Watch has been designed with change in size, the choice of different material, thickness, the way to display time…and design on the movement, from simple manual winding movement, Automatic winding, Day and Date display, Chronometers, Repeater, Alarm , Tourbillon, 2 Dimensional Movement tourbillon, Double Tourbillon, Diamond Like Coating case, Brass, Titanium, Carbon Composite material and Ceramic Composite compound…etc.
Size from 33 mm in the 50’s, moving up to 36 and 39 mm in 1970’s then going to smaller one like 23 mm for man and gradually increasing size in recent ten years and now even a size of 55mm an be found… A thickness of 20mm and a weight of 300 grams. It is almost the size of a Small Clock for your desk top!
Well, the trend is keep going, to maintain a comparatively large size even Rolex had to announce to go for 40mm for their Major production model Date Just, and The Explorer II new release has a size of 42mm..
What we can see is that more and more people have fed up with too many fancy but non-functioned features on a watch… moreover the watch has becoming more expensive with unreasonable price… A Simple Solid gold watch is in the range of HKD$220,000. a Skeleton Tourbillon is easily HK$2,000,000. a Double Tourbillon Skeleton in PT is HKD$4,500,000.
Is that a price for a Porsche, a Lamborghini or an Aston Martin? But the watch is weighed just about 150 grams.
Each gram of substance is costing about HKD$30,000.
Where as each gram of Ferrari Substance is just HKD$1.73 for a HKD$2,600,000 Ferrari!!
When I wake up tomorrow there will have more 10,000 Millionaires in China.. Who will be surprises if you not mark up your price that Higher!? How can you suck up all the money from these rich big spender who may buy the high end watch just looking at the high end price?… Now the highest market segment of Rolls Royce is in China., No more HK, US or Saudi Arabia…
Well, what is the trend of Watch making in the coming year?
I think there are a few streams
1. More and more people will look for thinner and Simpler watch dial design. like three or even two hands manual automatic watch. This can take up 10% of the High end market. This will be supported by Piaget, IWC, JLC, and VC.
2. More and more super complicated watch made in limited number for the collectors and act as show case for demonstrate the power of the Watch Company.
3. More cheaper watch plus a lot of add on function will be made for the rest 80% of most of the watch user from Mid Low Range of Swiss, Seiko, Citizen, Timex, Casio…
4. More and more Yellow or Rose Colour Gold will be made as comparing with the White Colour gold.. as we have been seeing enough White gold or Stainless watch in the past 10 years, we feel bore!
5. More and more individual watch maker will emerge as an independent watch brand to go for Higher end markets. The make small number of watch with stunning design and moderate complexity.
6. PP will be a did hard classic watch maker with less bold change on the major design , they are slowing migrating to the younger watch buyer esp. from China. A big more sportive image will be add on the basic Series. As young Rich Chinese below 30 will not appreciate the Classic Look of PP. They go AP and VC…
7. Swatch , once was the King of the watch hit in 1989-1995, and I believe they are making a Plastic Tourbillon for giving me a surprise of What A price for what’s a real pride!?
8. More fun watch will be made in the Easter Asian new designer like HK, Korea and Japan. And they will be made as a trendy stuff for the youth for low end or give-away items.
9. Rolex will be maintain his usual way of making different casing, new gadget on case and dial design , seeking new material for make their watch more durable and more reliable, rather than going in parallel with the higher end completion with complicated watch. Rolex Will never make any Tourbillon before 2016.
19. I am still a Fan of Rolex and this trend will not change.
HK Snob
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