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Apple Watch Sales Estimated at 5.1 Million in Holiday Quarter, Swiss Watch Sales in Trouble
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Those Swiss will take a lickin'. But they keep on tickin.
My thoughts exactly. I thought long and hard about purchasing an Apple Watch, but later realized that the Rolex I inherited from my grandfather is simply timeless: it can be worn with any outfit and will always work (with the occasional tune-up every 10 years or so).
I might purchase an Apple Watch Sport in the future to wear during workouts and hikes, but it would never replace a traditional timepiece for me. As you said, I really don't think its fair to directly compare smartwatches to more traditional watches.
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I really don't see that happening. As someone else mentioned, smartwatches and Swiss watches represent completely different markets and target customers. I don't foresee the Apple Watch (or any smartwatch) becoming a symbol of success or achievement quite like many Swiss watches.
just like other watches you will love it if you are the only one wears it.
its a fashion item... we really don't like to have the same fashion to everybody else. the only one is a must.
Well I think you answered your own question. The mechanical watch is a collectible with a value associated with it. For others it is a status symbol, why else would someone wear something so expensive that does the same thing that a $18 casio watch does? Please note that I own my fair share of mechanical watches, including my Rolex which I wear every day, but I don't kid myself that I wear it for any functionality. It's for that reason that mechanical watches, especially expensive ones, will NEVER be in trouble. There is always someone waiting in line to get the next status symbol.
Plus the Apple watch is FUGLY as hell, every time I see it I'm amazed that a company like Apple actually released it.
What are you talking about? Unlike luxury watches, the Apple Watch is not a fashion item. I'd rather wear my $8K watch instead, but an Apple Watch is more useful to me when I workout and what not.
Said the landline user to the cell phone maker.
5% doesn't sound that significant. If anything the Apple Watch has piqued my interest in traditional timepieces after a decade or more absence. I also see more young kids wearing mechanical/Quartz (or in some cases retro digital) watches than I do Apple watches.
I do have a love hate relationship with the Swiss watch industry however. They make some beautiful stuff but arent doing enough to innovate and provide better value in the budget space. They're mostly concerned with the profitable luxury market and pushing watches as status symbols.
I do have a love hate relationship with the Swiss watch industry however. They make some beautiful stuff but arent doing enough to innovate and provide better value in the budget space. They're mostly concerned with the profitable luxury market and pushing watches as status symbols.
I don't buy the "Swiss watches are doomed" line any more than I buy the "Apple is doomed" one. There will always be a market for mechanical watches. It's not like people only own one watch anyway – if that were the case, the mechanical watch business would have tanked years ago.
As a very early adopter of Apple Watch, I definitely agree battery life isn't an issue. I charge my kids iPad's, my iPad, my phone, my work phone at night so what's one more thing to charge? No big deal. Takes 2 seconds. Sometimes I forget to put it on in the morning and I go to look at the weather or time because when I'm with my kids I leave my phone out of reach. That's when I notice that I don't have that easy access to important everyday info. I never have to worry about missing a text message or phone call. If it were on all day long shining, you'd activate stuff randomly all day long. Trust me it happens even when it's not intentional. It's a first gen device so it's nothing compared with gen 5. But that's because it's new and people are still trying to figure out where it falls into place. for some it just doesn't fit and that's ok. But for me, it's indispensable. I love it even though it's slow and sometimes unresponsive. But it's always with me when my phone isn't.
No, but they should be worried about Tesla. And, similarly, smartwatches are in the process of eating a huge chunk out of the mid-level luxury watch market.
Nonsense, most people have pocket watches these days. They're just pocket watches that connect to the internet and make calls.
Mechanical watches ALREADY are in trouble, as sales clearly show. In the future, soon, it will become very hard to pick jewelry (like our mechanical watches) over smartwatches, as the latter category will offer so much, from super quick payments to, say, an alert of an incoming heart attack (make no mistake, saving/improving lives is Cook's final goal).
As for the Watch look, I strongly disagree. I guess it comes down to how you dress; with my clothes, the Watch is perfect, much better than a Rolex.
And bracelets/straps? They're revolutionary. Hodinkee even says the Link bracelet is the most beautiful bracelet period, at any price.
Not very good considering there are 86400 seconds in a day
I can't imagine Apple Watches threatening the high end Swiss market. For one thing, you could buy a Patek Philippe one day and pass it on to your heirs and it would still retain some value and might even go up in value. It will probably still work.
What's an Apple Watch going to be worth in thirty years? Probably not much. It probably won't be functional. It has to be hooked into an iPhone to be fully functional. If the iPhone is still around in thirty years I doubt it's software will work with the first Watches. How long will Apple support older Watches? I seem to remember that Omega will support their watches for thirty years regardless if they drop the model at some point. It's probably the same with the other makers.
Apple watch might steal a sale from the watches in the !,000 range but then only from the buyers who are stretching to buy in the first place and then go Apple Watch.
PP owners might buy an Apple Watch for certain purposes but it won't go in the safe at night like the PP.
It's just a different animal.
What's an Apple Watch going to be worth in thirty years? Probably not much. It probably won't be functional. It has to be hooked into an iPhone to be fully functional. If the iPhone is still around in thirty years I doubt it's software will work with the first Watches. How long will Apple support older Watches? I seem to remember that Omega will support their watches for thirty years regardless if they drop the model at some point. It's probably the same with the other makers.
Apple watch might steal a sale from the watches in the !,000 range but then only from the buyers who are stretching to buy in the first place and then go Apple Watch.
PP owners might buy an Apple Watch for certain purposes but it won't go in the safe at night like the PP.
It's just a different animal.
I'm not sure how much sense it makes comparing smart watch and Swiss watch sales figures in really any sense. They're not even the same product category. The similarities end at "they both tell time and they are both worn (by some) as jewelry".
That said I see a lot left to be desired in an Apple watch before I get one. When I need a timepiece I go with my Tissot. When I need something else, Apple Watch doesn't cut it (and so I have not filled this void, if there even is one).
That said I see a lot left to be desired in an Apple watch before I get one. When I need a timepiece I go with my Tissot. When I need something else, Apple Watch doesn't cut it (and so I have not filled this void, if there even is one).
I think mechanical watches will be around. Low end ones for people who just want to tell time. High end ones for the luxury and vintage aspect of them. However I do think their numbers particularly at the higher/high-low end of them will continue to fall as more younger people feet firmly planted in the tech age will simply want the smart watches for what they offer (and they will only continue to get better and maybe cheaper). They might want a traditional watch too but I just see the numbers on the mechanicals falling more and more over time. There will be watch makers who will retire or go out of business, fewer people will go into that as a business seeing the dwindling numbers and then there will be a narrower field of the more popular selling brands left. So while they might not compete watch for watch, competition in the field in general for people's dollars is their competition.
As for the disposable aspect of smart watches, I don't see that as a major problem. It hasn't stopped people from buying smart watches since they came out and while people will hold on to theirs for a while I think they will be more than willing to buy version 2 or 3 or whatever. Sure either Apple for example will have a trade in program and reuse what they can and sell those at lower cost to another market or there will be third parties who will swap out the batteries. Anyway that's how I see it.
I'm not cracking on anybody's Rolex. I'd love a Sub Date. But I can't afford it and, truly, I don't want to mess around adjusting the time.
I think it is the Seiko F9 quartz movement that is accurate to a few seconds a year. If I were to spend big bucks on a watch, that probably would be the one. Or one like it.
But in the world of fine watches quartz is looked on as if they were dirt.
Actually, I think Apple watch is enticing people back into wearing something on their wrist. People won't necessarily "go back" to analog because many folks had stopped wearing watches. The analog watch is almost an anachronism and may go the way of the Saber Tooth Ballmer. It's really a fashion accessory or status symbol which most people could less about. A smartwatch is more than a timepiece. It's a notification center, fitness tracker, health device, etc.
Yeah, in the last 4 quarters it only had $20 billion in sales. Terrible failure.
Tag Heure, a unit of the French LVMH Group, openly admits to using Seiko parts since 2012.
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As much as I would enjoy an Apple Watch I would rather spend my money on a mechanical watch that won't feel like an obsolete piece of junk in a year or two.
Most swiss watches by volume and sales are not luxury purchases, they're under $2000. That's where Apple will hurt most.
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Selling 30-35M+ a year is not a major category? What they'll probably sell in 2016 or 2017. So, Huh?
That's probably 20B in revenues if you include the bands and 6B in profits.
I think that would quality as major for hmmm, well anyone.
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The high end of the market is a small sliver of the sales of the watchmakers. There will always be a place for that. But, But losing the high margin mid market will hurt them a lot.
So far no one has remarked to me my AW stainless steel + Milanese loop looks like a toy.