Horological Meandering

Dear Mark, I appreciate your thoughts on the long term development and contribution of a brand, both for itself as for watchmaking in general. This is why, Rolex, Omega and Patek enjoy the appreciation and status they have today, and this is why other brands struggle and/or have to invest huge amounts of money and energy into marketing efforts.

It also explains why those brands are so defensive in claiming the first, the fastest, the most complicated, the best xxx (fill in ad libitum).

It does not come with surpass to me that Patek got all the buzz around Ref. 5524G - for free, and deservedly so. Not because the watch is such an outstanding piece, but because they developed their brand with such care and respect to both watchmaking and their own tradition that such a watch instantly turned into a talking piece. The talking piece of Basel.

As Oliver wrote: other brands would have killed to get such exposure. Patek gets it for free.

And this also - by extension - implies that watch aficionados have a very precise idea about the essence of Patek. There is substance people understand and care about. This is the result of what I stated above, and this is the reason why I think that Patek absolutely deserved the attention they got.

Yes, Mark, I think this is a good year for Patek. Not great, but good.

But we also should appreciate what Breguet presented this year. Forget about the Marine, that's a business case. But the Tradition is an essential Breguet. as is the Reine de Naples The former collection is now 10 years old, and very close to its original version.

The additions this year show something like a direction Breguet is going to, offering really indigenous complications (or better: proprietary interpretations of such). True, the brand is still very much rooted in its past, and certainly does not have the forward-looking attitude of cutting edge watchmaking Abraham-Luois Breguet had.

But the Tradition shows that the brand follows a line over a decade with integrity, which is always a good start and essential for long term relevance. I liked a lot what they offered this year, and certainly look forward to seeing more.

Cheers, and again thanks for your thoughts.

Magnus

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