Luxury Watch Boxes: Unnecessary Excess or Value?

cazalea · 2008-01-20T14:47:26Z

Debate on luxury watch packaging: Are elaborate boxes necessary, or do collectors prefer simpler packaging and lower prices? Explore storage challenges and perceived value.

cazalea

WPS member · Horological Meandering forum

37 replies6875 views2 photos

Cazalea initiates a lively discussion, echoing Mycroft's provocative stance on the excessive and often impractical packaging accompanying luxury watches. The original post critiques the trend of elaborate watch boxes, questioning their utility and suggesting a preference for simpler packaging if it translates to a reduced price. This article delves into the community's diverse opinions on watch box utility, storage challenges, and their perceived value.

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Thanks Mycroft for launching this with your comments from the Montblanc thread:

"What Watch makers still don't understand to date is that a humongous watch case,
however beautifully crafted in whatever exotic wood and even if lined with baby's skin - is as useful to me as a hole in the head!
Like I need another one where my wife can rant at me and berate me for my foolish purchases.
I have boxes all over my house and no where to keep them and
I dare not throw them out in the event that 200 years down the road,
I decide to sell my timepieces to pay for my poverty from my ill-spent youth!
Give me my watch wrapped in newspaper and cut some of that damn price to something I can afford!"

I did a little survey around my house. For example, where I used to hav a substantial collection of single malts, I now have boxes:

And not just any kind of boxes, but
Wood inlay
Plain wood
Wood layers
Wood with drawers
Leather
Leather and wood
Leather and steel
Bakelite
Rubber (! Ikepod !) Round
Composites
Blue and Green Velvet( Seiko GS)
Naugahyde
Plastic
Cardboard
and good old newspaper

I forget where the other zillion watch boxes even are?

Better have a Laphroaig and ponder the question...

added to Editor's Pick

This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2008-01-21 17:17:10

Key Points from the Discussion

Mycroft argues that in an era of environmental awareness, cutting down trees for 'pretentious boxes' that serve no practical use for owners, retailers, or manufacturers is wasteful.
Some collectors keep watch boxes for potential resale value, despite the storage challenges and lack of immediate utility.
A suggestion is made for Authorized Dealers (ADs) to offer a 'Box Exchange' program, allowing seasoned buyers to store their boxes at the AD or leave them if they don't see value in keeping them.
While some boxes are considered works of art and include accessories like loupes, the trend of increasingly elaborate packaging has gone 'over the top' for many.
The idea that manufacturers would cut prices for simpler packaging is generally dismissed, as the box is seen as part of the luxury presentation, akin to a 'beautiful dress'.
A collector shares the logistical nightmare of matching 60 Omega watches to their respective boxes when preparing to move them, highlighting the practical difficulties of excessive packaging.

The Discussion

cazalea

Jan 20, 2008

and a few hefty sips of Laphroaig, I remmbered the other boxes were in the basement, in my office. Along with the family Bible, turned open to the verse: "Stop storing up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal." Good advice, I think (at the moment) but rarely heeded, sad to say!

Bill

Jan 20, 2008

Too ashamed to show my boxes. We should force the AD's that sold us the watches to store the boxes for us. That way we always come back. Nothing gets lost and if we ever need to sell the AD can handle in for us; sale includes all boxes, inner outer, outer outer (cardboard), tissue, ribbon and sales persons DNA. Cool idea. What do guys think. Bill

mycroft

Jan 21, 2008

... After I wrote the MontBlanc Minerva post vilifying the manufacturers for some of the issues that have been sore points for me, I quickly donned my fireproof kevlar suit and crawled into my underground nuclear shelter awaiting what you Americans like to call a "proportionate response". But really, in this day and age where environmental awareness and responsibility is at what seemingly is the peak, we are cutting down trees to make pretentious boxes that are of no use to anyone - not the owne

amanico

Jan 21, 2008

Because if you have too many boxes, that means that you have the same number of watches...LOL It begins to be problematic... I stored all the boxes in the mezzanine, which loks more like a cellar.... And I don't speak about the goodies, the reviews, the books, the catalogues...LOL Best ,and congrats for this funny post! Nicolas.

justpen

Jan 21, 2008

as I do....May be we could start up a forum on watch boxes....We would not have to worry about buying watch winders or getting them stolen. Kindest regards, Jack

mycroft

Jan 21, 2008

... of the disparate, disparaged, the desparate and the sexless!! This message has been edited by mycroft on 2008-01-21 06:51:30

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