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WTF???

 

I miss my blue plastic Mickey Mouse watch i had when I was much younger.
Sometimes when I'm feeling nostalgic, I google them to reminisce about it.
My wife had one as well all those years ago and we have a mutual reminisce about them.
These watches will be lots of fun and will introduce young people to the potential joys of watch ownership where as how things currently stand with the younger generation, they may be lost to the practicality of watch ownership and the day to day of the convenience of having a watch on their wrist to track time.
I can envisage where these things may well be like Nike's where people collect them purely out of an interest.
These watches are a ray of cheap sunshine in a world which has become increasingly darker over the last couple of years.

I think I shall allocate some funds to having the full collection of them and have a dedicated place to display them in a salubrious fashion along with my(rare) Coca Cola yoyo BNIP from my youth which I bought on a whim off ebay for an outrageous sum of money. Just because i could and it represents the best yoyo I ever had the pleasure of playing around with and be able to do all the tricks which were out there

I love the concept of these watches with their various themes
I see loads of fun times ahead foe anybody and everybody to share

 

Yes: is says Speedmaster on the dial
No: its a Swatch Collab and these are made by Swatch.

Users are free to choose whichever answer prevents an existential crisis

 

Rest assured, that model is quite literally unattainable to the common folk (without a trip to airport security at least) so Constellation owners are safe for now.

 

I mean, this is also a Speedmaster

 

A good digital watch / G-shock etc is always a respectable watch choice.
Also I would rather see someone enjoying a nice MoonSwatch then see them tempted to buy a fake watch. That market keeps getting bigger (and sadly better).

 

Is there a way to block these FratelloWatch posts? First the "investment" thread and now this.

 

Does anyone buy watches anymore just because they are fun?

 

Interesting point of view, and I respect it, while disagreeing completely...

From a basic function POV, a base Tiguan gets you from point A to B just as well as a loaded Macan GTS. The difference is in various creature comforts and option levels (infotainment, seating, noise/suppression) and performance items (acceleration, speed), and then a 'prestige' delta (varies by person). Branding is key to helping identify the justified 'price' differences to customers, but strongly supported by the difference in creature comfort and performance.

From a basic function POV, a true Moonwatch offers the exact same function as a MoonSwatch. The technology behind 'how' that function is delivered is entirely different, but it doesn't impact the core benefit a watch brings to majority of people as it relates to telling time. The ONLY difference in my mind is some slight material/visual differences, and almost entirely a 'prestige' delta (again varies by person). IMO, branding makes up most of the justification behind different pricing levels, and it's why I don't understand this particular co-branding. It seems a pure attempt (highly successful in the short-term) to get a 'halo-effect' from the popular Speedmaster and generate large volume / high margin sales for the lowest tier. Had they marketed it as a Swatch branded MoonSwatch and explained it had a licensing agreement from Omega somehow, it would make more sense. I think it would have still generated the same level of attention and initial sales volume, but without the tacky visible co-branding all over this colab.

Unlike some of the other nay-sayers on OF, I personally don't care one iota that Omega has done this. It wouldn't change my buying habits one bit, I just don't understand it from a corporate perspective in the long-term. In general, I like the concept and the look of several versions, and I may well buy one for my daughter in the future (after initial hype dies down and availability improves).

I am a Business Director for a global supplier, and while I don't have responsibility for branding or marketing, I spend a lot of time working with our sales teams on how best to understand and leverage perceived value and price justifications. It's not a consumer product, so the mechanisms of setting prices and generating sales is very different from goods such as watches. However, I spend a lot of time thinking about pricing and function vs value. From a branding perspective, we have very careful corporate control over our company logo, including highly specific font, colour, size and use-cases how we must and must-not show our logo and letterhead.

 

Just came back from London and the flippers are going crazy. Some have been sleeping next to the swatch shop since yesterday.

 

Yes, an official Swatch Speedmaster...

 

No, the dominant branding is Omega (top) and Speedmaster (left).

The Swatch (bottom) and MoonSwatch (right) clearly intended to be secondary.

Had they released it without the Omega and Speedmaster text on the dial, I would fully agree with all your comments. They didn't though, not even close.

Loads of comments on watch forums about tribute and homage watches from lower tiered brands. Everyone generally agrees, making another model that looks very much like the original is okay, as long as it's not a direct copy, and as long as they don't replicate the branding as that makes it a fake/knock-off. With this release, Swatch group have made their own cheap 'knock-off' and put the halo-branding all over it.

I'm guessing the Omega CEO had to be coerced into this colab, as his brand is lending it's 'prestige' to the lesser brand and won't benefit in return. They've put this out with a ton of fan-fare and trying to show a unified Swatch Group/Omega voice... but I'll bet there have been many fierce debates in the office about whether this will eventually be a huge mistake. No one will know for maybe 5 or 10 years, and luckily @Archer has 2 calendar events already set...

 

An official 'Omega x Swatch' and 'Speedmaster' and 'MoonSwatch'... it's a cornucopia of horological brandery...

 

Thank God, finally someone else with this point of view. Even the strap that's facing the wearer has the Omega logo. The swatch is upside down.
The idea is a genius. The execution is far from it.

 

We will probably never know the answer to this, but I'm not 100% convinced that Omega had to be dragged into this kicking and screaming. At a high level, Omega is in a tough spot because the Speedmaster Pro is their only iconic watch, and it is getting pretty stale, being virtually unchanged for 55 years. It's not easy to keep the Speedmaster relevant generation after generation, and it requires continual effort. Usually it involves LEs, but as you probably know, there has been pushback against the high volume of LEs over the past decade. The 50th anniversary was a good opportunity, but it's in the rear-view mirror now. The 3861 has backfired to some extent, with the well publicized technical problems. This is a new approach, and there's really not much to lose IMO.

 

Swatch Group has many different brands in their portfolio, with various models and different price points.

Your points are valid, and outline the challenges the 'CEO' of the 'Omega' group faces.

I'd love to have been in the Board room when the Omega CEO made his sales pitch, "well, I cannot any longer succeed to justify the high value of my Brand, and I'm not able to drive more sales revenue or profits (which you have charged as my primary responsibility). I therefore propose to abandon my mission and instead help my fellow Swatch CEO sell many more of his cheap watches using the reputation I've worked so hard these last years to build..." I guess it would be a bit like the crucial midnight scene in 'Margin Call' where they have to face facts that all is lost and they'd best be the first ones to liquidate everything before it all crashes down... (said with loads of sarcasm and intended humour! in no way do I think that's true, or anything like what happened)

 

Forgetting the part where they’re only sold in Swatch stores and are obviously Swatch quality/price

 

I actually wasn't implying that. My thinking was more that this could have been a creative way to drive a new generation of interest in Speedmasters. There is some risk, but Omega's actions over the past 20 years suggest to me that they think the Speedmaster requires continual hyping anyway.