Watch collectors are kind of an odd bunch. I’m talking about “dumb” watches specifically - watches that only tell time and don’t have any sort of smartphone connectivity or biometric tracking. Some of the fancier models might have a timer on them, but you’re certainly not going to be getting text notifications. Watches have evolved over time from being a tool to basically men’s jewelry. A few key terms to know first:

  • Mechanical - a watch that keeps time and is powered by a complicated series of springs and gears (this is called the movement). Due to the relatively high amount of niche skilled labor involved in making them, even the most basic mechanical watches can be fairly expensive.

  • Quartz - a watch that keeps time via a quartz crystal oscillator and is powered by a battery. They are much less expensive AND more accurate than mechanical watches, but are frequently looked down upon by watch collectors as not being “real” watches (they don’t have a mechanical soul or some dumb shit like that).

  • The Swatch Group - the Swiss watchmaking industry was seriously threatened in the 70s and 80s by the “Quartz Crisis”, when significantly cheaper quartz (mostly Japanese) watches began to completely dominate the market. Several Swiss companies survived by merging together to form the Swatch Group. Mechanical watch brands moved even more upscale, with a greater focus on luxury, artisanal craftsmanship, and brand heritage. They also launched a new brand, Swatch, which made inexpensive, but still Swiss-made, quartz watches in an attempt to the re-capture the entry level market share they had lost.

  • Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Professional - the “Speedy” is one of the most popular watches made by Omega, a luxury brand owned by the Swatch Group. It’s notable for being the watch that was given to all Apollo mission astronauts and was heavily used in the early NASA days, so the majority of its branding is based around the fact that the Speedy has been to the moon.

In early 2022, the Swatch Group announced a new watch model that was going to be a collaboration between two of its brands - the Omega X Swatch Bioceramic MoonSwatch. The MoonSwatch would have the same appearance and dimensions as the Speedy, with a few key differences:

  • The Omega X Swatch branding.

  • A quartz movement instead of a mechanical one. The Speedy is known for having an especially complex movement since it’s a chronograph (i.e. an analog stopwatch).

  • The casing would be made of “bioceramic” (basically plastic) instead of stainless steel.

  • Price would be $260, compared to the $6000+ of the Speedy.

Immediate reactions were heated. While some people loved the idea, a loud contingent hated it. The main complaints:

  • It was quartz and thus not a real watch.

  • It was made of plastic and thus not a real watch.

  • The MoonSwatch devalued the real Speedy, since it was effectively an officially sanctioned counterfeit made of cheaper materials.

  • The watch devalued the entire Omega brand, since they were putting their logo on a watch that even the poors could afford (the least expensive Omega is around $2500, which is actually on the low end for luxury watches).

The MoonSwatch came out shortly afterwards, and it turns out that demand far exceeded supply. The watch was only available in select Swatch boutiques (for example, only 11 stores in the USA carry it), so if you didn’t live near one of those stores you were SOL. People were lined up for hours to buy one. The MoonSwatch also came in 11 different colorways (themed after the planets, the sun, and the moon), and some of the models were limited to certain stores or even countries. A lot of the watches immediately ended up on Ebay with huge markups. Since it was sold out everywhere, that ended up pissing up the people who actually liked the watch. Some of the things they were upset about:

  • It was easier to buy the real Speedmaster than the MoonSwatch. Speedy sales actually increased by 50% immediately after the launch.

  • The distribution model meant you had to live in a major metropolitan area or be okay with buying one from a scalper online.

  • The different colorways not being available everywhere upset the completionists who wanted to have one in every color.

  • Accusations of favoritism where a few Swatch stores were taking bribes to let people have access to them early (favoritism is an issue with the watch industry in general).

Anyway, it’s been a year since the launch of the MoonSwatch. Hype has died down a bit, but they’re still hard to buy (Swatch stores will sell out in an hour whenever they get new stock). Swatch has said they aren’t planning on doing online sales, but it’s not intended to be a limited edition watch. There’s still criticism (I’ve seen complaints that the plastic feels cheap), but even the detractors had to admit it was the hottest watch of 2022.

TL;DR - Watch brand releases a watch that’s kind of a copy of a way more expensive watch made by the same parent company. This angers half of the watch collecting community. The other half is angered because the watch is sold out everywhere and a pain in the ass to buy.

Credit where credit is due; This is a repost from reddt

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    TIL there are people that take the collecting of expensive, single-purpose watches more seriously than any hardcore gamer takes their favorite game. Now I want to see somebody to bombard their community with ads for the cheapest shit-tier kids’ wristwatches and Chinese knockoff brands available.

    • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      Go to reddit.com/r/watchescirclejerk for the people who realize how ridiculous it is to take collecting jewelry so seriously. They’re watch enthusiasts who realize how stupid it is to be a serious watch enthusiast.

      It’s hilarious. Because watch culture is filled with some of the most pretentious and self-aggrandizing people you’ll ever meet.

      • zuluwalker@lemmy.fmhy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I wish I didn’t have to go to reddit to look at this (using Teddit btw) - maybe we need a Lemmy version of that sub

        I’m definitely a part of that flock.

    • RedditExodus@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I own basically the cheapest mechanical chronograph watch in existence and I love it. For 250 bucks you can get a “Seagull 1963” watch from China on Amazon.

      It’s actually a really nice looking watch with a glass case back so you can see all the gears in the movement. It was designed by the Swiss company Venus a long time ago and they sold it to a Chinese company at some point where it got copied by a bunch of other Chinese companies.

      You might find it under a different brand name. Mine is the “Seakoss” variant. They come in a bunch of different styles and sizes so pick whichever you prefer.

      Sure maybe it’s not great to be supporting China but so much stuff we buy comes from China anyway so I don’t think about it too much.

      I wanted a mechanical watch so I could admire the gears but I wasn’t about to drop many thousands of dollars on one so this thing fits the bill.

      • Arcturus@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Seagull generally do make good watches for the price. As does Tissel, which is a Korean brand, also within that price range.

        Besides that, the standard brands from Seiko and Citizen are also pretty good, and they carry the name. Even Casio is pretty retro and affordable now.

    • Arcturus@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s just how it is with luxury brands. Either someone just knows all the specifics, from type of leather used, to specific types of metals, from being in the industry or being brought up with it, or someone doesn’t care and can just afford it. You could do the same not just with watches, but plates, or wallpaper.