Abstract
Nobody needs a mechanical watch. Still, the luxury watch industry continues to produce and sell hundreds of thousands of complicated mechanical timepieces per year. These watches do not deliver any functional benefit over a much cheaper or electronic product, but they manage to touch our clients and generate desire through their symbolic power, meaning, and the aspirational lifestyle dreams they encapsulate.
Navigating a brand and business in a market that has no automatic demand and is enormously sensitive to consumer moods and discretionary spending requires a very unique skill set and above all a strong instinct to succeed.
This article examines the characteristics of the luxury brand phenomenon, as well as some of the factors contributing to the success of mechanical watches as a luxury product category. Following a broader analysis of the market environment and a definition of the luxury watch brand mission, light will be shed on the key success factors in creating, manufacturing, and marketing luxury timepieces.
In the face of rapid technological process and industry disruption by digital innovations, the final part of the article will focus on the challenges associated with the current digital transformation and the impact this transformation is having on all elements of the value chain, from product design to client engagement.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Christoph Grainger-Herr and Lukas Honold for their invaluable and inspiring contributions to this article. And I would like to thank Franco Cologni, my mentor during my early days in the watch industry, for teaching me to think.
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Kern, G.A. (2017). Engineering the Intangible: Strategic Success Factors in the Luxury Watch Industry. In: Franz, C., Bieger, T., Herrmann, A. (eds) Evolving Business Models. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48938-4_11
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