One of four new Franck Muller Colorado Grand Vanguard watches made to honor the Colorado Grand automotive rally .
MAD DASHES & COLLABS
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Gary George Girdvainis Publisher | Gary @ isochronmedia . com
wo trends that are not necessarily new have been seriously amplified in recent times . One is the “ Lemming ” collector , the other is the “ Collab ” watch .
The first is pretty clear . At the high-end or at more affordable price-points , many watch buyers are almost afraid to miss their chance at acquiring the current hot watch . Whether a luxurious and hard-to-acquire SKU from one of the big names , or a run on a particular micro-brand , the watch collector crowd seems to be in full-on bandwagon mode in recent years .
FOMO drives not only active and engaged watch enthusiasts , but also acts as a magnet to the investment crowd – who may or may not even like the design of the particular monetary device ( let ’ s be honest , this is how a lot of buyers view a fine timepiece ) at stake . Both types of lemmings drive prices artificially high and promote these hard to buy watches to a Grail / Unicorn status that only exacerbates the rampant pricing .
The last buyers in line buy at ridiculously inflated prices and may not have much room left for the price to spike . But they do get bragging rights of owning a watch that they know others covet . Paying too much for it is almost a totem of their status . This is when the heavy hitters with more ego and money than sense keep the unicorn express running full speed ahead . Sooner or later prices inevitably settle on the majority of these watches , whether through satiating the market ( which Rolex and Patek NEVER want to do ) with enough product , or when the bottom falls out as the house of cards collapses .
The other trend that is just screaming ahead at full speed are the collaboration watches .
Historically a retailer might partner with a watch brand for a special dial or to simply have their logo stamped on a traditional model . Occasionally other entities ( COMEX comes to mind ) that purchased a larger batch of watches were granted the space on the dial by Rolex or others for their logo to reside .
In today ’ s watch market hardly a week goes by when I don ’ t see a press release for some new joint effort in watches . Whether a musician , designer , graffiti artist , skateboarder , surfer , free climber , or even ( yuck ) an influencer that no one has heard of but has a “ huge ” following , it seems that every other press release I receive includes some kind of partnership beyond the watch . I can ’ t wait for the hot new green dials of the new Pickle Ball watch sponsorship by brand “ X .”
While some of these make sense and are natural combinations , others scream of desperation . Desperation to attract an audience via the collaborator , desperation to take an aging design and breathe new life into it , desperation not to be left behind ( see lemmings ) in the new era of collabs , and desperation to remain relevant in an ever more crowded field of wristwatch options .
4 | INTERNATIONAL WRISTWATCH | FALL 2022