What’s happening on March 26th then?

kelsey · Apr 2, 2022

cvalue13
Seems ironic in a troubling way that this is your reaction, as clearly both Swatch and Omega intend this to be an environmentally-conscious alternative to the millions of *actual* (petrochemical) plastic watches that are made by Swatch.

On second thought, seems sort of strange to condemn Swatch for making “bioceramic” MoonSwatch in particular, when meanwhile for decades Swatch has done nothing but make (petrochem) plastic watches?

Based on your expertise as an environmental scientist, there something about “bioceramic” that is worse than the typical plastics they’ve produced for decades?

I’ve no point in history liked plastic disposable swatches, swatch itself stands for second watch and is designed to be your throw away watch.
Bio ceramic is broad term, been used for years in medical and dental etc
In swatch form it’s likely to turn recyclable plastic into future landfill.
Bright side of luxury watches your speedmaster’s unlikely to be landfill in the next 50 years (hell even the boxes are mostly kept nowadays), how many of the swatches won’t be landfill in the next 50 years? 5 years?
Not saying that lots of landfill or environmental damage isn’t done by manufacturing of all of the above but that’s a whole nother rabbit hole.

Shabbaz · Apr 2, 2022

kelsey
I’ve no point in history liked plastic disposable swatches, swatch itself stands for second watch and is designed to be your throw away watch.

I come from a family of watch 'collectors'. My grandfathers had several watches and my father had hundreds of clocks and watches. When me and my brothers (one of them also collector) became teenagers my father gave us every year on our birthday a swatch. I still have them somewhere in a box. So swatch in a sense started it all for me. After swatch my father gave me my first mechanical watch (15 or 16): a oris pointer date. I still have that one too. Now I'm 45. Old. But those swatches remind me of me beeing young.

kelsey · Apr 2, 2022

Shabbaz
I come from a family of watch 'collectors'. My grandfathers had several watches and my father had hundreds of clocks and watches. When me and my brothers (one of them also collector) became teenagers my father gave us every year on our birthday a swatch. I still have them somewhere in a box. So swatch in a sense started it all for me. After swatch my father gave me my first mechanical watch (15 or 16): a oris pointer date. I still have that one too. Now I'm 45. Old. But those swatches remind me of me beeing young.

Yes and millions of people have emotional childhood connections to McDonald’s……

JwRosenthal · Apr 2, 2022

kelsey
Yes and millions of people have emotional childhood connections to McDonald’s……

Hey Kelsey, I have enjoyed your commentary and counterpoint thus far, no need to snark at Shabbaz when he is sharing a story about why he has a connection to Swatch and completely unrelated to the debate you are having with others right now.

marcn · Apr 2, 2022

Dusting this off…

aphexafx · Apr 2, 2022

kelsey
Yes and millions of people have emotional childhood connections to McDonald’s……

Now you're just trying way too hard. This is becoming nonsensical. You cannot wrap your head around a plastic Swatch/Omega collab. Congratulations.

BAJJ · Apr 2, 2022

Unfortunately opinions are like arseholes in that everyone has one...........
I'm not trying to have a dig at anyone, honest, but IMHO it's impossible to have a robust discussion on an internet forum where comments can be misinterpreted and opinions dismissed at the touch of a button, best I think to state your opinion and leave it at that, and then respect others when they state theirs.

Anyway, back to the moonswatch, I like them, if they become available I will most likely buy one, if they don't then I won't buy one because I won't pay over retail, I don't want it that much. Mostly I just want to tell people that it's a mission to Uranus when they ask what I'm wearing😁

kelsey · Apr 2, 2022

JwRosenthal
Hey Kelsey, I have enjoyed your commentary and counterpoint thus far, no need to snark at Shabbaz when he is sharing a story about why he has a connection to Swatch and completely unrelated to the debate you are having with others right now.

I genuinely apologise to him, I was more making a point at how marketing consumer goods is often aimed at creating childhood happy memories for future sales it’s a modus operandi of McDonald’s.

He did alteast keep his watches and it good he shared his happy memories.

eelpie · Apr 2, 2022

kelsey
I don’t purchase anything for status, I even more a miser then (sic) a show off, I’m over 50 I really don’t need anything for status.

If you’re here and you either admire or own an Omega, you’re not a miser. Misers spend their time arguing with people over on the Used Timex board.

I’m a retiree in my 70s, living on a fixed income, and I fancy myself frugal and a bit of a sharp buyer. I’ve bought one Rolex new and no Omegas new, ever. Nonetheless, I have still accumulated / amassed about forty of ‘em.

I’ve made good buys at yard sales ($50 Speedy Moon), estate sales ($300 Speedy Moon), pawn shops (The James Bond Collector’s Piece Seamaster) and auctions (immaculate 1958 Seamaster) among many, many others.

I get almost as much enjoyment out of the hunt as I do buying, restoring and wearing the watches.

When I’m asked what my favourite watch is, my answer is always, ‘my next one’.

Now I’m not sure if that will be Mission to Nettuno or the Tissot Gentleman Powermatic 80 Silicium in blue, in lieu of the Oyster Perpetual 41 my Rolex dealer cannot provide . . .

kelsey · Apr 2, 2022

aphexafx
Now you're just trying way too hard. This is becoming nonsensical. You cannot wrap your head around a plastic Swatch/Omega collab. Congratulations.

Forum members keep asking questions and I’m responding accordingly.

kelsey · Apr 2, 2022

eelpie
If you’re here and you either admire or own an Omega, you’re not a miser. Misers spend their time arguing with people over on the Used Timex board.

when your total personal assets is less then 0.1% of your net wealth you’re a miser.

savka · Apr 2, 2022

Oh boy, this thread is fun to keep up with! I want to try and sum up a few reasons why someone might not like the MoonSwatch because I think there's a few that have been suggested/implied at different points in this thread that keeps on giving. @kelsey please feel free to chime in here since you're a vocal member who doesn't seem to be a fan.

1) The Omega x Swatch collaboration is is bad for the Omega brand in some way. Putting the Omega name on a plastic Swatch cheapens, devalues, or in some way robs Omega of its perceived status among luxury brands. Certainly, other brands we know and love would never do something like this.

2) The collaboration is fine but the rollout has been horrendous -- why can't we all have the watches we want? It's incumbent on Swatch Group to create enough supply to satisfy demand, not play games. We as consumers will be happy and they will maximize their short-term profits.

3) Creating yet another disposable watch is bad for the environment at a time when we should all be concerned for the future of our planet.

4) Concern over what this will mean for the future of the hobby and where that leaves enthusiasts like us -- if more people start buying Omega watches and becoming watch enthusiasts, then maybe the hobby won't be as fun anymore.

5) MoonSwatches are just plain ugly.

Am I missing anything?

kelsey · Apr 2, 2022

savka
Oh boy, this thread is fun to keep up with! I want to try and sum up a few reasons why someone might not like the MoonSwatch because I think there's a few that have been suggested/implied at different points in this thread that keeps on giving. @kelsey please feel free to chime in here since you're a vocal member who doesn't seem to be a fan.

1) The Omega x Swatch collaboration is is bad for the Omega brand in some way. Putting the Omega name on a plastic Swatch cheapens, devalues, or in some way robs Omega of its perceived status among luxury brands. Certainly, other brands we know and love would never do something like this.

2) The collaboration is fine but the rollout has been horrendous -- why can't we all have the watches we want? It's incumbent on Swatch Group to create enough supply to satisfy demand, not play games. We as consumers will be happy and they will maximize their short-term profits.

3) Creating yet another disposable watch is bad for the environment at a time when we should all be concerned for the future of our planet.

4) Concern over what this will mean for the future of the hobby and where that leaves enthusiasts like us -- if more people start buying Omega watches and becoming watch enthusiasts, then maybe the hobby won't be as fun anymore.

5) MoonSwatches are just plain ugly.

Am I missing anything?

Pretty much sums the negatives up.

kelsey · Apr 2, 2022

marcn
Dusting this off…

You don’t know how close this is to my wife and I tonight lol

Dan S · Apr 2, 2022

kelsey
when your total personal assets is less then 0.1% of your net wealth you’re a miser.

Trying to wrap my head around this comment.

It's my understanding that: net wealth/worth = total assets minus obligations/liabilities

in which case net wealth cannot be greater than assets. Did you mean the opposite? That you have a lot of debt?

kelsey · Apr 2, 2022

Dan S
Trying to wrap my head around this comment.

It's my understanding that: net wealth/worth = total assets minus obligations/liabilities

in which case net wealth cannot be greater than assets. Did you mean the opposite? That you have a lot of debt?

Zero debt never had a loan of any kind in my life. I mean more personal use assets are a tiny fraction of my investments.
Miser status is all relative.
Yes more info then you needed to know and off topic but am responding to questions.

Archer · Apr 2, 2022

kelsey
Yes and millions of people have emotional childhood connections to McDonald’s……

If you want to direct your ire at a more problematic place, this is a much better target than Swatch. McDonald's is the largest toy distributor on the planet, through happy meals. They distribute more crappy plastic toys that end up in landfill than anyone else...

Dan S · Apr 2, 2022

cvalue13
On second thought, seems sort of strange to condemn Swatch for making “bioceramic” MoonSwatch in particular, when meanwhile for decades Swatch has done nothing but make (petrochem) plastic watches?

Not exactly answering this question, but I have seen people speculating about the nature of the bioceramic. The typical polymer derived from a castor oil feedstock is a polyamide, which is in the nylon family. It is hypothetically recyclable but not biodegradable. The reason I say "hypothetically" is that the watch case is a polymer/zirconia composite, which is not generally recyclable in a standard facility. So unless Swatch makes a concerted effort to offer recycling services for these cases, they will not be recycled. Thus the advantages over petrochemical-derived plastics are fairly marginal at this moment in time. Obviously, looking toward the long term, it is potentially advantageous to use sustainable feedstocks for polymers. However, recycling/upcycling is arguably the bigger technological challenge IMO.

kelsey · Apr 2, 2022

Archer
If you want to direct your ire at a more problematic place, this is a much better target than Swatch. McDonald's is the largest toy distributor on the planet, through happy meals. They distribute more crappy plastic toys that end up in landfill than anyone else...

Yes but this is a watch forum, good point though Swatch is the happy meal toy of the watch collecting world (minus the happy Ohhhh wait I mean meal) 😉

kelsey · Apr 2, 2022

Dan S
Not exactly answering this question, but I have seen people speculating about the nature of the bioceramic. The typical polymer derived from a castor oil feedstock is a polyamide, which is in the nylon family. It is hypothetically recyclable but not biodegradable. The reason I say "hypothetically" is that the watch case is a polymer/zirconia composite, which is not generally recyclable in the standard facility. So unless Swatch makes a concerted effort to offer recycling services for these cases, they will not be recycled. Thus the advantages over petrochemical-derived plastics are fairly marginal at this moment in time. Obviously, looking toward the long term, it is potentially advantageous to use sustainable feedstocks for polymers. However, recycling/upcycling is arguably the bigger technological challenge.

That was part of my point apologies if inferred more then explain.
The inert nature, inability to react and hence break down is why they where developed for medical use ie inert is what you want in replacement bones/tissue.
I kinda of laugh at the term “sustainable feedstocks” I use to work for a department called “sustainable intensive systems” I use to make the point at work such intensive systems are certainly not sustainable.

What’s happening on March 26th then?

kelsey

Shabbaz

kelsey

JwRosenthal

marcn

aphexafx

BAJJ

kelsey

eelpie

kelsey

kelsey

savka

kelsey

kelsey

Dan S

kelsey

Archer

Dan S

kelsey

kelsey

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