KMII[Montblanc Moderator]
29837
It is a very thought provoking post...
Nov 13, 2019,00:17 AM
And I have to say that in many ways I fully follow your reasoning (including having a father into grandfather clocks, of which definitely not all will survive him by much).
Some issues have been raised in response that are also relevant. An interest in things mechanical might or might not persist. I believe we all move in an environment, where such interests are more common overall and where the time and money to engage in them is more prevalent (this might already be a lot less representative of the overall population than it was 20 years ago). There might well remain sub-segments of the population, where this will continue to be the case but whether the size of them will match today's or get less I have no way of knowing.
And I really think Nico raised a very important point with the question of how many watches. Over the years many of the stories here on how someone got into watches had something to do with their childhood and a favourite relative that they have closely identified with a specific watch. At least for most of us, and for possibly the consumers who account for a significant turnover of the watch industry, we have transcended this state to one, where we have many watches. This means that our children will have a much harder time associating a specific watch to us, since we change them regularly. And thereby the emotional attraction might get less.
Finally, some products have weathered the times and technological advances, while others have not. With the exception of the queen and a handful of cities, where they are used as a tourist attraction, the traditional horse drawn carriages have gone the way of the grandfather clock. Sailing vessels still persist, though. So I think it is difficult to be certain that our grandchildren will value our watches in the same way - especially if they will hardly see us with the same watch over and over again