Patrick_y's exploration into the conspicuous absence of fine adjustment systems in luxury watch clasps at Watches and Wonders 2024 sparks a crucial discussion for collectors. He delves into the 'why' behind this design choice, considering both manufacturing costs and consumer priorities. His insights, informed by an industry expert, challenge the notion that such a practical feature should be overlooked in high horology.
It's a quiet Watches and Wonders 2024 this year. And one thing I was hoping and predicting to see was more clasps with fine adjustment. So far, I'm disappointed, as I'm not seeing a lot of these clasps and bracelets with fine adjustments. Why does a clasp need fine adjustment?
Watches, be it on bracelets or on leather straps, all experience some need for micro adjustment as a wearer loses/gains weight and on warm day and cold days when the girth of a wearer's wrist changes.
Watch companies, being as experienced with micro-mechanics as they are, are known to have invented ingenious ways to make fine adjustments - all in the pursuit of making the watch more accurate. While this is normally done in a watchmaker's workshop, Urwerk has even made a watch that allows the user to make fine adjustments of the watch's regulation able to be done by the wearer without special tools nor training.
So... Why is a watch buckle with fine adjustment so hard to design?
I asked this with an industry expert, Mr. Roland Iten, and Mr. Iten told me that watch companies are very cost-conscious and have very specific budgets for buckles and bracelet fabrication costs. With gold prices at their current levels, a single gram of gold can cost nearly $100 USD (gold is currently $2350 an ounce, with 28.34 grams per ounce, gold is around $83 USD per gram). While a typical small ardillon pin buckle would use less than a gram of gold, large companies, even top level brands at Patek Philippe level will set a relatively low in-house cost for these buckles - typically around 100 Swiss Francs and almost always under 200 Swiss Francs for a watch clasp including the materials and the fabrication costs. Keep in mind, if the consumer were to buy one of these clasps at a retail store, the cost would be around 800-1000 Swiss Francs for a simple gold pin-buckle clasp.
Also, while fine adjustment features are great for customers and provide true benefits for customers, most customers aren't looking for this during the "shopping phase" as it's not on the list of priorities for a typical customer. So customers aren't always asking for it.
Picture borrowed from High Time. The Patek Philippe Nautilus bracelet has become very advanced.
Picture borrowed from High Time. This is the new Nautilus 5811 bracelet. The one on the left shows the bracelet unexpanded, and the one on the right shows the bracelet with the fine adjustment in the expanded setting.
But watch brands are improving. JLC has been using buckles with fine adjustment for many years now - and the ones on the Extreme Lab watches are especially interesting in design. Patek Philippe's 5811/1G Nautilus now has the fine adjustment feature. Rolex has been doing this for nearly two decades with their extension feature hidden in the clasp - some even have Glidelock allowing even more adjustment. Omega now has it too.
But look at some brands that have the glaring omission of these - not just in dress watches - but more critically in the sports watch segment... The super expensive and desirable Breguet sports watches, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak - very few if any of their models have fine adjustment on their clasps; leather strap models and metal bracelet models. The expensive Chopard Alpine Eagle and the IWC INGENIEUR models too - the latest sports watches that have only just debuted recently - these should have a fine adjustment feature! Bulgari Octo Finissimo - it's marketed as a sports watch and some models even have 100M water resistance! Although the ultra-thin-ness of the Octo Finissimo may present new challenges here. Perhaps they should really put in an adjustable clasp in all of these!
JLC had this most beautifully designed clasp, designed for JLC by Roland Iten. This clasp, which cost much more to make than a typical 100-200 Swiss Franc 18K gold ardillon clasp. But, visionary JLC leader, Jerome Lambert realized that users really interacted with their clasps and a well designed clasps did add significant value to the user - even if it wasn't an initial purchasing decision. So Lambert green-lighted the production of this clasp. Sadly, to my knowledge, this clasp is no longer produced.
Picture from user Doobooloo on WatchProSite. This FP Journe clasp was designed by Roland Iten.
So, a big applause to Rolex, Omega, and Patek Philippe for having the fine adjustment on more and more of their models. I appreciate these brands caring for the details. I know that the average customer doesn't look for these features at the time of purchase, but through daily use, the customer does definitely appreciate it when a clasp is well designed. A lot of customers test drive a new car during the day but forget to test drive a car at night - and thus headlamp design and performance was not a top priority for automakers until desire within the brands, insurance company mandates, and so on started the trend for headlight evolution.
So, would you use the fine adjustment feature on a bracelet if you had one? And should we expect more from watch brands in this regard? Are you disappointed that Watches and Wonders 2024 showed so little progression here? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
