Originally Posted by
Danstone
Interesting thread. I might be alone but I can see the end of mechanical watches market, at least as we currently know it, coming very soon and even the likes of the mighty Rolex being consigned to the history books by the end of my lifetime. The reason being that the younger generation just don’t wear them in anywhere near the numbers required. And it’s not that a great many are wearing smart watches either, they just don’t need a watch as their phones are in their hands at all times. I remember discussing watches with a group of new graduates years ago and them telling me that watches weren’t needed anymore and me thinking they’ll grow out of it. Those graduates are in their thirties now and still, those that I still know, do not wear watches.
The lesser mass-production brands will be the first to go and the bigger brands will continue to do what they are doing now, increasing the prices, artificially creating demand and spending millions to put their products on the wrists of influencers to maintain the perception of them being luxury items as long as they can. These brands will be ok so long as the current 40+ year olds are buying but they’ll struggle once we bow out of this game and their market becomes much smaller and much more at risk of being wiped out by said influencers overnight. I certainly don’t see a huge number of collectors coming in the next generation and, whilst there may be the odd straggler or the occasional revival, it won’t be enough to maintain any of the current mass producers as viable businesses.
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