We Talk To Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek About The MoonSwatch

ChronoB · Jun 29, 2022

Good interview. It's pretty clear at this point that the Moonswatch was far more successful for Swatch than they ever imagined it would be. And for Omega, it worked out liked they hoped; getting exposure, being part of a huge event in the world of watches, and bringing new people to the brand. I just really wished they had used a better quartz movement, or one with sweeping hands. Hayek mentions they used the same ETA movement they use in their other Swatch chronographs because they wanted it to look like a Swatch. I don't buy that. If they wanted it to be so closely associated with Swatch's other chronos they wouldn't have bothered using the Speedmaster template. Everyone sees a Speedmaster, not a Swatch. I would happily pay one or two hundred dollars more to have a one with a better movement.

petay993 · Jun 29, 2022

Amazing to me that this crappy plastic pastiche of a Speedmaster should be garnering so much attention.

Who cares where you sell it, the whole restricted retail operation has been hijacked by gangs of unpleasant 20 something scalpers trying to turn a few $150 profit deals on eBay.

I mean look at it, nasty plastic case, low budget reflective plastic crystal, $5 movement, cheap simple hands, cardboard strap, subdials in the wrong place. It's going to look like a POS in 3 months of ownership.

YUK!

savka · Jun 29, 2022

P petay993
I mean look at it, nasty plastic case, low budget reflective plastic crystal, $5 movement, cheap simple hands, cardboard strap, subdials in the wrong place. It's going to look like a POS in 3 months of ownership.

Bought 3 months ago and holding up pretty well, other than dust that I didn’t clean off before snapping a pic. 👍

Duckie · Jun 29, 2022

savka
As Hayek puts it in the article, “it’s part of the experience to go and look for it.”

I think I get it now.
They're adding to the humanity of it all through "the experience" with new and exciting dimensions with the search.
One wouldn't mind if it was genuinely worth it👎

noelekal · Jun 29, 2022

I don't seek out such "experiences." It's one thing to collect one's passion(s) and it's another thing to be manipulated by corporate marketing strategy. Takes the fun and frolic out of it somehow.

kgb · Jun 29, 2022

I'm in the camp that is worried that the MoonSwatch will cheapen the true Omega Speedmaster brand, even though I must admit there are many design aspects of these Swatches that work pretty well aesthetically.

So I was extra surprised that Mr. Hayek said the MoonSwatch craze has increased sales of REAL Moonwatches. Do we really believe this could be true, or is it some sort of rationalization?

blubarb · Jun 30, 2022

Never interested me from the outset and a little to do with those whose FOMO went to outlandish levels but mostly as the sub dial layout looks annoyingly off to my eyes - just looks like a Swatch. A Swatch by another name is still....

oh and that branded © on the dial is 🤮

savka · Jun 30, 2022

D Duckie
I think I get it now.
They're adding to humanity of it all through "the experience" with new and exciting dimensions with the search.

A perhaps less charitable interpretation is that they’re following a template designed to effectively exploit our psychology. Toh-may-toh, toh-mah-toh.

noelekal
It's one thing to collect one's passion(s) and it's another thing to be manipulated by corporate marketing strategy. Takes the fun and frolic out of it somehow.

I’ve yet to meet someone who isn’t influenced by marketing.

Bugbait · Jun 30, 2022

kgb
I'm in the camp that is worried that the MoonSwatch will cheapen the true Omega Speedmaster brand, even though I must admit there are many design aspects of these Swatches that work pretty well aesthetically.

So I was extra surprised that Mr. Hayek said the MoonSwatch craze has increased sales of REAL Moonwatches. Do we really believe this could be true, or is it some sort of rationalization?

I have no actual evidence but based on YouTube chatter on or shortly after release, there were multiple people commenting that the MoonSwatch media brought the Moonwatch to their attention and they had purchased one after mainly owning Rolex and other brands. Outside of watch enthusiast circles, branding is extremely powerful. Could of cause be a load of manure but that's the Internet for you.

cvalue13 · Jun 30, 2022

kgb
Do we really believe this could be true, or is it some sort of rationalization?

It’s why corporations do high-low collaborations. Done well, they do the work of 10,000 commercials but for the lowest of price: irritating a few dozen curmudgeon collectors.

Blackdog · Jul 1, 2022

Frankly I don't understand why we're still talking about this plastic Swatch.
By now I have completely lost interest.

At the beginning I though it was cool, and I tried a couple of times at the Swatch place in Valencia... but there's a limit to how much of the "experience" I want to endure for what is essentially a toy watch.

noelekal · Jul 1, 2022

savka
I’ve yet to meet someone who isn’t influenced by marketing.

Oh, I know I'm influenced by marketing alright. I'm immediately influenced to be annoyed and to gauge the amount of hype that can be detected by the marketing effort. Induced to purchase because of marketing? Not so much.

Bugbait · Jul 1, 2022

Even negative reactions suggest the MoonSwatch is a marketing success. To get any sort of reaction, positive or negative means the consumer cares. If I was a product owner I'd take that over people being oblivious to the product.

noelekal · Jul 1, 2022

Perhaps a consumer's negative reaction means that he doesn't care about it, doesn't care for it, doesn't care to acquire it, none of which bodes well for the manufacturer and the marketing effort. It won't translate into sales and quite possibly diminishes the consumer's interest in following the manufacturer's offerings in its other lines.

ebrohman · Jul 1, 2022

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about"

Bugbait · Jul 1, 2022

noelekal
Perhaps a consumer's negative reaction means that he doesn't care about it, doesn't care for it, doesn't care to acquire it, none of which bodes well for the manufacturer and the marketing effort. It won't translate into sales and quite possibly diminishes the consumer's interest in following the manufacturer's offerings in its other lines.

Or by not liking it and expressing this to others they bring it to the attention of those who might be interested in it? All a numbers game. There have been many instances in my life when someone has had a negative opinion about an item or company which has subsequently piqued my interest and thus made we aware of a product.

Hypothetical example: "God that MoonSwatch is an overhyped, cheap plastic piece of garbage". Interesting, might have to check that out to see what all the fuss is about to see if I agree.

ebrohman · Jul 1, 2022

Checks it out...yup, it's a cheap plastic toy...goes back to admiring his mechanical.

There are so many affordable, non-toy watches available right here and most of them are more attractive to me than the one in question. I can understand one being taken in by the aesthetics of the swatch, but as soon as one learns what it is, or isn't for that matter, it's a turn off in my humble opinion.

Dedalus05 · Jul 1, 2022

It's a horrible watch. I'm happy for Omegas subsequent sales, but this watch is horrible. A G-Shock can be got for much less, and it's in a build different quality category altogether IMHO.

The aesthetics are all wrong on this one. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

That said, most of the G-Shock's are ugly messes too.

savka · Jul 1, 2022

ebrohman
I can understand one being taken in by the aesthetics of the swatch, but as soon as one learns what it is, or isn't for that matter, it's a turn off in my humble opinion.

Fair enough. In my case, I’m intrigued by owning an interesting piece of Omega history. I’m his Talking Watches episode, Rogers Smith talks about owning an Omega Marine Chronometer because it represent the Swiss watch industry in crisis — ownership was less about the watch and more about what it represents as a historical artifact. Of course that watch is also a technological advancement and not at all on the same timekeeping level as the MoonSwatch, but the same general argument can can be made of owning some of the Omega LCDs, for example. Watches are primarily driven by emotion, after all, and some just capture a particular moment in time really well.

norb1967 · Jul 1, 2022

I don't get the hype. Apparently there are still people who queue up for these every day, and there are still reports of discord outside shops as buyers queue to try and buy them. And yeah, so much for the online availability part...

We Talk To Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek About The MoonSwatch

ChronoB

petay993

savka

Duckie

noelekal

kgb

blubarb

savka

Bugbait

cvalue13

Blackdog

noelekal

Bugbait

noelekal

ebrohman

Bugbait

ebrohman

Dedalus05

savka

norb1967

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