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Here’s What I Learned And Saw At The Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair 2019
SEP 15, 2019 — BY DAVID BREDAN
https://www.ablogtowatch.com/learned-saw-hong-kong-watch-clock-fair-2019/
I eagerly anticipate the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair more and more with each passing year. As far as I can tell, there is no other watch fair like it: With its five-day duration and 830 exhibitors from 22 countries and regions, it is an extraordinarily diverse gathering of mostly Asian original equipment makers (OEM) watchmakers, OEM-watchmakers-turned-brands, and specialized suppliers, both established and new. Here’s what I learned & saw at the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair 2019.
There are two types of visitors, buyers and press — as the latter, what I mostly care about is gauging the overall development in the refinement and advancement of Asian watch brands and parts suppliers. This puts me in the minority, as the former, much larger group cares not so much about where things have been going, but what is available on the market right now. They need parts for their brands, and they need OEM manufacturers who will build watches (and jewelry) from scratch to completion. As is the norm, the most versatile assortment of global watch industry players gathered at the 38th Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair, with prices ranging from $1 to well into the tens of thousands.
Every time I attend, I like to catch up with fellow members of the press, as well as exhibitors I’ve met in previous years to compare our perceptions of the fair and the industry that it so beautifully represents. Given the distinct and steady increase in overall quality at all price levels (and by that, I mean $20 and up), I enjoyed shocking my fellow attendees by asking, “Though still quite a bit wonky at times, would you agree that brand presentations and marketing have overall been steadily improving?” Rather in line with my expectations, I kept hearing an eerily invariable response: “Yes! And once they have figured that out, we are all doomed!”
So, there. Even as few as five years ago, the mantra was the same, but it was not about marketing — it was about quality control and complexity and refinement of execution. In other words, every open-eyed attendee (press or otherwise) considered quality of execution as the final frontier that Asian watch manufacturers had to conquer to step up as a real threat to their Swiss counterparts. In 2019, the extent to which some OEM suppliers and brands have nailed quality of execution is scary for the established industry, or so it would be, if representatives of major Swiss luxury watch brands weren’t already present at the fair, looking for “overseas” case, bracelet, and dial manufacturers — or, you know, just renewing their existing contracts.
Mark my word: If the types and quantities of Asian-produced components that are omnipresent on expensive “Swiss-made” watches are ever revealed, through leaks of confidential documentation, the next big scandal could ensue. Do I know the exact types and quantities of “foreign” components in such watches? No, but even if I did, I’d need to be able to present such documents to back up my claims before taking on some very well-heeled companies of a traditionally rich industry by saying that the cases, dials, and hands that they use originate from China (or elsewhere).
Among those leading the pack, in my opinion, is a watch group called Solar Time, Ltd., with its portfolio of brands including AVI-8 (combat aviation-inspired watches), Spinnaker (originally a yachting-inspired brand that has followed the tides and turned into a vintage dive watch-inspired brand) and Dufa (the German minimalist, Bauhaus-inspired brand), along with other brands. They were among the first of their segment to understand and utilize the techniques that European luxury brands have long been implementing: They structure their brand portfolios intelligently, assigning very accurately defined customer bases, price points, design DNA, and niches to each of their brands. The group does this for all its brands but performs the technique most efficiently with AVI-8, Spinnaker, and Dufa.
Spinnaker — another Solar Time, Ltd. brand displayed at the group’s Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair 2019 booth, and positioned as the manufacturer of vintage-themed dive and sport watches priced between $300 and $1,000 — is at the point that it’s making halo products now. Seen above is their tribute to record-setting dive watches of the ’60s, like the Rolex Deep Sea Special. They know they won’t be selling bucketloads of this massive, 1000m water resistant, titanium-clad diver — but their goal is different with it, anyway. It is a product whose purpose is to show followers of the brand that Spinnaker dives deep into the world of vintage dive watches and takes its selected niche more seriously than others. Oh, and if someone likes a thick, yet light, impressively water resistant, vintage-inspired diver, then it’s their lucky day.
The FH keeps track of the quantity and value of watches exported from Switzerland, not the quantity and value of watches actually sold. As such, just because the Swiss watch industry produced an unchanged (or greater) number of watches and pushed it all on its global distribution channels, doesn’t mean the world actually needs that many watches. A quick walk around Hong Kong reveals the mind-bending numbers of watches that were pushed onto the gray market, as well as into the stupendous number of official multi-brand and mono-brand boutiques. You could build skyscrapers from gray market inventories, not to mention the fact that it isn’t uncommon to find districts of Hong Kong where there are more watch boutiques than any other type of store.
SEP 15, 2019 — BY DAVID BREDAN
https://www.ablogtowatch.com/learned-saw-hong-kong-watch-clock-fair-2019/
I eagerly anticipate the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair more and more with each passing year. As far as I can tell, there is no other watch fair like it: With its five-day duration and 830 exhibitors from 22 countries and regions, it is an extraordinarily diverse gathering of mostly Asian original equipment makers (OEM) watchmakers, OEM-watchmakers-turned-brands, and specialized suppliers, both established and new. Here’s what I learned & saw at the Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair 2019.
There are two types of visitors, buyers and press — as the latter, what I mostly care about is gauging the overall development in the refinement and advancement of Asian watch brands and parts suppliers. This puts me in the minority, as the former, much larger group cares not so much about where things have been going, but what is available on the market right now. They need parts for their brands, and they need OEM manufacturers who will build watches (and jewelry) from scratch to completion. As is the norm, the most versatile assortment of global watch industry players gathered at the 38th Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair, with prices ranging from $1 to well into the tens of thousands.
Every time I attend, I like to catch up with fellow members of the press, as well as exhibitors I’ve met in previous years to compare our perceptions of the fair and the industry that it so beautifully represents. Given the distinct and steady increase in overall quality at all price levels (and by that, I mean $20 and up), I enjoyed shocking my fellow attendees by asking, “Though still quite a bit wonky at times, would you agree that brand presentations and marketing have overall been steadily improving?” Rather in line with my expectations, I kept hearing an eerily invariable response: “Yes! And once they have figured that out, we are all doomed!”
So, there. Even as few as five years ago, the mantra was the same, but it was not about marketing — it was about quality control and complexity and refinement of execution. In other words, every open-eyed attendee (press or otherwise) considered quality of execution as the final frontier that Asian watch manufacturers had to conquer to step up as a real threat to their Swiss counterparts. In 2019, the extent to which some OEM suppliers and brands have nailed quality of execution is scary for the established industry, or so it would be, if representatives of major Swiss luxury watch brands weren’t already present at the fair, looking for “overseas” case, bracelet, and dial manufacturers — or, you know, just renewing their existing contracts.
Mark my word: If the types and quantities of Asian-produced components that are omnipresent on expensive “Swiss-made” watches are ever revealed, through leaks of confidential documentation, the next big scandal could ensue. Do I know the exact types and quantities of “foreign” components in such watches? No, but even if I did, I’d need to be able to present such documents to back up my claims before taking on some very well-heeled companies of a traditionally rich industry by saying that the cases, dials, and hands that they use originate from China (or elsewhere).
Among those leading the pack, in my opinion, is a watch group called Solar Time, Ltd., with its portfolio of brands including AVI-8 (combat aviation-inspired watches), Spinnaker (originally a yachting-inspired brand that has followed the tides and turned into a vintage dive watch-inspired brand) and Dufa (the German minimalist, Bauhaus-inspired brand), along with other brands. They were among the first of their segment to understand and utilize the techniques that European luxury brands have long been implementing: They structure their brand portfolios intelligently, assigning very accurately defined customer bases, price points, design DNA, and niches to each of their brands. The group does this for all its brands but performs the technique most efficiently with AVI-8, Spinnaker, and Dufa.
Spinnaker — another Solar Time, Ltd. brand displayed at the group’s Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair 2019 booth, and positioned as the manufacturer of vintage-themed dive and sport watches priced between $300 and $1,000 — is at the point that it’s making halo products now. Seen above is their tribute to record-setting dive watches of the ’60s, like the Rolex Deep Sea Special. They know they won’t be selling bucketloads of this massive, 1000m water resistant, titanium-clad diver — but their goal is different with it, anyway. It is a product whose purpose is to show followers of the brand that Spinnaker dives deep into the world of vintage dive watches and takes its selected niche more seriously than others. Oh, and if someone likes a thick, yet light, impressively water resistant, vintage-inspired diver, then it’s their lucky day.
The FH keeps track of the quantity and value of watches exported from Switzerland, not the quantity and value of watches actually sold. As such, just because the Swiss watch industry produced an unchanged (or greater) number of watches and pushed it all on its global distribution channels, doesn’t mean the world actually needs that many watches. A quick walk around Hong Kong reveals the mind-bending numbers of watches that were pushed onto the gray market, as well as into the stupendous number of official multi-brand and mono-brand boutiques. You could build skyscrapers from gray market inventories, not to mention the fact that it isn’t uncommon to find districts of Hong Kong where there are more watch boutiques than any other type of store.
