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They are awash in inventory because they aren't selling. Markets have been begging them to slow down shipments for a couple years because they already had too much inventory.

The entire Swiss watch industry sold $5.2 billion in Q4 - down 10% from the previous year.

Apple Watch sold an estimated $2.9 billion in the same period with only their second kick at the smart watch cat.

Must be a coincidence.

I'm curious how much the two are related, especially since the trends in owner demos could vary quite a bit (ex: how Rolex is extremely prominent among Baby Boomers, where as Panerai has recently gained major traction among younger professionals, and younger professionals may be more likely to buy the Apple Watch than Boomers.)

Doesn't the Swiss watch industry go through multi-year (even decade) patterns of decrease and increase? Mechanical watches are not the type of product that a whole lot of owners seem to buy often (minus watch junkies) and own tons of (again, minus watch junkies.) I got a Breitling like a decade ago, it's my only nicer watch, I wear it daily, and I have no intent on replacing it for at least another few decades. An older friend who wears a Submariner must have purchased it the better part of half a century ago, and it's his only watch. President Obama wore the same Tag for at least two decades. If a large base of your customers are upgrading only every quarter-century or so...

Has there been any research to look at how many people who own nicer mechanical watches are buying Apple Watches? Most of the people I know that wear one have only a limited interest in the other. I think it would be very strange to wear something different on my wrist after wearing the same thing for like a decade...I can't imagine how strange it would be to someone having worn the same thing for a quarter century or more!
 
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This makes Apple watches better how?

The relationship is the inverse of your question. The better/more functional the Apple Watch the more those numbers will tumble.
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I'm curious how much the two are related, especially since the trends in owner demos could vary quite a bit (ex: how Rolex is extremely prominent among Baby Boomers, where as Panerai has recently gained major traction among younger professionals, and younger professionals may be more likely to buy the Apple Watch than Boomers.)

Doesn't the Swiss watch industry go through multi-year (even decade) patterns of decrease and increase? Mechanical watches are not the type of product that a whole lot of owners seem to buy often (minus watch junkies) and own tons of (again, minus watch junkies.) I got a Breitling like a decade ago, it's my only nicer watch, I wear it daily, and I have no intent on replacing it for at least another few decades. An older friend who wears a Submariner must have purchased it the better part of half a century ago, and it's his only watch. President Obama wore the same Tag for at least two decades. If a large base of your customers are upgrading only every quarter-century or so...

Has there been any research to look at how many people who own nicer mechanical watches are buying Apple Watches? Most of the people I know that wear one have only a limited interest in the other. I think it would be very strange to wear something different on my wrist after wearing the same thing for like a decade...I can't imagine how strange it would be to someone having worn the same thing for a quarter century or more!

That's a good point, but the same may be true if you wear a smart watch that has features you depend on/count on. You may feel strange wearing something that 'just' tells you time time - no matter how fashionable or mechanically stunning.
 
I predict 2017 to be the year the Apple Watch takes off and gets mainstream adoption.
While I think they will continue to sell in increasing numbers, I just don't see anything so far that suggests smartwatches will ever get anywhere near to the stage of mainstream adoption.

You may feel strange wearing something that 'just' tells you time time - no matter how fashionable or mechanically stunning.
I regularly flip between the two and never seem to have a problem missing the functionality. If I flipped the times I wear the Apple Watch with the times I wear normal watches I probably would notice it more though.
 
I bought a Gear S watch about two years ago in February and quickly lost interest in the thing because of it's lack of functionality. That watch was basically good at telling the time and temp and for showing notifications. I went back to happily wearing my digital watches that simply tell the time and date because they do that perfectly and never failed. All of my digitals are also solar and atomic so I never had to charge or make time adjustments.

Last Friday, I bought my first Apple watch and I have to tell you, I am seriously impressed with this thing. Not only is it great at telling the time and temp but I'm having fun with the activity app plus although limited in functionality, APPS! I've spent the week using the watch to voice reply to text messages. It does that extremely well. So it's been a week since I bought that first Apple watch and I now own two of them. I'm sure eventually I will go back and wear my digitals occasionally because again, there's no charging needed.
 
Happy to see this. I love fine watches.

I'm also not surprised -- I have no idea what Jony Ive was thinking when he said that Swiss watches are in trouble. Um, what? People don't cross-shop smart watches and Swiss watches. Likewise, people don't cross shop Ferraris and Ford Mustangs.

Johnny Ive, and many in Apple's exec DON"T think before they speak anymore. the last few setse of keynotes have been really weird to watch, as it is more like Apple exec's are living in a bubble right now and really don't seem to get what's actually going on in the industry. They maybe doing really well with phone refreshes, but they all seem out of touch. We' haven't seen any really new designs from Ive in years, yet he still talks in his "i know design better than anyone" condescending way, Schiller was absolutely shocked about the negativity towards his MacBook Pro which he claimed because he loves it, so should everyone. Cook who believes most users are fine with a tablet instead of computer, and Angela whose been slowly dismantling what the Apple stores used to be to try and make them some designer fashion statement.

and watch bands. lots and lots of watch bands.

So when Ive bad talked swiss watches and then released the Apple Watch? I laughed. Apple watch is a decent made product. But it's no replacement for fine jewelry /watches that traditional watch wearers are looking for.
 
Johnny Ive, and many in Apple's exec DON"T think before they speak anymore. the last few setse of keynotes have been really weird to watch, as it is more like Apple exec's are living in a bubble right now and really don't seem to get what's actually going on in the industry. They maybe doing really well with phone refreshes, but they all seem out of touch. We' haven't seen any really new designs from Ive in years, yet he still talks in his "i know design better than anyone" condescending way, Schiller was absolutely shocked about the negativity towards his MacBook Pro which he claimed because he loves it, so should everyone. Cook who believes most users are fine with a tablet instead of computer, and Angela whose been slowly dismantling what the Apple stores used to be to try and make them some designer fashion statement.
and watch bands. lots and lots of watch bands.
So when Ive bad talked swiss watches and then released the Apple Watch? I laughed. Apple watch is a decent made product. But it's no replacement for fine jewelry /watches that traditional watch wearers are looking for.
Their problem is that to move anywhere, they need to call their driver's driver - who just got a new chauffeur...
 
Happy to see this. I love fine watches.

I'm also not surprised -- I have no idea what Jony Ive was thinking when he said that Swiss watches are in trouble. Um, what? People don't cross-shop smart watches and Swiss watches. Likewise, people don't cross shop Ferraris and Ford Mustangs.

It was definitely no surprise. Jony Ive talks a lot of BS and this is one of his classics.

The Apple Watch was always a niche product and I predicted this from the start and I was ridiculed for my comments. I even tried an Apple Watch and found it to be utterly useless in my tech-filled life. Where it does fit in is within the sports market and that's why Apple has had to partner with Nike to boost sales. But even then, I would much rather a dedicated Garmin watch (which is cheaper), and a mechanical timepiece for the rest of my time.

Ultimately, if I do want a smartwatch, I'll buy one of these (I'm seriously considering one):

FC-285S5B6-1.png


The fact of the matter is people want something beautiful. A mechanical timepiece is a piece of jewellery and something to be admired. It's also a sign of status. You tell me how many random people on the street will wear a tourbillon movement watch, or even know what a tourbillon movement is without Googling it!

Short of the long is my Apple Watch is lost somewhere in a drawer and my mechanical watches sit proudly on my wrist.

The Swiss watch industry is very much alive.
 
It was definitely no surprise. Jony Ive talks a lot of BS and this is one of his classics.

The Apple Watch was always a niche product and I predicted this from the start and I was ridiculed for my comments. I even tried an Apple Watch and found it to be utterly useless in my tech-filled life. Where it does fit in is within the sports market and that's why Apple has had to partner with Nike to boost sales. But even then, I would much rather a dedicated Garmin watch (which is cheaper), and a mechanical timepiece for the rest of my time.

Ultimately, if I do want a smartwatch, I'll buy one of these (I'm seriously considering one):

FC-285S5B6-1.png


The fact of the matter is people want something beautiful. A mechanical timepiece is a piece of jewellery and something to be admired. It's also a sign of status. You tell me how many random people on the street will wear a tourbillon movement watch, or even know what a tourbillon movement is without Googling it!

Short of the long is my Apple Watch is lost somewhere in a drawer and my mechanical watches sit proudly on my wrist.

The Swiss watch industry is very much alive.
rofl sorry cant hear you over my useful watch doing far more than just telling the time (when there's light around that is)

time to graduate from the 18th century I think
 
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Different people, different tastes, can we try not acting like our taste in watches makes us a better person.
I wonder why you have singled out my post and ignored the one before it?

I don't see how I was claiming to be a better person, I was just stating my experience of owning the Apple Watch is different to the other poster.
 
Johnny Ive, and many in Apple's exec DON"T think before they speak anymore. the last few setse of keynotes have been really weird to watch, as it is more like Apple exec's are living in a bubble right now and really don't seem to get what's actually going on in the industry. They maybe doing really well with phone refreshes, but they all seem out of touch. We' haven't seen any really new designs from Ive in years, yet he still talks in his "i know design better than anyone" condescending way, Schiller was absolutely shocked about the negativity towards his MacBook Pro which he claimed because he loves it, so should everyone. Cook who believes most users are fine with a tablet instead of computer, and Angela whose been slowly dismantling what the Apple stores used to be to try and make them some designer fashion statement.

and watch bands. lots and lots of watch bands.

So when Ive bad talked swiss watches and then released the Apple Watch? I laughed. Apple watch is a decent made product. But it's no replacement for fine jewelry /watches that traditional watch wearers are looking for.
Agree. The problem here is that the AW was initially positioned and announced as a luxury article, which was eagerly taken up by Angela. They fancied various specialty jewellery and luxury boutiques to sell it.
But the watch appeared to have both a clunky design, to depend on iPhone and was hardly available - so they changed their minds and decided to better balance scarcity via online sales only (which idiotically was just announced after AppleStore staff got their training)
Later on they changed minds again and decided to sell via AppleStores.
Then they added a few AppleWatch specialty boutiques near airfields and near warehouses in Paris. Those didn't sell very well and most were closed.
But with Angela all about luxury and showoff, it seems they somehow need to fulfill the original mission so expect prices to rise in order to position themselves in that segment (without actually being acknowledged, which leads to these discrepancies and crazy statements)
This whole AW launch episode is an interesting case at business schools now.
 
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Agree. The problem here is that the AW was initially positioned and announced as a luxury article, which was eagerly taken up by Angela. They fancied various specialty jewellery and luxury boutiques to sell it.
But the watch appeared to have both a clunky design, to depend on iPhone and was hardly available - so they changed their minds and decided to better balance scarcity via online sales only (which idiotically was just announced after AppleStore staff got their training)
Later on they changed minds again and decided to sell via AppleStores.
Then they added a few AppleWatch specialty boutiques near airfields and near warehouses in Paris. Those didn't sell very well and most were closed.
But with Angela all about luxury and showoff, it seems they somehow need to fulfill the original mission so expect prices to rise in order to position themselves in that segment (without actually being acknowledged, which leads to these discrepancies and crazy statements)
This whole AW launch episode is an interesting case at business schools now.

The luxury angle was devised BEFORE she came on board; better revise your rant there buddy. Look at the timeline.
Also, most Swiss watch profits and volume are not at the very high end (look at their ASP) and the Apple Watch will certainly affect (and has affected) sales in those price ranges.
 
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