How Watch Pricing Really Works (Without the Sales Pitch)

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“Work is the curse of the drinking classes…and the watch collectors”, if one may allow that little addendum to the famous Oscar Wilde quote. Nothing can be more debilitating than a hobby that marries one’s vanity with their bank balance in a way that Superman and Kryptonite get along. As your first salary ka-chings its way into your account, being introduced to watches like being given a gentle gateway drug with a very steep, slippery and expensive slope thereafter. And yet, we succumb to its call, every time, all the time, justifying it even as we keep getting sucked in further and deeper, believing that at least one is building a legacy to leave behind. Unlike with cocaine. But truth be told, if investing for the next generation was really the ideal behind all our watch purchases, we’d be smarter to invest in gold or land, or even Bitcoin. Deny it as one way, there is a big component of pleasure that one derives from acquiring a watch, one that just doesn’t hit the same with standard investment tools, be it a long-term fund or a new piece of farmland.

Pelf for Self

So, let’s start by making peace with the notion that a watch is a personal acquisition, one that delivers an unparalleled pleasure to those struck by its beauty and science. It is just as individual a choice as collecting stamps, or vintage cars. There is no justification for it save for the ephemeral rush one experiences while picking it up and then the sweet lingering joy that keeps bringing us back to it.
In light of such, how is one supposed to define value and worth of said transaction. How do we know which watches are deserving of the splurge; where are we purely financing the marketing department as opposed to the technicians, designers and engineers who are the real superheroes behind the watch. How does a watch get priced and what should be we know about it to evaluate our next purchase better? Let’s delve further.

The Value of a Watch

If the watch is mass produced, then the parts will be cheaper, versus, a watch where the movement was planned and executed in-house with all parts being designed and fabricated solely to power one particular model. The material used (steel vs. precious metals vs. even rarer ones) will make the watch progressively pricier. Then, there are a few other indefinite variables like the designer who first conceived the watch as a paradigm before it was an article, or the technician who perfected it so that the movement fit inside the body and also kept time well.

from the packing to the transport and stocking, the margins for distributors and retailers, even the marketing department which will be putting up huge adverts with a very in-demand celebrity as the ambassador; all these also contribute to the cost of the final product and consequently, to its ticket value. But no matter how rare and precious the components or how impossible the design and execution, when calculated like this, almost any watch out there (and especially those from popular luxury brands) will seem obnoxiously overpriced.

The Worth of a Timepiece

This then brings us to the next question; since nobody will sell us a watch for exactly what it costs them to produce, how is one to ascertain the worth of a watch. Unlike the value which we can, for the sake of this piece, agree is an objective monetary (and hence, numerical) evaluation of all the factors that go into the realisation of a watch, from first-draft-sketch to piece-in-hand stage, the worth is something more rooted in personal emotion and general perceptions. It is shaped by the watch’s (or the brand’s) historic appeal over time and the influence they exercise over the market built on the strength of their long-standing reputation and being recognised as the purveyors of hallmark quality.
Phew, that was quite a mouthful even to type out, the thought almost seemed to get away from me. Well, building a watch brand’s worth is even tougher and takes significantly longer.

Even as we agree that a worth is hard to qualify definitely, we can still list down the factors that contribute to it.

1. Brand Heritage: The prestige a brand commands is one seeped in history and there is no discounting the time it takes building one. Sure, there are brands who have come further in 20 years than others have in 2 centuries, but the general sentiment will always sway in favour of the adage, old is gold. The more of a story you have to tell, the more anecdotes and famous old-timers sporting your ware you have on your memory wall, the better it is for your brand equity. People believe, or like to believe, that if a certain brand had the undying resilience or the acumen to survive multiple world wars and God-knows-how-many-financial-crises, then, surely, they have cracked the code for success. New brands constantly come up short in this regard, because, neither can they scoff at the idea of history (because they are in the process of writing theirs) and nor can they compete in this rather un-level (and somewhat unfair) playing field.
2. Provenance: Closely related to history, and although a less of an issue today, but still fairly relevant, it’s just down to geography. Asian watchmakers still don’t command the same premium or attention as their western counterparts and a lot of it is simply down to traditional stereotypes that people still cling on to.
3. Exclusivity: How many pieces one makes is always a top question at launches and somewhat rightfully so. Somewhat. Very few brands can make hundreds of thousands of watches in a year and still manage to give them as much detailing and attention as their rarer, more limited pieces. That said, a handmade piece will always command more gravitas anywhere (provided the work is deftly executed). Since not too many pieces can be handled by skilled artisans every day (or even every year), the simple paucity of pieces can make them, and consequently, the brand, more prestigious, in general parlance.
4. Technical Prowess: How complicated is the piece, how well was it executed, how intricate was the working on each tiny cog and wheel that make up the whole, all these things that can only be examined under an eye-loupe, and that too by only a very trained eye, matter. The science of the movement and the art of the decoration of said movement, both are held in high esteem. The average chap may make no head or tail of the physics of it all but it still sounds impressive. And a pretty dial or movement is a pretty one regardless. So, there’s that.
5. Sentiment: A watch that was a gift, or is heirloom, a watch that was acquired to mark a special date or one that was made in collaboration with an eminent person who contributed to the design (or drama) behind the piece, no matter the thought-trail, as long as it matters to you, it will raise the worthiness quotient. Some sentiments are permanent (like the ones mentioned above) while others can be trend-driven – like a particular model/brand, size or case shape becoming popular all of a sudden.

Worth – Value =?

This is the last equation we need to solve for – Once we have calculated how much it costs to produce a watch – even accommodated for the economies of scale for that particular model, – and then, after we have managed to arrive at our own assessment of its worth, we would feel we should be in a position to answer just how much “extra” are we paying for a watch. The answer, strangely, is still, ‘No’.

You never step in the same river twice, taught us a great philosophers (Heraclitus, I think it was), but then, his disciple said, given its constantly flowing state, you don’t step in the same river even once! To simplify, watch pricing is not a rational mathematical calculation. Too many variables are built on emotions while others are linked to global geo-political frictions which can change tariffs, exchange rates, transport costs, local duties and taxes…the list runs long. Other occurrences like wars and civil unrest, or Acts of God, can damped moods and the downturn can affect prices. And given how swift (and how inexplicably bizarrely) ‘Cancel Culture’ works today, a brand is always one misinterpreted quote or one unintended gesture away from bombing. What I can assure you about watch prices is that most brands, even the simplest ones, only revise prices upwards. So, the best time to buy a watch isn’t now, it was yesterday!