“We knew after we have been launching a watch model that story-telling can be by far an important a part of what we do,” says Chris Rose. “Why? As a result of we by no means need individuals sporting one in all our watches to expire of issues to inform different individuals about it.”
And there’s a lot.
A watch by Diatom – the model a decade in growth by Rose’s specialist house advertising firm Despatched Into House – comes with meteorite dial, a chunk of the Apollo 11 foil warmth shielding and, sure, has really gone into house. “We type of need individuals to be sceptical of that declare – as a result of we are able to then show it,” he laughs. Prospects are supplied with a QR code linking to a video of their specific watch above the Earth’s curvature.
It’s some story, however, as Rose factors out, storytelling is more and more necessary with watches as a result of it’s an more and more crowded market. Mainly, it’s more and more troublesome to distinguish between one watch and one other. That is very true when high- finish and lower-end watches share components suppliers and actions, whilst value variations perplexingly widen.
“Watch manufacturers want story behind them to be able to discover some distinction from one another,” says Alexander Barter, writer of The Watch: A Twentieth-Century Fashion Historical past. “All of them attempt to discover a hook to hold themselves on – be that their heritage, or sure occasions, for instance. It’s these items that add glamour to a watch. It’s why I feel we’re seeing all these manufacturers seem seemingly out of nowhere and claiming a heritage relationship again to the 18th century, although they seem to have carried out nothing in between. There’s an consciousness that the client is shopping for into the romance of the story, not simply the watch itself.”
Advertising and marketing Quietly
The character of this storytelling – typically dubbed quiet advertising – is broad and assorted. This isn’t nearly supposed legacies in fact, however claims to technical innovation – having pioneered some necessary milestone in watchmaking. For instance, contemplate the attachment some fashions have with key historic occasions – from the Omega Speedmaster and Apollo moon-landing programme, to Doxa and Cousteau’s deep-sea diving.
You may add aviation, navigation and driving to the combo too. The humanities and sport, too, are an limitless supply of storytelling, particularly the very costly attachment to creative and sporting heroes.
Then there may be the affiliation with sure personalities, each up to date and paid for, but in addition these of the previous. Would the TAG Heuer Monaco, as an example, be the cult object it’s with out its affiliation with a really cool Steve McQueen in Le Mans, or the Rolex Daytona to the even cooler Paul Newman? Story creates the mythos that makes a watch extra than simply one other watch.
“We’re clearly promoting a extremely emotional, costly product and I’d even say that to try this now and not using a story round isn’t doable,” says Andreas Bentele, advertising supervisor for Fortis. “That’s not simply with watches however any market that’s extremely aggressive: an Apple iPhone may not have one of the best digital camera however it has one of the best story. It’s story that sells the watch, not merely the watch alone. That’s why there’s a lot myth-making round sure watches, usually poorly evidenced, which is the place the magic of selling is available in.”
Bentele cites the event of its Stratoliner chronograph three years in the past – the primary watch examined in house. Doing so, he says, was about making the design tremendous powerful – “space-proof,” actually – however, he concedes, additionally about making a buzzworthy halo across the mannequin. “You’ll be the one sat across the desk with 9 individuals sporting Speedmasters, all telling the identical story that Omega has performed for 60 years, and also you’ll have one thing totally different to say,” he chuckles. In actual fact, he provides, playfully, “Omega hasn’t pushed house watch growth [since the moon landings] as a result of it’s so pricey. However, George Clooney may be very pricey too.”
Technical Identification
There’s a deeper motive why such tales are so necessary. In keeping with Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, professor of shopper psychology at Anglia Ruskin College, UK, they provide a product – whether or not a watch, a Tiffany bracelet, or an Hermes Birkin purse – that means past its perform. Perform is all too simply undercut by cheaper opponents.
“Tales create narratives and that’s what fixes a product within the mind higher than simply its technical particulars,” she explains. “A narrative generates an id for a product and generates a way of connecting emotionally with that id. A narrative is one thing that can also be simply shared. And ‘phrase of mouth’ advice is essential now.”
However tales are made up, proper? Does it matter if a narrative shouldn’t be precisely, effectively, true? The elephant within the room right here is the concept most shoppers simply will not be bothered. “In fact, if a model has a narrative that may be a blatant lie, then that may injury belief. However you may twist a narrative with out outright mendacity [with little negative effect]. And if there’s an concept a couple of product that’s been round for a very long time, and is ceaselessly repeated, then shoppers will not be prone to care a lot in any respect,” says Jansson-Boyd. “That’s one motive why manufacturers don’t make an effort to refute what they could know to not be true [if that idea works in their favour].”
Blancpain, for instance, is usually acclaimed for launching the world’s first true dive watch, in 1953, even when the surprisingly dressy Omega Marine was utilized by skilled divers for twenty years previous to that. Consciously or not, Blancpain clearly advantages from this misunderstanding. Why wouldn’t it problem it? Heuer created the primary automated chronograph, Seiko introduced one to market first, and Zenith was the primary with a completely built-in automated chronograph motion. All of it is dependent upon how you narrow the cake…
Purple Flags
“That is all, in spite of everything, very totally different to, say, a drug firm making a particular declare that seems to not be true,” says Philip Graves, founding father of behavioural insights consultancy Shift, which advises numerous industries on higher understanding how shoppers really assume. “Frankly, with luxurious items particularly, shoppers are complicit in that they wish to be engaged with the myths round a product as a result of it makes their selection simpler and makes them really feel good after making their selection.
“Fable is the mojo of the product they’re shopping for into,” he provides. “So how a lot of the cash a watch firm spends selling its merchandise wouldn’t it need to spend to appropriate a false concept [given that they take on a life of their own and now echo endlessly across the Internet]? After which who would hear it? Perhaps just a few anoraks would assume it was attention-grabbing, however most shoppers would merely filter it out.”
That could be a essential distinction. If the overwhelming majority of watch consumers are roughly proud of the tales being spun, it’s a small minority of watch lovers who increase the pink flag. Impressed by A Few Good Males, they shout “you may’t deal with the reality! You’ve got the posh of not understanding what I do know.”
One such fanatic is perhaps Jose Perez, of the watch weblog Perezcope, who has received a deserved popularity for his forensic, if obsessive, detective work into the histories of watch manufacturers. He has develop into a thorn within the sides of manufacturers when declaring that some histories don’t stand as much as scrutiny. For instance, data don’t exist for one firm to say, because it does, to have been based within the 18th century – and that such claims are fairly a product of a long time of “enjoying round with historical past”; or that one other can’t declare to have invented a sure advance in watchmaking, fairly to have stood on the shoulders of specialist giants.
“A narrative generates an id for
a product and generates a way of connecting emotionally with that id”
— Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, professor of shopper psychology at Anglia Ruskin College, UK
Straight Speak
He argues convincingly that, for the reason that actually ground-breaking achievements of watchmaking – the primary chronograph, the primary dive watch, and so forth – have been a long time in the past, and that it now progresses in tiny increments, after which principally on the high-end of the business, watches of at present have barely modified from merchandise of earlier generations. Consequently – greater than ever, and greater than something – they’re symbolic objects. However, he suggests, the extra watches are seen as these objects of artwork and craft, fairly than as instruments, the extra necessary it’s that makers get their tales straight.
Rolex, he says, by the use of instance, doesn’t need to hold using the wave of the unsupported concept that it invented the primary water- resistant watch. It didn’t. Fortis, to call only one, made such a watch years earlier than, in 1915. However, he asks, is it not an important sufficient story that Rolex perfected developments by earlier watchmakers to create an iconic product? Or is that too delicate a message for at present’s media panorama and its rapid-fire turnover of ‘content material’?
Maybe a part of the issue, traditionally, was all the time semantic: that manufacturers took shortcuts with their explanations as a result of the lengthy model bought boring and overly-technical to most shoppers, even when different manufacturers have insisted on giving that nonetheless. Patek Philippe, as an example, didn’t make the primary moonphase wristwatch, as it’s typically credited with doing – it made, because it has all the time maintained, the primary serially produced moonphase wristwatch.
Rolex as soon as claimed to have invented the self-winding motion – it really invented the primary with a rotor mechanism. Certainly, John Harwood, inventor of the self-winding motion (once more, first utilized in a Fortis mannequin) consequently sued, main Rolex to subject a court-ordered apology in a 1956 commercial. Likewise, when Rolex first promoted its Oyster, it did in order the “first waterproof watch with out the usage of perishable supplies” – true, however hardly snappy. No surprise, over time, the “perishable supplies,” half didn’t survive, even when that led to a well-liked untruth.
The Accountable View
And typically, effectively, Machiavellian advertising, grudgingly admired, prevails – and truthful sufficient. Rolex didn’t ever declare that it was the primary watch to summit Everest. It was simply fast to publicly congratulate Edmund Hillary when he did scale the world’s highest mountain – sporting a watch by Smith’s – quoting the mountaineer on how effectively his Oyster had carried out on “his climb”. Not the Everest climb, however a earlier one.
“Watch manufacturers actually push on these tales now as a result of it’s getting more durable and more durable to only promote a watch [on its own physical merits],” Perez says. “They need to promote a narrative. And infrequently these are super-interesting. [When there are errors] the best-case state of affairs is {that a} model has an important historical past however doesn’t know how one can inform it. However within the worst case, they only invent a historical past with some bullshit tales. And that actually issues to individuals who stay and breathe watches.”
The issue, Perez reckons, is that the majority long-established watch firms wouldn’t have in-house historians to offer strict overview. And even then it’s, he concedes, an enormous enterprise to attach all of the dots in most firms’ disorganised archives, if they’ve archives in any respect, which is one motive why errors seem in even authorised books on sure watches or watch manufacturers.
“However they in all probability ought to have an historian if historical past is so necessary to them,” he says. “As a substitute, all the ability goes to the advertising division. And in the event that they’re placing these tales out into the world, they need to take duty for them.”
Or, possibly, at the very least be cautious. Rado, for instance, is usually credited with being the primary firm to make a ceramic watch – this story is central to the enchantment of its watches. And but – little doubt conscious that IWC launched a ceramic watch the yr earlier than – Rado solely claims that its Rado Ceramic of 1986 was “probably the primary watch on the planet with bracelet, crown and case made fully of this high- tech materials.” Properly put certainly.
Different manufacturers could discover that their fingers can be pressured, by the Web, if nothing else. If that’s the case, we could also be shifting into an period of ever better transparency, one that’s significantly acute for brand spanking new manufacturers. Because the co-founder of HTD, Federico Zulian, places it, “for the large, historic manufacturers the aura surrounding their most well-known fashions has lengthy since over-taken concepts of truthfulness” – these auras have develop into embedded, embellished or simplified “however newer manufacturers can’t assume like that as a result of all eyes are on them, whilst they nonetheless acknowledge that storytelling, alongside design, stays one of the vital necessary methods of giving life to a watch.”
“Watches have been made to inform the time, however that’s clearly not the case anymore. I’d say that the aim of a watch now could be story-telling”
— Edward Margulies, watch administration veteran and founding father of Cut up watches
Not In The Playbook
Undoubtedly, not everybody within the watch business will prefer it being identified that their tales are tenuous. Lately, some have already began to very quietly make corrections to their web sites and press supplies. When Nicholas Bowman-Scargill re-launched the Fears Watch Firm a decade in the past (it was initially based by his great-great-great-great-grandfather), he was upfront in regards to the four-decade hole in its timeline, throughout which the title was dormant. He even listed the place all of his watch components have been sourced. An unnamed Swiss watch business guide referred to as him an “fool” for doing so.
“Why? As a result of [transparency] isn’t a part of the Swiss business’s playbook,” says Bowman-Scargill. Perhaps that’s the reason there are many watch manufacturers – huge, well-known, high-prestige ones – who proceed to make unsupported claims. Or why loads of different manufacturers have been resurrected after a long time of dormancy – and by enterprise individuals with no reference to the founders – with out this inconvenient fact being addressed.
It’s a testomony to the ability of the story that, once more, possibly this simply doesn’t matter to many, and even to these with business perception. “I not too long ago purchased a stunning Dennison watch although I do know the model has been bought and has no relationship to the unique. I fell for it, in some sense,” laughs Bowman-Scargill. “Why? You’d in all probability want to talk to my therapist. However [even though I know all the facts] I nonetheless wished to purchase into the Dennison story”.
It’s actually an outdated story – Dennison was based in 1874 and closed in 1967, the title being revived final yr – however possibly it’s an outdated story in additional senses than one. It’s an open query as as to whether shoppers are nonetheless impressed by longevity for its personal sake. Does being the primary to drag off some technical accomplishment a century in the past nonetheless actually maintain weight, in a broad market by which it’s at present’s disrupters who’re celebrated, not these of the 1800s? Do at present’s 25-year-olds even know who Paul Newman is?
Tuning Out
And does the watch business’s default advertising imagery – cue speedboats, huge homes, quick vehicles, govt tailoring, fighter jets, rugged males with sq. jaws for some inexplicable motive simply holding their watches close to their well-known faces – not look extremely dated in 2025, to not say unimaginative, particularly to these youthful generations already questioning why they might ever purchase a watch?
“So little of this sort of advertising cuts by now. Most individuals simply tune out of it, barely even discover there’s a watch there,” reckons Chris Rose. “The business wants to search out causes for individuals to concentrate once more – and that comes by correctly real tales.” The query, given the extra challenges to how the business costs and distributes its merchandise, is what variety?
“Watches have been made to inform the time, however that’s clearly not the case anymore. I’d say that the aim of a watch now could be story- telling,” says Edward Margulies, watch administration veteran and now founding father of Cut up watches, which, as a substitute of toeing the usual high-gloss luxurious line, is connecting its extra counter-cultural messaging to psychological well being issues, with every buy donating to charity among the prices of remedy for an adolescent. Fears too is doing one thing related, for a suicide prevention charity. It’s all severe and grown-up stuff – and one million miles from the same old ye olde-meets-macho watch storytelling.
“In fact, constructing a glamorous aura round a product has lengthy been a key a part of promoting, throughout the posh industries. However I feel we’re on the level now the place individuals have a lot data there’s now a scepticism about all of the historic and different claims being made,” Margulies provides. “They’re questioning [those old story tropes] in favour of a brand new variety that strikes them as extra significant”. May it’s time for the watch business’s story to start out a brand new chapter?
This story was first seen as a part of the WOW #81 Autumn 2025 Difficulty
For extra on the newest in luxurious watch reads, click on right here.