Michael Kors - Why?

You can get g shocks that cost 2.5k$ so...those habits can be bad too

My eldest neice had one as a fashion accessory.

The designer is a well known name in fashion and like most of the fashion houses has branched out into accessories.

Where these houses don't have expertise, they just buy into someone else usually chinese, sometimes swiss.

Gucci protect their brand a bit better by using better quality movements, mostly swiss from the few I've seen.

MK is full of cheap chinese stuff.

My neice upgraded to a "Really dood watch" after the MK - it was a Guess

After a year or so I finally was able to get through to her that she was paying hundreds for something that was worth probably less than tens just for a the brand name.

Now, this can also happen at higher levels of horology too, I do concede that.

But when her prized Guess stopped working she started paying attention and there's research into something better.

She earns a motza in the TV industry, so it was merely a question of appeal, not cost.

We'll see if something better graces her wrist in the months to come.

I started the younger intellectual neice off with a Seiko 5 for her 21st, as she isn't a fashion junkie and was intrigued by the mechanicals with clear casebacks in my collection.

So, yes there is hope for the next generation.

Unfortunately not everybody shops for watches for the same passionate reasons that we all do.

Its similar to buying a polo shirt with a huge polo player embroidered on the chest.

The difference being that the shirt is probaly better made than a no-name version, whereas the MK watch scenario is probaly the reverse, with a cheap no-name being about the same.

And that is the part that annoys me.

A Michael Kors hand bag or dress WOULD probably be reasonably well made and Gucci IS well made for their clothing and bags.

So the people that are attracted to those brands then assume that everything with that name is made to the same level of care and quality.

In that sense MK is ripping off their customers IMHO.

And that's what annoys me.

Not that people are shopping only by brand or look, but that their underlying assumptions are being manipulated, and quite successfully too!

MK and the rest of the "designer/fashion" brands address a market. If I was to categorise it it would be for those who want a timepiece that a) appeals to their tastes and b) tells the time/date. They don't care about the heritage. However, I don't view them with the condescension (sometimes veering towards contempt) that others seem to hold them in, nor do I cast aspersions on their intelligence for choosing to buy one. Neither do I feel any sense of moral superiority because I prefer mechanical watches.

It's their money and if they spend it on a shiny quartz watch that brings them pleasure when they wear it, good luck to them.

Because some people like them?

What's the big deal?

I don't hold that quartz is inferior, nor mechanical superior.

I don't hold purchasers of fashion brands in contempt.

I don't hold fashion houses in contempt.

What I do feel agrieved about is that some, not all, fashion brands trade on their name that they know appeals to a market ignorant of a particular item in their range and thus can maximise profits.

In this instance, watches, that are cheaply made but with a designer label on them that followers of the brand expect to have a level of quality commeasurate with that brand's other products that is not offered.

To me, that is a rip-off.

The long-term consequence of apply brand and all that it embodies to products that are outside the qualityand value proposition that the buyer expects from that brand will remain to be seen.

Its not ended well for others in the retail sector that have tried this.

If Omega started selling business suits and you eagerly ordered one only to find upon delivery that they'd sourced it from a sweat shop in Indonesia with shonky cotton and polyester fabrics labelled as wool and charging thousands, you'd feel a bit miffed that it wasn't what you were expecting

If you bought a Swatch polo shirt for $10 and it fell apart after a few wears and washes then you probably would not feel aggrieved.

It the manipulation of perceived value that some of these fashion brands use that annoys me.

Calvin Klein Watches are swiss made may be MK watches are too 😀
May be it is just a start (good?) to appreciate watches (my first was a ugly Festina quartz when I was 20 => no money and searching my style!)

I'm not familiar with MK watches but MK bags are remarkably utilitarian. 👍

It's just another designer brand...

it means: "veteran of many tickets"





I swear I've been pulled for "conspiracy to speed"

Well...I don't know...I'm actually a very conservative (and abiding) driver so I don't get pulled over. I will say that while I proudly served as a full time Cincinnati Police Officer (2004 - 2006), that I would cut military veterans a break whenever I could. 👍

I too am quite law abiding, my last ticket was for a paltry "43 over".

Exactly! I used to get the "You're profiling me!" line all the time when I was on patrol. Traffic violators, theives, drug dealers, blah blah blah. My response was simply "Yeppers...I am profiling you...my job is to profile criminal behavior and take action."

yeah, I could never figure out guys that argue with the law. I got pulled over a lot over the years (sport bikes, go figure) and there were very few occasions where I hadn't earned the attention.

There was this once though..... this motorcycle cop was all over the back of my bike, up and down the side, eyeballing me like I had a big crate on the back labeled "dope" so I finally pulled over to see what was so interesting. He pulled over as well and came over all red in the face, full of apologies.

He just wanted to see what the bike what I was riding.

Can't blame him I guess..... Soviet military bike, redone in bright yellow..... don't see them every day.