What’s happening on March 26th then?

I might get one. It'd certainly be easier than my current setup!

If watches are not a good investment, I need a new excuse for my wife ASAP please.
Thx.

Shoot you have a point I do dislike the “watch investment/flipper thing” but it’s not like I haven’t used that line on my wife, of course I always show her the most outrageous examples so she calls BS on me everytime.”

In what way are they "out of the game"? Which Omega models are/we're going to be good investments and how have they been impacted by this collaboration in your view?

This is an un-generous and silly take in a thread comprised entirely of people - including yourself - discussing essentially what is or isn’t “cool” (insert whatever word you want for what’s is obviously being discussed).

To suggest that it’s “shallow” for people to make fashion and style choices based in part on social signaling is disingenuous.

After all, you then go on to basically say “Brand is critical because it communicates with the consumer, it makes them feel something or allows them to experience something and, after all, that is the entire point of most luxury goods.”

Either everyone is equally “shallow” (because we all do it), or no one is (because we all do it).

Here, I’d be cautious to point your fingers because it just makes you sound like you’re one of the people from whom others are wanting to distance their own personal “brand,” and can smell of sour grapes.


This leaves you hanging your arse out a bit, because if anything so-called high-low collaborations are rampant and in danger of being old news.

Versace, Balmain, Lanvin, Karl Lagerfeld, etc etc etc (there are dozens) seemed to have benefited from the exposure of their respective H&M partnerships over the past 15+ years.

Gucci X The North Face was a net positive for both companies.

Yeezy (street luxury) X The Gap is doing alright, if you’re in to luxury streetwear.

Dior x Nike created a 5 million person waitlist

BMW X Kith (NYC streetwear brand) went nuts

Jil Sander X Uniqlo

Louis Vuitton X NBA signed a multi-year collaboration contract

Off-White X Ikea

Balenciaga X Crocs

Hermès x Apple Watch

Could go on and on here, but one last one to mention on the point of this being entirely not new:

Target’s just celebrated 20 years of its “Design for all” collaborations in 2020, where items from collections were Missoni, Lilly Pulitzer, Michael Graves, Hunter, and John Derian all sold out in a matter of hours - and over the past 20 years managed to introduce large portions of the U.S. market to high-end European designers and lesser-known but equally luxurious (in Europe) fashion houses.

In all the above examples, the so-called high-low collaborations helped cement the luxury brands and designers in the minds of the broader popular culture. It is about assigning meaning and relevance to a brand by building up and shaping the awareness and context around them, creating an environment of cultural associations and connections to help the brand grow beyond a core market.

Not that it can’t go wrong (maybe Omega X Swatch will go wrong), but there are a lot of examples of it going very right both the collaborating brands.

The now late Virgil Abloh (artistic director of Louis Vuitton's and CEO of Off-White) said these high-low collaborations “need to engage both the tourist and the purist,” and that “expressing wealth isn’t the coolest thing right now. It’s expressing your knowledge.”

Abloh, who arguably reinvented and perfected the high-low collaboration over the past 10 years, also said of these high-low collaborations, “My internal tool for digesting the word ‘luxury’ is to determine whether or not something is ‘coveted.’ If you covet it, it’s luxurious to you.”

And here we are, on probably the most stodgy (in a good way) of horological nerd forums, with a critical mass of people either planning to line up in front of a Swatch store or disappointed that we can’t.

And conversely, there’s a universe of people who either can’t or wouldn’t put down a $13,000 deposit to wait 2+ years for a re-hashed Ed White 321, but who are about to have their Instagram and TikTok feeds peppered with the words “Omega” and “Moon” and “Mars” and “Speedmaster.”

I’m not saying this collab is an ensured hit, but I am saying it’s past silly to suggest this collab is somehow out of step with the luxury market. if anything, sich a collab is in danger of being possibly late to the game (no surprise for Swiss watchmaking). that’s why, earlier in this thread, I was cringing at the Swatch Group CEO’s comments about “collaborations are so hot right now” - they were at their peak in the 2010’s, and they do best when you act like they aren’t an intentional marketing ploy (cognitive dissonance the key).

Which brings back why I mention the feedback I’m seeing from people in the luxury goods and retail space. Call them shallow if you like, but these are the people who are arbitrating and internalizing the successes or failures of trends in design, luxury retail, etc. - and they (the point was) are responding positively to this collaboration, despite such high-low collabs waining in effectiveness (RIP Virgil) and despite the luxury wristwatch segment being viewed as the nexus of hype-beast tasteless self-seriousness.

These days, the increasingly hotter collab segment is the “Competitor collaboration” (eg this year’s Gucci X Balenciaga “hack” collection).

Now, imagine an Omega X Rolex watch…

@cvalue13 Truth be told, an Omega X Tudor would likely be a far more interesting collab.

I’m very interested in the “mission earth” I think they are still looking for intelligent life on that planet but it’s not looking that good.

@cvalue13 you got me googling Balenciaga x Crocs. Oh man the world's gone weird. I feel old.

Ha!

To be honest…

in spirit I’m the guy who joined this forum 10 years ago and spends hours (weeks?)!dissecting historical minutia about horology, and so identify with the zeitgeist of this forum

but in life and profession, I sometimes float at the margins of youth and luxury design culture, and from that vantage point many of this forum’s comments and reactions on topics like this thread read as palpably out of touch

which alone isn’t a knock against anyone (after-all, it’s also my spirit animal), but instead only *cringe* when mixed whatsoever with an air of “let me tell you what the luxury corporations don’t understand”