Sell Watches Boca Raton

Now that the Apple Watch has been on the market for almost two months, where are we now and where are we headed?  Is everyone who once wore a Rolex going to be rocking the Apple Watch?  Will the Apple Watch put a dent in Rolex or will it hurt the Michael Kors of the world?  Maybe it’s too early to tell, but the Apple Watch is poised to bring back the “watch wearer”, you know the guy who says he doesn’t need a watch because his phone tells the time.  But what happens now that there is a watch on the market that is your phone?  Does the same guy not buy a phone because his watch makes calls?  Doesn’t this mess with your mind!   Who will sell watches Boca Raton the most?  Rolex or Apple?

Let’s go way way back to when the first wristwatch was invented.  Mechanical pocket watches and clocks had been around before 1810, but Napoleon’s sister Caroline Murat wanted one she could wear on a thin band of hair and gold.  Maybe it was for style, maybe it was for convenience, but she wanted something she could just glance out without reaching into her pocket.  Breguet, who was a master watchmaker but had fallen on hard times, was eager to get the commission.  In just two years he built a tiny minute repeater (a watch that chimes the time).  Today, minute repeaters fetch huge money because of the workmanship that must go into each one.  Murat continued to buy more and more watches from Breguet, but all pocket watches.  In fact, wrist watches were considered only for women until around WWI.

Starting around 1900, Hamilton watch company started mass producing wrist watches and targeting the younger generation who was more likely to serve in the army.  Sailors started wearing wrist watches because it was much easier to glance at your wrist then fumble around with a huge clunky watch.  It’s funny, most of the high end watch business we recognize today like Rolex, Omega, and Breitling all started as companies looking to mass produce watches.  In 1957 a $120 Rolex wasn’t cheap (around $1,200 today) but it wasn’t super high end luxury.  That same $1,200 watch might cost $10,000 today, a much bigger percentage of annual income for an individual.

Then in 1969 Seiko introduced the Astron 35SQ which was the first analog quartz watch.  Quartz clocks existed before but this was the first watch.  In fact, it took Seiko 10 years of R&D to put this model together.  It was supposed to take the world by storm.  It was a more accurate version of its mechanical competition and looked the same or better.  Much like the Apple watch is today, it was introduced to be a better version of the existing mechanical watch.

And in the beginning the entire world loved quartz watches.  Within the next few years the $1,200 Astron was replaced by Texas Instruments quartz watch that sold for less than $20.  Imagine keeping accurate time for less than $20, it was a dream come true for most.  Quartz watches killed mechanical watches almost immediately.  Companies went under, factories closed, and many people lost their jobs.  It was a massacre.

It was an interesting time for Swiss watchmakers in the 1970’s.  They could have said, ah the hell with it, and started mass producing their own quartz watches.  Some would have made it and competed with the likes of Seiko, others would have flopped and died.  But the watchmakers in Switzerland didn’t know anything about quartz movements, they knew about gears and dials.  Soon, the quartz manufactures left Switzerland for China and Japan and stayed there.  Meanwhile the Swiss stuck to their guns, producing incredibly accurate mechanical watches.  Watches that rivaled the accuracy of their quartz counterparts.  And while it’s impossible to truly obtain the same accuracy as a quartz watch, they were getting pretty damn close.  Switzerland was on the ropes, but they would fight back.

In 1972 Audemars Piguet introduced the Royal Oak.  With help from Gerald Genta the octagonal design of the bezel killed it with consumers.  There was something about the design that they loved.  In a world where luxury watches meant gold and platinum, Audemars was changing the game by charging $8,000 for a steel luxury watch.  That kind of money was unheard of for a non-gold watch, but soon Rolex and Breitling would follow suit, and the trend took off in the 1980’s.  There was a new sense of mass luxury that people loved.

By the time the 1990’s rolled around, luxury Swiss watches were back in a big way.  It wasn’t just Rolex by themselves, they were joined by Omega, Panerai, Breitling, and others.  And even those who almost went bankrupt during the quartz crisis like Chopard and Brequet were back.  $15,000 for a luxury watch was now the low end.  Six figures for a timepiece on your wrist didn’t seem out of the question.

Rolex was once known for quality.  Their watches were made so strong and durable they would last forever.  You could dive 1,000 feet with a Submariner and the watch would be working fine afterwords.  This idea of quality was now traded for luxury.  These quality watch houses were now luxury brands.  Quartz watches were for simple folks, and those who couldn’t afford anything else.  If you really wanted to tell your friends you had money, you bought a luxury mechanical watch, not a Seiko.

History teaches us a lot of things.  One, that it will repeat itself.  The Swiss watch business collapsed once, but came back stronger than ever.  Quartz watches took a big chunk of their business away for a long time.  But in the end they won because they stayed true to their roots.  The Swiss didn’t understand batteries so they didn’t get involved.  They set out to make incredibly accurate mechanical watches and consumers rewarded them for it.  For some, it was more important that their watch was mechanical and almost perfectly accurate rather than some mass produced battery watch.  The mechanical aspect of a watch makes every one different.  They are all individuals rather than mass produced products.

The Apple Watch is out, but the Swiss will be fine.  Those who truly understand the art of watchmaking won’t bail on it so quickly.  Plus, unless you’re ready to buy the gold Apple Watch, the price points are totally different.  For the most popular versions of the Apple Watch, those that sell for around $500, what’s a 25 year old guy to do?  Does he buy the quartz Michael Kors that just tells the time?  Or does he decided to buy the latest in technology, a watch that can text your girlfriend your heartbeat, or read emails, or check Instagram?  To me, the Apple Watch is death to Michael Kors, not Rolex.