Watch Collectors Want Brands to Take More Design Risks, a New Study Shows
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How are watch collectors feeling about the state of the watch market? Are they optimistic about its future? Dismayed about pricing? Do they want to see more complicated timepieces, or less?
Over the summer, Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, cofounders of the online retailer Collective Horology, decided to find out. They created a survey, called Collective Voice, and fielded it in June and July, garnering responses from 91 people, a mix of Collective customers and listeners of their Openwork podcast. (This constitutes “a statistically meaningful sample,” Rapkin, Collective’s CEO, notes.)
“We surveyed respondents on their enthusiasm for watches year over year,” he tells Robb Report. “We asked open-ended questions about brands that have inspired them and why, at multiple price points, and brands they have soured on and why, and we got a remarkable amount of data.”
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With the help of a customized ChatGPT bot, called the Collective Voice GPT, Rapkin and Reilly interpreted the results and made the chat available to the brands sold by Collective, allowing them to ask the A.I. anything they pleased about the survey. (Robb Report even gave the module a whirl.)
“The good news is that if you look at the industry from 10,000 feet, enthusiasm for watch collecting among these high-touch collectors remains pretty darn high,” Rapkin says. He pointed to one of the survey’s key findings: 72 percent of respondents feel that the industry is in a “strong” or “very strong” position, thanks in part to the variety of brands and models available to collectors.
On the flipside, 15 percent of respondents described the industry as “stagnant,” and 13 percent said they believe it is “in decline.”
“These individuals worry that some brands have become complacent, relying too much on heritage models rather than pushing the envelope with new designs and innovations,” according to a summary of the survey results provided by Collective Voice GPT. “Many brands seem stuck in the past, rehashing old models with little effort to innovate or appeal to younger audiences. It feels like they’re playing it too safe.”
Rapkin says respondents expressed a clear desire for risk-taking across all price points, from below $5,000 to $25,000 and above. Conversely, “throwbacks are not being looked upon favorably, and are considered ‘lazy’ or ‘boring,’” said the summary report.
Robb Report further probed this topic with the Collective Voice GPT, which doubled down on Rapkin’s assessment. “Collectors seem to be gravitating toward brands that push the boundaries with new materials, unconventional aesthetics, or creative complications,” the bot replied. “This suggests a hunger for fresh, cutting-edge ideas within the industry, even from traditionally conservative brands.”
The survey’s third big takeaway centered on pricing, with 64 percent of respondents expressing concern about rising prices.
“There is a growing feeling—fair or otherwise—that watch brands are price gouging, and the reaction is a combination of anger, frustration, and exhaustion,” according to the survey summary report. “Interestingly, this isn’t unique to any particular price class or category—clients in the market for $1,000 watches felt exactly the same as clients in the market for watches over $25,000.”
There is another dimension to respondents’ concerns about prices. “It’s not just that people are concerned about expensive watches—they’re concerned about values,” Rapkin says. “The pandemic created a level of unrealistic expectation that fueled a buying frenzy, because during the pandemic you could buy basically anything that you could sell for cash or make money on, or at least not take a loss. Today, that’s not true anymore and that messed people up. Prior to 2020, that’s not why people bought luxury watches. The hangover that we’re in right now has caused a lot of people to be way more cautious about what they’re buying.”
As for the other questions we posed at the start of this story, the results were clear.
“Despite a few concerns, the majority of respondents are optimistic about the future of the watch industry,” according to the Collective Voice GPT. “Sixty-seven percent believe the industry will continue to thrive, pointing to the ongoing balance of tradition and innovation as a key reason for their optimism.”
The bot also revealed that “when asked about their favorite complications, respondents leaned towards practical features. Chronographs and GMT functions were the most popular, favored by 46 and 39 percent of collectors, respectively. While highly intricate complications, like tourbillons, generate admiration for the craftsmanship involved, only 8 percent of respondents said these high-end features are something they actively seek out.”
Collective Horology plans to field the survey semiannually, with the next one planned for spring 2025, “right before or after Watches and Wonders,” Rapkin says.
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