Monday, September 05, 2005

What The Industry Thinks of Us

In light of the recent chronograph situation I am reminded of a quote relating the utter contempt with which we are viewed by the watch industry:

I have heard some CEOs who have said to me, although politely, you know they meant what they said (none of the 3 examples are JLC):

Brand a: We decide what is fashion, consumers want and need the guidance from us.

Brand b: The collectors market is very small (technically correct) the indirect message is that collectors placed too much self importance on their views, when they are not

Brand c: If someone doesn't like our watch, then I don't want him to buy it, he simply doesn't deserve to wear the watch.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well... to be honest none of this is new to me (and most of us). What is actually worse is that I actually agree with points A and C. How else could products like Frank Muller, Jacob and others..?

On point B, however, I beg to differ. There are some brands that are more and more concerned about "Collectors/Opinion Leaders" other than David B. or Jennifer Lopez. Even though collectors are a very limited number of sales their views and opinions have much more weight amongst the "uninitiated". The press has also started to value comments from collectors lately rather than celebrities. Furthermore, is Patek generally bought by gullible idiots in general? And I thought most of them where knowledgeable collectors...

...good god, if I had a buck for every watch that I recommended a was bough because of me...

On comment C ,I am just amazed at the "horse-manure" that his product must be in order to say something like that. I would love to know who stated that, please e-mail me...

Speedmaster said...

Those comments are rather distressing.

Chris