Horological Meandering

Gaz
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Opinions (another long rant)...

Hi Andrew,

I share your views on this subject, particularly year on year, brands introduce new designs and "concepts" heavily smoothered in advertising gobbledy gook.  However, I assure you that there are a lot more monstrosities out there far worst than the one created by B&R.

However, being a competitive market place, buyers are the ultimate winners and we vote with our wallets.  This is why I believe that while we may expouse our opinions, we ultimately make the decision on whether to purchase it or not. 

Your comments around opinion is indeed valid but of course there are varying degrees of opinion and the credibility of the source.  Remember what they say about opinion, everybody has one.  What makes it credible, is as Nicholas mentioned, backing up and articulating your opinion.  By saying that "its a failure in design" no matter whether people agree or not, is too much of a motherhood statement, and how do you justify such a failure?  For example, the square case is highly distinctive and instantly recognisable.  If my criteria for design was those two points, then by my value judgement, the BR is a success.  Having said that, I applaud you for backing up your statement by outlining your criteria of price, design, build and emotional. 

I would also argue that there are varying levels of sophistication of buyers and hence their criteria for judging value.  For example, last year the Chinese market grew by 43% in terms of total export of Swiss watches.  While this relative figure seems impressive, they are still ranked #7 in absolute terms.  My sense is that while the Chinese market is growing quickly, the buyers are not as sophisticated as other more mature markets.  Driven by new wealth, the Chinese are buying up anything that has a perception of luxury - a seriously different value judgement.  In more mature markets, sophisticated buyers tend to demand greater value and greater appreciation beyond that of just luxury or a show of wealth.  Most of the active participants on this and other forums are sophisticated buyers or maybe sophisticated buyers with a hint of collector obsessiveness.

My point is that the luxury industry is filled with ambiguity and basic (if not common and well tried) marketing axioms like "if you are not first, create a new category and be first in that" for example "creating the first zero-g tourbillon - WTF??? This is false market leadership at its best, "ownship or association with a word" - for example "its our DNA" as a false creation of heritage or "extreme" to create a sense of ruggedness or "aspirational marketing" a la Gatorade's "I want to be like Mike", for example "I want to be like Clinton, Jay-Z or Arnie".  As sophisticated buyers, we are able to see through some of this nonsense.  We accept the nature of the beast, as a luxury product, the all important "perceived value" is critical to success.

Of course, this is my opinion. 

BTW, I like the BR01 and have the all black Phantom - a watch that I can never read the time, to me a design failure if you were buying it as a tool watch.

Gaz