SDC Weekly 108; The Ethics of Homage; Trust but Verify
Clymer's Take and Patek's Weird Road Ahead, More on Kari's plans with UJ, A $15 Billion Hermès Mystery, The Luxury Shoppers Who Buy in Multiples, and more...
🚨 Welcome back to SDC Weekly; tried something new with additional commentary in the links area. Feedback is welcomed. Fair warning, this edition is loaded AF.
Estimated reading time: ~29 mins (sorry, I got carried away in my end note!)
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🙈 The Ethics of Homage
Last week’s GPHG list got me thinking about homage watches…
Consider the watches pictured above; on the left is a Genus Dragon and on the right is a Zbioland Snake, which is competing in the GPHG 2025 awards. I saw and handled the one on the left at Dubai Watch Week in 2023, and it was actually quite impressive. The watch on the right costs 2,500 CHF, and doesn’t come close. I don’t even think you can call this an homage. Then there’s Urwerk’s satellite collection, no doubt the inspiration for Grandeur’s Revolv entry in the GPHG this year. Go ahead and scroll through the entire list, and you might notice a handful of others taking cues from existing designs. Legally, it seems there is nothing wrong with that; but does that make it okay?