Worn & Wound
Opinion: What “Fair Pricing” Actually Means at Watches & Wonders
Few watch industry traditions are more sacred than the yearly dance during Watches & Wonders between shiny new novelties in Switzerland and comments from observers back home about pricing being out of control. Every year, without fail, new watches are announced in the dead of night on the east coast, and before anyone in the United States could conceivably have access to the new pieces, the commentary comes through loud and clear: they want how much for that? Look, I get it, I really do. As a collector, I’m priced out of a lot of watches that I wouldn’t have been even a year or two ago. Things are getting crazy, and fast. But you’d think based solely on the online discourse that there isn’t a single watch priced fairly anymore. I really don’t think that’s the case. When I say “priced fairly” I want to be clear that I don’t mean any given watch is necessarily affordable to me, or anyone else. But that, in the scheme of things, and thinking about what you’re actually getting for your money at this current moment in time, certain watches are retailing right about where they should be, or at least at a level that aligns with what the watch is offering. And “fair” can mean a bunch of different things when we’re talking about retail pricing. Things like finishing, the positioning of a brand compared to their competition (and how watches are positioned within a brand’s collection), as well as production scale and the health of the brand itself all ...
