Watch Enthusiasts Deserve Better
The Case for a Consumer-Focused Luxury Watch Experience
At this point if you don’t know about the Coldplay “kiss cam” scandal, I can only applaud your indifference to current affairs. Basically some CEO got caught on camera at a Coldplay concert, presumably having an affair, and the internet was flooded with memes and moral outrage.
That’s all good, but I’m going to bet many people don’t know about a related story which, in many ways, speaks to the state of modern luxury marketing. After the CEO was caught at the Coldplay concert, his daughter started posting on TikTok. It seems the account is private now, but in the days following the cheating incident, the daughter’s account had grown exponentially, receiving millions of likes and video-views.
Guess what? The cheating CEO doesn’t even have a daughter 😂 It turns out, someone created a fake persona for a non-existent daughter, then started posting content to build an audience rapidly by capitalising on the drama. Then, this profile started plugging some meditation app. So the whole stunt was designed to boost downloads for some meditation app! Points for creativity, I suppose, but also a perfect example of how far people will go in their quest for eyeballs and clicks.
My earlier point that this is a story ‘related’ to the watch industry is founded on the premise that our industry is falling into the same attention trap, because attention is a critical commodity.
New State of Play
The four typical building blocks of an economy are land, labour, capital and technology; but now more than ever before, one foundational input which drives everything is in fact, attention. We are living through the biggest shift in how value gets created since the industrial revolution, and most people haven’t even noticed. Traditional TV shows that dominated for decades are getting binned because they can’t compete with 30-second TikToks; apps like these are making millions billions by harvesting our focus for a few seconds at a time. Just think about your own behaviour for a moment; when last did you watch a full episode of anything without scrolling through something your phone?
Exactly.
I keep talking about Gen Z on SDC, and that’s not going to stop. The amount of content competing for our attention is exploding, and this means our attention spans are shrinking, which in turn means that the price of capturing attention will keep rising. It’s a vicious cycle, and luxury brands are getting increasingly desperate.
When it comes to watch collectors, brands now have two options to monetise this scarce resource (i.e. attention). They can go broader (find new ways to capture attention) or go deeper (extract more value from each second of attention). Can you guess which approach the watch industry has chosen?
Desperation is Clear
Indeed, most watch brands have abandoned the ‘go deeper’ strategy in favour of grabbing as much attention as possible, by any means necessary, and of course, the results are exactly what you’d expect.
Take Lange’s recent marketing disaster with their Minute Repeater QP; in their official YouTube video interview, the watch sounds like Big Ben, and the extraordinary sound in that video makes you think “jeez, that’s the most epic repeater I’ve ever heard.” But then, when you compare that to more realistic sounds from other sources, you can hear how the sound you hear in Lange’s video with Hodinkee doesn’t actually come from the watch - it has been manipulated to create a completely false impression.
Another example is Urban Jürgensen’s recent re-launch. This is an independent brand with some decent horological credibility, built around understated Swiss craftsmanship and traditional watchmaking values. Their community typically appreciates knowing the person making their watch, understanding the techniques involved, and feeling connected to horological tradition. But what did they do? They threw a celebrity-packed launch event which was optimised entirely for social media buzz and BS influencer content. Instead of showcasing workshops, craftsmen, or technical innovations, the entire event prioritised viral moments and lifestyle positioning. This made it feel like the complete antithesis of what independent watchmaking should represent.
It gets worse, because the attention epidemic is of course getting exponentially worse with the rise of AI. Every day, millions of existing and potential watch enthusiasts turn to AI-powered search engines for recommendations. Google now shows AI results when you make a query - I just tried again now to prove it to you:
These systems don’t give a flying continental fvck about the romantic narrative of a watchmaker’s bench in the Vallée de Joux or the legacy of a family-owned manufacture. They care about data, engagement metrics, and relevance to the algorithm. When someone asks AI about “the best watchmakers”, will it ever understand the soul of watchmaking? Maybe a more important question to ask is, will anyone even care?
Despite this problem with AI, brands are using AI to create content which they expect to resonate with customers, but then has the opposite effect. Remember that Patek advert which seemed oddly perfect? Many, including myself, suspected it was (at the very least) AI-enhanced, and I am not saying this as a compliment. Ultimately, if brands turn to digitally enhanced, soulless content, while also trying to convince consumers their products are worth 5 or 6 figures because they are made by human hands - it just feels like a damn circus act.
When Urban Jürgensen prices their tourbillon at nearly 400 grand, and limits production to 75 pieces, they are simply manufacturing scarcity for social media buzz. We could even argue that when Hublot creates deliberately controversial messages which watch enthusiasts despise, they may not even be pursuing artistic vision at all; perhaps they are just harvesting negative attention because, maybe, any attention drives sales?!
The Problem With Current Events
What passes for “collector events” in our industry today, is, quite frankly, a joke.
Watches and Wonders has become a media circus where brands spend tens of millions building elaborate stands to impress journalists and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, whilst regular collectors who actually buy these watches queue for hours only to be told they cannot get appointments. What exactly is the point of this charade?
Dubai Watch Week is a lot better, and I have written positively about it before. You can actually see watches there, but even DWW falls short when it comes to meaningful engagement between brands and consumers. The storytelling opportunities are largely wasted or non-existent, and are mostly reduced to brief interactions at display cases rather than the deep, compelling narratives that luxury watches deserve.
Before you start telling me about WatchTime New York, Windup Watch Fair, IAMWATCH, or even Geneva Watch Days, let me be clear: these tiny events do not cut it. They do not even come close to providing an engaging and interactive experience for collectors around the world in a unified way. They are nice gatherings, certainly, but they also represent a missed opportunity, on a grand scale.
What is Good Storytelling Anyway?
You may have seen this recent documentary from Tudor about Navy frogmen and the Apollo programme. Here, you have a brand telling a genuine story about watches that actually featured in engaging, historical moments. The watch was not just any old dive watch; it was equipment trusted by the very people responsible for safely recovering the Apollo astronauts from the Pacific Ocean. When Wesley Chesser recalls watching the Apollo 11 command module looking “like a comet coming through the atmosphere,” you are not just getting a watch story, you are experiencing a moment of drama where that watch played a supporting role in what feels like a landmark achievement. That is the difference between good storytelling and the generic BS we see too often in watch marketing today. Now, hold that thought.
Almost every other industry has recognised the importance of consumer-focused events. The automotive industry has been doing this for decades, from local car shows to massive international exhibitions where enthusiasts can see, touch, and experience the products they love. Comic book fans have their conventions, technology enthusiasts have CES, and even niche hobbies like board gaming have dedicated consumer events.
Yet, in luxury watches, which is supposedly an industry built entirely on passion, craftsmanship, and emotional connection, we have nothing equivalent. Nothing which allows brands to engage with large numbers of consumers in one place. The closest we get are trade shows designed for media and dealers, and consumers are treated as an afterthought.
There is, for now, a fundamental misunderstanding of how luxury purchases actually work. Nobody spends money on a luxury watch because it tells time more accurately than their smartphone. They buy it because of the story it represents, or which they tell themselves it represents; be it the narrative of craftsmanship, hard labour by skilled artisans, innovation, artistic achievement, or even social status by virtue of their association with the storied brand on their wrists.
But of course, how can brands tell those stories effectively when the only platforms available to them, are sterile press releases, brief social media posts, or fleeting interactions at B2B trade shows?
The Solution
To fill this void, we need a complete rethink of how brands engage with collectors. Instead of fighting for scraps of attention in a crowded digital landscape, what if brands could access something that no amount of advertising budget can buy? What if brands could access a captive audience of enthusiasts who will be giving 100% of their attention?
What if collectors could experience brands’ stories through direct, unmediated conversations with the people who actually make these watches? What if the craftsmen, designers, and executives could share their passions directly with the people who appreciate and buy their work?
This would benefit everyone involved.
Brands would finally have a platform to communicate their stories without the distortion of traditional media channels or bias of media outlets, collectors would gain access to the depth and context that gives luxury watches enough meaning to justify the cost, and the industry as a whole would move away from the desperate attention-grabbing tactics that are currently eroding trust and value.
The model already exists in other industries. The expertise in creating compelling consumer experiences is available. What has been missing to date, is a vision, and the commitment to put collectors at the centre of it all.
Change is coming, my friends. Some brands are already recognising that the old ways of doing things are not sustainable. They understand that genuine consumer engagement requires more than stale advertising campaigns or social media presence. It requires a place where authentic stories can be told and genuine connections can be formed.
Such an event does not exist today, but that’s about to change.
Having partnered with a global events production team, who have over 100 years of collective experience in delivering consumer events around the world - I am extremely excited to tell you that the watch world is in for a treat.
We are well underway in the process of creating The Escapement; a multi-thousand-attendee, consumer-focused event - FOR COLLECTORS, BY COLLECTORS. This is a place where brands will communicate directly with all attendees. I am being deliberately vague, because I do not want to spoil the surprise, but many brands have already signed up and have shown huge enthusiasm for our vision (if you represent a watch brand and would like to know more, please get in touch)1.
I will personally be working with brands to craft a storytelling narrative which will be delivered to attendees, and I have no doubt that every brand which attends, will be getting direct attention from consumers. This is something which no amount of typical advertising dollars can ever buy anywhere else.
I know there are sceptics, and they remind me of how suitcases with wheels were only patented in 1970; this is not very long ago! Often, as with wheels on suitcases, people do not realise they need something until they have it; and then they all go “wow, that seems so obvious!”
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I am confident that after this event takes place, everyone will be wondering the same thing…
“What took us so long?”
I look forward to sharing more details with you in the coming months 😉
To be clear, we don’t want to sell watches. We do not want to retail or get involved with selling. We are collectors, and we want to create an event we would love to attend.
Sounds promising, exciting… to be fair it sounds like the usual garbage except that this time it’s coming from a person I totally trust and will deliver, so looking forward to it!
Fuck yeah. This is awesome 🙌