Harry Winston

MTF
[PuristS]
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No comment on Opus 8

Dear Jack,

Appreciate your points.

My comments were NOT directed at the Opus 8 because that is already old news and as you said  -  commentary on subjective "liking" of a "design" is a futile exercise.

My commentary was about Bernard going against his advisors and reconsidering the piece for "completeness of his collection".  That may actually be a valid reason to acquire something that has been summarily lambasted by industry chiefs in private, and other people in public.  I am assuming that when Bernard asked 9 people to opine, they were not your average Joe

I am assuming that they were 'interested parties' with decades of exposure to horology  -  designers, watchmakers, marketeers, collectors, design art critics, brand executives  -  people whose opinions that he respected over the years and that have served him well in the shaping of his collection so far.  In that situation, the weighting of those opinions is much heavier than that from 9 random people plucked from a poll list. Conventional tenets of statistics do not apply here  -  accumulated wisdom outweighs sample size.

My concern was that Bernard was reconsidering the watch because he wants to be controversial and "go against the flow" rather than for the love of it. That may also be a valid personal reason but it has to be explained to people who come upon the discussion without background. It's like a chinese guy I know who went through a phase of collecting serial number 4 (against conventional chinese numerology taboos).

Joe Public needs to know that the 'about-turn' is for more subtle reasons than liking the watch at that price point or pressure from having to be contradictory. It's to complete a quirky anti-establishment theme collection.

Current marketing positioning

Indonesian magnate: "So  -  why do I need to buy watch XYZ?"

Salesman: "Because YOU can, sir!  You are rich enough to do what you like"

Indonesian magnate: "I like the sound of that, boy. Go against the riff raff opinion of mere plebians on 2 horology websites because I can......yup that's for me."

Opus 8 will be successful because of PuristS discussions; more page views than any watch at this price point -  from Basel/Geneva 2008.

It only needs 1:1000 as buy : viewed ratio to be commercially successful i.e. even if 1 in a 1000 persons that see it, actually buy it.......the production will sell out.   Move on to Opus 9......

Best regards,

Melvyn

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