Horological Meandering

Jos.
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Very interesting question, Thomas! It hits the mark.

First, the main difference between skepticism and cynicism: skepticism is always justified, cynicism only in certain cases. So ideally, skepticism should be an attitude and cynicism a conclusion. Alas, were it always so!

It's interesting to see from your question and most of the replies that cynicism in the world of horology tends to concentrate on the marketing part of it. Marketing is the business of creating expectations around a brand and its products, in order to create desire, and make people ready to buy the stuff when they've got the chance. If marketing were ONLY that, cynicism would be justified.

But most people seem to forget that marketing is also about delivering on the expectations one creates. If your marketing campaign is beautiful, hyper-efficient and creates a great demand but the product doesn't live up to the claims, it's a bad campaign.

I agree with you that the big brands in horology have been magnificent in the way they've built up their brands over the past decades. I'm a marketer by profession and I've always been fascinated by the way they did it, and especially by the results. I suspect it's even part of my passion for watches. But some brands have gone too far, and are in jeopardy of losing their credibility, either by failing to let quality and significance of their products keep up with their promises, or by simply resorting to marketing fads instead of serious product delivery, making their buyers look silly.

Brands especially guilty of the latter are AP with a ROO marketing strategy that seems to be built for a big part on incessant meaningless LEs (it's quite clever because they clearly will never run out of shops and highways to celebrate the existence of) and Hublot, for exactly the same reason. Maybe it's a myth that the Big Bang is a shameless copy of the ROO but the Big Bang's marketing campaign does copy the ROO's: shamelessness copying meaninglessness - how stupid do they think we are? And these two are the worst, but to a lesser extent a lot of others are following their example.

But the biggest source of cynicism is overpromise and underdelivery. 'Promise' in this context, by the way, is not only promise in words. One of the four traditional 'P's in marketing is Price, and indeed it forms an integral part of the marketing mix. Setting a high price is an integral part of creating high expectations. It works both ways: if I spend a gazillion dollars on excellent marketing campaigns, putting a product on the market that makes the exact same claims as Patek Philippe but the watches cost only 100 bucks, no one will believe me and the marketing money will have been spent in vain.

Much more common is the other way around: putting sky-high prices on your products in order to make people believe they're more special than lower priced products. It's a high-wire game - if you pull it off you'll be rich and famous, but if you fail to deliver your reputation will eventually fall deep.

The fact that the Swiss watch industry as a whole has been very successful so far, resulting in a high overall price level, makes the game even more precipitous. A nice example is the new VC Patrimony Traditionelle Chrono. An absolutely lovely watch, and apparently VC want to make the point that it's in the same class as a Patek 5070. All good and well, but it means they're putting it on the market at a price point of $50,000 or so. Whereas the watch by itself creates not a shred of skepticism, its price point drives some people all the way into cynicism.

Even bigger culprits are newcomers who think they can get away with taking shortcuts. You source some movements from big brand manufactures or a high end botique shop, put some nice looking cases around it, stick a brand name on the dials and Bob's your $20,000+ uncle. This is the stuff that gives marketing a bad name. Who do these people think they are, approaching us with a high end proposition without even trying to prove anything? Worse still, who do they think WE are? Idiots? This drives people into cynicism.

Clearest example in my view is Ralph Lauren. Maybe their watches will grow over the years into living up to a high end reputation. Maybe they never will. But stepping into the high end of the market without even going to that effort makes the haute horology high wire act look like a silly game, driven by money and make-believe rather than real delivery on carefully created craftsmanship.

It's nice to see that things can be different. If you look at my description above, about sourcing movements from high end boutiques, sticking 'em in a nice case and putting a new brand on the dial, this fits for instance Richard Mille as well. But RM has been built around a vision and it has contributed meaningfully to the world of haute horology, with countless innovations and a whole new approach to watch design. Yes, they took shortcuts in the sense of entering the market on a sky-high price level but they've been at it for eight years now and have consistently lived up to the sky-high promises they created (apart from some well-deserved criticism along the way). There will be people who dispute this and say that RM is still a big hoax for their pricing level. (One little 'legend' I heard recently in this context is when RM sent its first price list to international resellers the list was in CHF but they forgot to mention that. The resellers all thought the list was in Euros and priced their watches accordingly, which is how RM found out that they could get away with even higher prices. Typical case of "Si ce n'est pas vrai, c'est bien trouve," but the fact it gets retold says a lot about price perception and the cynicism it can create.) But what it really tells us is that the difference between creating cynicism and admiration is very thin, and difficult to define.

It proves that what sets high end horology marketing apart is time. (There's definitely beauty in that statement To really establish a complete brand image, including wide acceptance and quality perception and everything that comes with it, you need many years. It all comes down to noblesse oblige: if you want to enjoy the perks of nobility, your most important obligation is to prove you earned it, over and over again.

And finally, there's a new key element in marketing (and especially horology marketing). And that's us. The fifth 'P' in the marketing mix is for the Public. It's fascinating to see how the watch brands are starting to use the blogs and fora as an essential part of their brand building effort. Moderators, bloggers and users are given inside information, invited to events, and receive instructions about what to say or not to say about the brands. User Generated Content can be quite powerful, but it's a tricky business. You can try to influence moderators but you never have them completely under control (and the users even less). And what's more, if you're found out using it too overtly or heavy handedly, people will feel used. Personally. That's when people get really cynical. The stakes in the high-wire act are getting even higher.

But overall this is a very good phenomenon. After all, it's all about us, the end users, so anything that makes our views, biases and opinions more heard is a good thing. And especially if you use it in an open-handed, truthful and transparent manner, it can work very well. A very nice example in my view is Richard Mille's recent open letter to the blogs, responding to criticism (and especialy cynicism) in a passionate and vulnerable way. It shows commitment to your brand and what it stands for, and the fact that you're not afraid to show your hand. And replying shows you've listened in the first place. Kudos to Richard! (Even if I disagree with a number of things he says

Horology marketing is getting more and more interesting all the time, and a vibrant and multi-faceted online community of dedicated fans, jaded moderators, silent lurkers, proud collectors, skeptical marketers and cynical grumpy old men (take your pick) fuels it. And I hope it will keep on going.

Sorry for the ultra-long post. I surprise myself here, but apparently I've been sitting on this for a while and it had to get out. Thanks Thomas for providing the occasion!

Rgds
Jos.

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