SK Teh (The Hour Glass), Stéphane Belmont (Jaeger-LeCoultre) and Charris Yadigaroglou (MB&F) weigh in on what to expect this coming year.
With SIHH and Baselworld behind us, we’ve gained a certain insight on what leading watch brands are bringing to the table in 2018.
So we posed this simple query to three industry professionals: What are the trends you’d like to see further researched, developed and refined in the watch industry in this coming year?
This is what they had to say.
SK Teh, general manager of The Hour Glass Malaysia
The Swiss Watch industry is moving into an uptrend according to the latest report by Federation of Swiss Watch Industry. I expect this trend to continue and grow as we move further into the year. While some challenges are expected ahead, we will still be able to come out on top.
On a more commercial level, I would definitely like to see more developments in the ladies watches for now and the coming future. It is a relatively “untapped” segment, as far as timepieces goes. Though, it must be mentioned that brands today are already moving into that direction.
For the longest time, watches for women were made but not women’s watches. Watches should be design with what a woman want in mind, from conception to the final creation.
Having mentioned the above, women have always bought watches but their share of the pie remains with great potential to grow even further. It would be exciting to see how and when this segment grows.
Stéphane Belmont, director of marketing and creation at Jaeger-LeCoultre
We’ve seen a lot of technical innovations in the recent years. We are aiming to take all that creativity and innovation from the most exclusive watches, and try to incorporate that in more affordable watches. You see it in the Reverso – instead of having a push button, there’s a kind of secret activator inside the case to change the second time zone on the back. It’s those little details that will make the difference.
The character of the watch should come first, then the functions should integrate itself in the design and we should find solutions to make those functions as simple to use as possible. That means today, you should be able to use a modern mechanical watch without caring if you advance the time forwards or backwards.
We’ve already demonstrated that spirit in most of our complications; they are fool-proof (meaning everybody can use them). We’d like to make traditional watchmaking easy to use and have a strong design combined with high watchmaking, with the best of ergonomics and user-friendliness.
Charris Yadigaroglou, chief communications officer of MB&F
Trends? I’d actually like to see fewer trends monopolizing most of the brands’ efforts. And instead, more diversity.
The problem with trends is that in today’s pre-formatted, over-marketed world, almost everyone follows them – making the product offer rather boring.
The most blatant example of this is the vintage/retro trend which has been dominating the watch industry for the past few years – I love vintage watches, but please don’t bring more historical re-editions, we’ve had our fair share of those!
I would like to see more risk-taking, more diversity, more surprises which deliberately avoid the trends. Net, more creativity.
Check out our highlights from SIHH and Baselworld for a glimpse of the latest in the market.
