Watch collectors are kind of an odd bunch. I’m talking about “dumb” watches specifically - watches that only tell time and don’t have any sort of smartphone connectivity or biometric tracking. Some of the fancier models might have a timer on them, but you’re certainly not going to be getting text notifications. Watches have evolved over time from being a tool to basically men’s jewelry. A few key terms to know first:
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Mechanical - a watch that keeps time and is powered by a complicated series of springs and gears (this is called the movement). Due to the relatively high amount of niche skilled labor involved in making them, even the most basic mechanical watches can be fairly expensive.
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Quartz - a watch that keeps time via a quartz crystal oscillator and is powered by a battery. They are much less expensive AND more accurate than mechanical watches, but are frequently looked down upon by watch collectors as not being “real” watches (they don’t have a mechanical soul or some dumb shit like that).
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The Swatch Group - the Swiss watchmaking industry was seriously threatened in the 70s and 80s by the “Quartz Crisis”, when significantly cheaper quartz (mostly Japanese) watches began to completely dominate the market. Several Swiss companies survived by merging together to form the Swatch Group. Mechanical watch brands moved even more upscale, with a greater focus on luxury, artisanal craftsmanship, and brand heritage. They also launched a new brand, Swatch, which made inexpensive, but still Swiss-made, quartz watches in an attempt to the re-capture the entry level market share they had lost.
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Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional - the “Speedy” is one of the most popular watches made by Omega, a luxury brand owned by the Swatch Group. It’s notable for being the watch that was given to all Apollo mission astronauts and was heavily used in the early NASA days, so the majority of its branding is based around the fact that the Speedy has been to the moon.
In early 2022, the Swatch Group announced a new watch model that was going to be a collaboration between two of its brands - the Omega X Swatch Bioceramic MoonSwatch. The MoonSwatch would have the same appearance and dimensions as the Speedy, with a few key differences:
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The Omega X Swatch branding.
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A quartz movement instead of a mechanical one. The Speedy is known for having an especially complex movement since it’s a chronograph (i.e. an analog stopwatch).
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The casing would be made of “bioceramic” (basically plastic) instead of stainless steel.
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Price would be $260, compared to the $6000+ of the Speedy.
Immediate reactions were heated. While some people loved the idea, a loud contingent hated it. The main complaints:
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It was quartz and thus not a real watch.
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It was made of plastic and thus not a real watch.
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The MoonSwatch devalued the real Speedy, since it was effectively an officially sanctioned counterfeit made of cheaper materials.
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The watch devalued the entire Omega brand, since they were putting their logo on a watch that even the poors could afford (the least expensive Omega is around $2500, which is actually on the low end for luxury watches).
The MoonSwatch came out shortly afterwards, and it turns out that demand far exceeded supply. The watch was only available in select Swatch boutiques (for example, only 11 stores in the USA carry it), so if you didn’t live near one of those stores you were SOL. People were lined up for hours to buy one. The MoonSwatch also came in 11 different colorways (themed after the planets, the sun, and the moon), and some of the models were limited to certain stores or even countries. A lot of the watches immediately ended up on Ebay with huge markups. Since it was sold out everywhere, that ended up pissing up the people who actually liked the watch. Some of the things they were upset about:
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It was easier to buy the real Speedmaster than the MoonSwatch. Speedy sales actually increased by 50% immediately after the launch.
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The distribution model meant you had to live in a major metropolitan area or be okay with buying one from a scalper online.
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The different colorways not being available everywhere upset the completionists who wanted to have one in every color.
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Accusations of favoritism where a few Swatch stores were taking bribes to let people have access to them early (favoritism is an issue with the watch industry in general).
Anyway, it’s been a year since the launch of the MoonSwatch. Hype has died down a bit, but they’re still hard to buy (Swatch stores will sell out in an hour whenever they get new stock). Swatch has said they aren’t planning on doing online sales, but it’s not intended to be a limited edition watch. There’s still criticism (I’ve seen complaints that the plastic feels cheap), but even the detractors had to admit it was the hottest watch of 2022.
TL;DR - Watch brand releases a watch that’s kind of a copy of a way more expensive watch made by the same parent company. This angers half of the watch collecting community. The other half is angered because the watch is sold out everywhere and a pain in the ass to buy.
Credit where credit is due; This is a repost from reddt
I’ve never liked communities based around buying certain products. So much gatekeeping and drama… and for what, to spend money? It’s a marketer’s wet dream.
I don’t see any value in celebrating the fact that someone went out and spent money to get something, or stood in line to get something.
The community is based around the objects… For enthusiasts, watches are neat. It’s an interesting thing because they are functional jewelry, and you can’t actually own that many cause they are expensive, and you can use even fewer at a time cause you only have two wrists (and even watch people will make fun of you if you wear two watches at once).
So the real community is talking about new things, what’s coming up, what you like and dislike, surprising history, a lot of stuff. In my group, we absolutely celebrate when someone gets a new watch, but not cause they’ve passed some kind of gate, but because they now have something they can enjoy and build memories with.
The truth is, marketers will take advantage of any hobby
Also, watches are frequently a guy hobby. It’s better than it used to be but men don’t have as many jewelry choices or ways to accessorize their style especially when dressed up or for work.
Most dudes could get over the thought that jewelry is for women or “gay” and just bling up.
It’s never easy to just “get over” decades and decades of societal conditioning. This isn’t some moral dilemma that we need to get over asap…this is fashion choices lol.
That’s fair. I’m not making it a moral dilemma but I think millennials and younger are much better equipped to question societal norms and try to go their own route in cases like this that have no impact on others.
If we’re going to ignore societal norms, can we please bring back 80’s hair? I fucking love 80’s hair.
Consumerism at it’s finest. We get so worked up for things that should never get much emotions out of us. Watches, cars, console wars, fashion brands, mobile OS 🤮🤮🤮 We should make the effort not to care so much about brands, and just buy less. No one needs a watch
Not buying a watch is not going to solve consumerism. As someone who owns a (non luxury) watch I think that they’re really useful, and that more people should give them a chance
My comment was mostly about brand loyalty and the madness that ensues. As for the usefulness of watches, i realized they were redundant when i broke mine over 10 years ago and never bought another one again. We can all tell time from a phone, a computer, a train, car, microwave etc… Spend a week without one and see. Fine if you prefer to have one, but it isn’t a necessity or even a tool anymore, more of a fashion accessory.
I prefer not having to take out my phone just to check the time and because of that I consider a watch a necessary tool.
Well, these people don’t see watches the same way you do, and that is ok.
I only own a couple of watches, not really a collector, but I do like watches. I love em from the sheer fact that they are purely mechanical items. I like looking at the craftsmanship, and ofc how they look.
Like car people (who aren’t brand shills), love the cars themselves. What they represent, what they can do, what noises they make. How it feels while driving. Of course if you’re not interested in any of that you won’t be seeing eye to eye.
Plus, who am I to say what should make other people happy when it isn’t harming anyone? Someone liking a watch doesn’t do anything for the people around em.
I appreciate the history of watches.
Well a train conductor probably needs one, but I get your point haha
My experience has been the complete opposite over on the watch subreddit. I never saw any gatekeeping and if you posted a picture of your new $10 watch there absolutely were plenty of comments on how awesome it is and how happy everyone is for you to get something you like. Also a lot of talk about the history and inner workings of watches not just circlejerking over brand names. Overall a pretty positive and encouraging group in my experience.