According to the watch press, this year’s Baselworld in Switzerland was a graveyard. “The Baselworld show, ended March 30, was grim,” said Joe Thompson in Watchtime[1] Magazine, an enthusiast publication. In short, a once might industry is contracting at an alarming rate.
A further harbinger of death is far simpler to understand. Swiss exports have fallen for the third year in a row. This hasn’t happened since 1930, in the depths of the Depression.
“I spoke with dozens of watch executives and retailers: the consensus view is that the industry is ailing,” wrote Thompson.
Experts attribute the fall to a few factors. First, American imports have fallen 28% as more and more people abandon watches or settle on Apple Watches. Overproduction and overpricing are forcing watches into the gray market and younger people don’t want to buy watches at official sellers, instead choosing to go online.
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Watch sales have fallen before. The quartz crisis dented the industry in 1975 and it dropped again in 1982 and 1995. The recent recession flattened new sales as traders sold their fancy Rolexes and Pateks at a discount just to get liquid. And, as a trend, smartwatches have torn pounds of flesh from Geneva’s greatest brands every month.
I expected this third lean year for a long time. The Schadenfreude is truly juicy here and it was already clear that things were bad a year ago[2]. But it truly gives me no pleasure.
Watchmaking is an art albeit one that is no longer cherished. In a world where we are overwhelmed by time we don’t like to remind ourselves that it exists. The media we consume is out of time – a...