Interesting read about rolex and the market

[gsgarbear2]

Originally Posted by springer

High-end watches for men is a statement- that I have arrived, that I am a successful and I can afford some luxury in my life. Some men could care less about "male jewelery" or the extravagance of high end watches and might fit very well into the niche market for the iwatch or the other clones that will surely come along.

Watches for men are like a piece of jewelery without all the bling, at least for most of us anyway. If it was not, we would all be wearing $50 quartz watches. The high-end watch market won't be affected at all by the iwatch or those that follow.

Well said John

[GradyPhilpott]

Back when I was a student, I wore Casio Calculator Databank watches. They were indispensable as far as I was concerned and while most of my fellow students didn't use one, when I was doing my field practicum at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, they were very common among medical interns and residents.

Personally, I don't really see that kind of functionality, and more, migrating to the wrist again.

I guess back in the day, I wouldn't have minded it if my Casio has been able to make phone calls and sent text messages, but this is now and that was then.

A wrist device won't take the place of the smartphone, because it is too small and a bluetooth device makes phone calls simple enough when you want to keep your hands free.

Personally, I'm happy to have a traditional watch on my wrist and the smartphone in my pocket and my bluetooth headset hasn't been used since I got my Honda that syncs with my phone.

If people are going to go with a wrist device, it's going to have to be some wizbang product or the novelty will wear off pretty quickly and if there is a stable market, I would suspect that it would be young people and students, who'll be buying luxury watches as soon as their budgets allow.

[Cc1966]

Interesting article, the writing is not on the wall for Rolex (or other lines).

[jvo300]

The contrarian in me says:

1. A smart watch may be as revolutionary as the smart phone. Could anyone have predicted the proliferation of the smart phone 5 years ago?

2. You only have two wrists. Unless you want to wear both a smart watch and mechanical watch, something has to give.

3. One might view the rise in mechanical watch sales (and prices also) as signs of a growing bubble. At some point, bubbles do burst.