A very wise man once told me women (and this applies to watches) are like street cars.
Another one will be along in five minutes . . .
That would appear to have been a Tissot, until the toys were chucked from the pram.
Al, the salient point is that I don’t need another watch any more than I need the MoonSwatch.
I have more than enough watches to wear a different one every day of the year.
My life is not improved in any way whether I buy a MoonSwatch, a Rolex OP 41, the Tissot or nothing at all. They’re fun, and when they stop being fun, I move on.
A week or two ago I bought a dressy Bulova at an antique sale for eight bucks American. I got to take it home, clean it up and get it running. After wearing it for a few days it stopped, so I sent it as a gift to a guy on a Bulova board who already one and who really liked that model. Spending $300 to service a $300 watch that I would rarely wear anyway didn’t make any sense.
The point is, I’d gotten as much entertainment value from it as I could, so I passed it along. Now the fun has gone out of the MoonSwatch for me,
and I don’t see any point in rewarding Swatch Group with my business, meagre though it may be.
MoonSwatch news proves more popular than Rolex’s launches (watchPro)
“If Swatch spent more than $100,000 on the marketing it was being ripped off.
The point is that the money spent on Watches & Wonders is probably 100 times more than Swatch Group spent on MoonSwatch.
The result? WATCHPRO’s story revealing the Rolex watches presented at Watches & Wonders was read by just under 7,000 people; a healthy result and better than any other brand’s launch at Watches & Wonders.
Click to enlarge.
But MoonSwatch? The two most popular stories on Watchpro.com this week were both about the £207 bioceramic watch with a Velcro strap.
Seven out of the top 10 stories on the website this week talked about MoonSwatch.
The most popular has been read 306,673 times, the second had 206,097 views.
Add up the seven stories and they total 700,000 page views for the MoonSwatch, 76 times more than the Rolex launch story and almost half the 1.4 million clicks on Watchpro.com in the past month.
Before you conclude that trade shows like Watches & Wonders are therefore obsolete or pointless, that could not be further from the truth in my opinion.
They are more important than ever to sell the dream of the most beautiful watches being made today.
I have loved being back at such a major show, but the hype of MoonSwatch has tickled me and taught the industry that taking a risk with something unexpected can pay off spectacularly.“
In fairness Rolex really bloody phoned it in yet again with a remarkably lackluster pile of Datejust options that won’t be in stock only one new sports model that won’t be in stock and is rather mediocre and then some flower print stuff. Really weak.
I thought I would share my experience of drinking coffee while watching a swatch store at Zurich Airport today:
I pass by a swatch store on my way to work. So its easy for me to drop by and ask if they have new stock. The information that I got from them is that they get stock but they don't know when. New stock sells in within an hour.
So now to my observations from today, While I was enjoying my coffee at a Café close by I watched people go in and ask for the MoonSwatch about every two minutes. So my guess is the demand is still pretty high.
Also an interesting observation is that people from all background kept checking with them. I saw older women, students, working class as well as more wealthy people asking the staff.
I think what Omega and Swatch created here is great. They created a product that is liked by people from every social group.
Also with their current strategy everybody has the same chance of getting one. They don't go by purchase history and don't have any lists.
I can't wait to get one for myself and hope they will be more readily available in the future.
Out of curiosity, did you notice people hang around to look at or buy other Swatch watches? Or were they generally laser focused on the MoonSwatch?
I would say 90% just asked for the MoonSwatch and left again. Some customers looked at other watches as well. I think I didn't see anyone buying anything though.
Every day they delay, the more people will lose interest.
Swatch could turn a promotional coup into an utter disaster by being unprepared for the scope of the roll-out and then failing to provide product until interest has irreparably waned.
At first I wanted Moon and Nettuno, but now the former is out, and the latter is in doubt.
Strike while the iron is hot indeed . . .[/QUOTEi have a feeling its going to be a disaster im nervous. I really want to be able to get my hands on one of these at the retail price point. I thought that was the point of these even existing… lets hope they stick to the plan
I would say 90% just asked for the MoonSwatch and left again. Some customers looked at other watches as well. I think I didn't see anyone buying anything though.
I thought I would share my experience of drinking coffee while watching a swatch store at Zurich Airport today:
I pass by a swatch store on my way to work. So its easy for me to drop by and ask if they have new stock. The information that I got from them is that they get stock but they don't know when. New stock sells in within an hour.
So now to my observations from today, While I was enjoying my coffee at a Café close by I watched people go in and ask for the MoonSwatch about every two minutes. So my guess is the demand is still pretty high.
Also an interesting observation is that people from all background kept checking with them. I saw older women, students, working class as well as more wealthy people asking the staff.
I think what Omega and Swatch created here is great. They created a product that is liked by people from every social group.
Also with their current strategy everybody has the same chance of getting one. They don't go by purchase history and don't have any lists.
I can't wait to get one for myself and hope they will be more readily available in the future.
Thanks for sharing. Wanted to add a data point and share my experience at the Toronto Swatch store this past weekend.
Arrived at the store around lunch. There was still a velvet rope happening and only letting a limited amount of people in the store with a line up and 2 security guards. Apparently they got a restock and had emailed the people who they had to turn away the previous weekend to give them a chance to queue to get one of the 30 restocks.
At the same time there was a constant crowd around the display window. People waiting their turn just to look at the window display even though they knew they had no chance of getting a watch. All different walks of life as well. This one family who had the prime viewing location (older couple, and their 2 adult children) were in a serious discussion deliberating which was the best one to buy. After patiently waiting for a few mins listening to this debate, using my 4 year old as an excuse I politely asked them if they could move momentarily so I could take a pic. They kindly obliged, and as I raised my wrist with my Speedmaster to take the below pic, the crowd literally gasped at my watch. One millennial amongst the crowd said quite loudly “wow! The real deal!”. A bit embarrassed, I quickly snapped my pic (sorry it’s blurry) and wrangled up my 4 year old and took off.
Definitely still a lot of buzz for many around these watches. Judging from my experience I’d say this release has succeeded in raising the awareness level of the Speedmaster and perhaps has even cemented it’s iconic status with a whole new generation.
