Swiss manufactures are leery of Smartwatches and I can see why.
This week, Baselworld is happening. Baselworld is the largest convention of Swiss brands; showcasing their new watches for the year. A perfect analogy would be the CES Electronic show for gadgets and the Barcelona Mobile Congress for mobile phones. This is the conference for watch geeks.
The timing is also perfect segue-way into discussing Smartwatches and how the old industry sees this new trend. Is it a threat? I don't think so. Sure, young people don't wear watches any more but the fact remains, there will still be an audience for luxury goods.
This is an interested read in the New York Times today. The article is pretty much dead-on why Swiss companies are not embracing smart watches. This article is typical of the great writing that the New York Times is known for.
A few salient points:
1) The quartz revolution of the 70s. It was a fad that nearly killed the industry but they got back stronger than ever.
2) They got burned on previous ventures. E.G. Swatch and Microsoft
3) Luxury buyers want craftsmanship. They used exotic cars as an analogy and I believe this to be true. There will always be buyers for Porsches and Maseratis despite what is new from Toyota's hybrid tech.
4) It goes against the anti-thesis of the marketing - Swiss made, hand made, artisan craft. A lot of the allure of a Swiss watch is the provenance and lineage. People like the idea something is hand-crafted built; using technology that is 200 years old. Myself included.
In the luxury segments, the Swiss has a lion's share of the over $1,000 timepieces. There are no watches in my personal Swiss collection that is under $2500. People who spend that kind of money want craft and longevity. Electronic gadgets have a useable lifespan of 3 years before the next generation of cool things come and go. Watches last decades. They transcend generations. The watch pictured above is a "re-issue" of the Omega Seamaster 300 that Omega just announced at Baselworld 2014. The design goes back to the late 50s.
Google recently announced their new wearable platform, Android Wear. They will concentrate on watches first. The platform is suppose to extend the reaches of the Android eco-system to wearable gadgets.
One of the first announced piece comes from Motorola in the form of the moto 360.
And apparently, it is frothing with enthusiasm on the Internet. Really? Elegant? Classy? Yep, those are the remarks I've been reading. Really? The watch looks like cheap Movado, Citizen, mall watch knock-off. And another comment, why does the guy in the coffee shop (pictured above) needs a cappucino AND an expresso? I get it, they want you to think he is some cool,hip dude with a cool, hip watch in a cool, hip coffee shop.
I have pretty high standards when it comes to wristwatches as many people know, I collect them. But this moto 360 is really ugly. It is the kind of watch you see on lay-away at the local mall.
I don't know enough about Android wear to even speculate but in terms of wrist-watches, I'll definitely stick to my mechanical Swiss made Chronometers. It must be my age but I don't see the appeal in these items as they're disposable. Unlike an IWC or Breguet, these aren't the type of heirlooms you want to pass down another generation. Unlike a Rolex Sea-Dweller, Omega Planet Ocean, Blancpain 50 Fathom, or Panerai Luminor, these aren't the type of watches you want to take rock climbing or snorkeling. I like patina on my watches. I wear my Omega Seamaster Professional SM300 to fix the car, rigorous housework, or anything dangerous. So what if my $2,000 beater diver's watch gets scratched up. It gives it a natural aging patina. Electronic gadgets? They look like crap when they're all scratched up. Battery life? Who knows. All I know is when I am on vacation, I don't even want to think about an electrical wall outlet. Which reminds me of my youth; backpacking abroad. I remember having nothing but my Rolex GMT Master II in Bali for a week. I never had to plug it in every night. Never took it off to do any physical activity. I can't imagine the same thing with one of these electronic watches that need daily recharging.
It must be the sign of the times or I am getting old.This is an area I won't even get into.
Watches is another interesting subject for this geek.
Today, one of my regular geek blog, Gizmodo, has an article on Chronograph watches. It show cases a nice Heuer, old school Rolex Daytona, and an Omega Speedmaster Professional. It is kind of light on content. An introduction to Chronograph should explain some of the features. For example, the Tachymeter and how to use it. Not all Chronographs have Tachs. The watch I am wearing today is a Sinn 156 Military and does not have a Tach. It is a military watch with an unusual dial arrangement fitted with a Lemania 5100 automatic complication. It also has a 24h our sub-dial which leads to an interesting subject of discussion for watch geeks. In short, there are different chronographs of all sorts.
So, I was a bit disappointed in the Gizmodo article.
However, today is a good day to profess my love of mechanical watches as a geek.
First of all, watches are oldest form of gadgets for the gentlemen. You have a hundred moving parts that require high precision and tolerance. Like most 30,40 something tech geeks. I started my watch habit during the dot-com era. When money was flowing, I was buying a high-end time piece every 3 months and spending my time with other dot-commers on timezone.com.
I was always a big fan of NASA and astronauts in general. Buzz Aldrin was my hero so one of the first watches I got was an Omega Speedmaster Professional. Notice in the second picture below, Aldrin is wearing his Speedmaster professional strapped outside his spacesuit in m*therf*cking outer space. How cool is that. That watch can take a serious beating as it passed many tests by NASA.
Over the years, I collected a great deal of watches, My entire collection is mostly "tool watches."
Tool Watches are worn by professionals (NATO pilots, astronauts, bomb squad,exploreres) and most of them are military watches or ones used by adventurous types. I'm one of those collectors you can call a "Desktop diver." I have diving watches that can go 300 to 1000 meters deep but the deepest I'll go is a 9 foot pool. I have no biases like some (Omega vs Rolex). I collect them all.
This youtube video explains it all.
In this day an age, most people ask why do I still wear a watch when you can get your time off a phone or computer. Well, I have two good long answers for this.
1. Appreciation. I don't think of watches as an investment but all of my watches have doubled or increased in value. The Sinn 156 pictured above can no longer be bought. It has a rare Lemania movement sought out by others. I can easily sell it for three times what I bought it for. In 1996, I traded an Apple Wall Street Powerbook (worth $600 at the time) for a rare 168000 Rolex Submariner. The laptop is worth $80-120 on eBay today.On the other hand,the Rolex Sub is worth over $6000 in the secondary market. It is highly sought after by Japanese collectors due to the fact it was a transitional model (matte dial pre-lumia). In 2001, I bought a brand new Rolex GMT Master II for $2700. To buy one now will cost you over $6000. The Speedmaster professional you see Buzz Aldrin wearing, well, I bought one brand new in Europe for $1200 in the early 2000. Today, speedmaster "moonwatches" still fetch over $3,000. In short, electronic gadgets will depreciate faster as the next and greatest item replaces it. Unless you have a rare first edition Apple II, electronics are disposable gadgets. My watch collection is a family heirloom I can easily pass on to my kids.
2. Doesn't need a battery. Very simple. I realized how important this was early this year when I was hospitalized for a few days. I had my iPad, laptop, phones and they all died on me on the first day. I was constantly asking nurses to borrow their phone chargers. In the end, all my electronic gadgets died on me. Waiting and waiting for hours in the emergency room for the next blood tests, the only thing keeping me sane was measuring time. I would wake up in the middle of the night and my wristwatch was the only thing that kept me in check with the reality of the world. Knowing what time it was, I could easily meditate myself to sleep; knowing I didn't have to stay awake for 3 or 4 hours. I'm surprised my hospital didn't have wall clocks.
There you have it. Watches and why this old school fortysomething geek plays with them.
And those talks of iWatches, I won't be buying one. Digital watches will never have the same breadth of cool as any mechanical watch.
