The watch business is booming and what that means to our community

Watches of Switzerland reported to the Wall Street Journal that sales are up 45 percent in 2021 compared to the same six-month period of 2020. The United States market sales were up a whopping 65 percent in the same time period comparison.

So what does this mean if you have been into watches before all these people jumped on the bandwagon?

Hold onto your Rolex watches and start to buy pieces that you are interested in that may not necessarily fall into the wish lists of the mainstream. Be the one among your friends that is “in the know” so that you can assert your position as the guy or gal to ask about watches with the newbies.

Obviously, there’s no wrong or right way to be into watches. We’re just expressing our feelings about having been into nice mechanical watches before every other article in GQ was about a celebrity watch spotting. And, yes, we do know that Jay-Z scored the Tiffany blue Patek Nautilus and we enjoy celebrity watch news as much as anyone might.

But we do imagine there is a smug satisfaction in owning a Lange or Grand Seiko “birch” dial to enjoy on its own merits, and also show the beginners what a true watch connoisseur enjoys when he’s not wearing his Sub or GMT-Master. It doesn’t have to be anything that rare either, a Tudor Black Bay 58 is still not a mainstream watch yet in spite of the massive ad campaigns Tudor is running. 

Image by Tudor

Do we wish watch collecting stayed the same as it was five years ago? Yes, in order to get Rolex steel sport models at retail at an authorized deal. But generally, no, we are happy more people finally are seeing what we see in these tiny mechanical marvels. It would be nice if more people took notice and cared for what we put on our wrists.

Or maybe not. It’s still fun to get that rare, “Love the Explorer II you’re wearing.” In my experience, when you sit next to someone on a flight wearing a nice watch, most of the time they know nothing about the Rolex or Omega they’re wearing. While it would be fun to have more watch discussions with fellow watch aficionados, part of me does like being part of a club, albeit a big one that is exponentially growing.

Maybe this new watch boom means our society is embracing non-digital objects and realizing that taking out your phone less is a good thing. I’m being hopeful, of course, as part of me realizes that this increased desire for nice watches may simply be that more people want to show off what might be considered a flex. Either way, I’m happy our hobby is healthy and growing. Anything that helps put more mechanical watches on the wrist over an Apple Watch is a move in the positive direction.