches, and find them quite useful, but not really that nice looking. I also have a few nice looking analog watches. I wear both of them ( not at the same time ) for various reasons and occasions.

That I totally agree and it is nicely put. You buy what you enjoy and suits your needs without the need of telling people how they are "wasting their money"

 

[bobob]

A high quality watch that'll probably work for decades vs. a (also high quality usually) smart watch that is obsolete after a few years.

Although I use an Apple Watch on a day-to-day basis because of the breadth of its utility, I'm also a fan of waterproof self-winding Swiss mechanical watches.

One aspect of the latter which is seldom mentioned in these comparisons, is the cost of regular service:

~$800 every 10 years.