Hi all,

I've set myself a bit of a challenge to research all of the available watches for every brand due to be represented at the Windup Watch Fair in New York on 18-20 October. I'm hoping to make it to the event and want to be able to focus my browsing efforts once I am there (and hopefully avoid some impulse purchasing...). I think it's around 85 watch brands (I think 95+ brands overall but some are apparel etc.) so not a small task to look at them all.

The brands represented vary significantly in size of company and size of collections, so there has been a variety of effort involved in reviewing what they all have to offer. And it got me wondering, what is the perfect number of watches for a brand? This strays a bit (or a lot) into website functionality and customization as well, but here are my thoughts (all in my humble opinion of course):

1. I don't mind brands with just a couple of offerings, you can quickly look and move on (e.g., Lorca watches seem to have one model and it took me all of two minutes to move on). But larger brands with a ridiculous number of offerings I just can't get head nor tails of. Take Longines for example (yes I know they're not at WindUp...), but they have 367 men's watches on their website. Just can't review all of those, so quickly move on. Even a brand like Oris has 229 models. I know this is also representative of global companies vs. smaller brands, but my perfect number of models (including all variants) is probably around 25-75. Enough of a range to keep things broad and interesting, but not so many it's impossible to get a sense of the brand's 'theme'.

2. Any brand that doesn't have a "view all watches" functionality is bad. Generally not having it indicates the brand offers too many watches, but personally I like to be able to view everything available in one place rather than having to navigate through each collection separately. Le Jour is a bad example for this - they probably only have around 50 watches but you have to browse through 9 or 10 collections to look at them all.

3. My personal preference is for a reasonably low level of customization or variants. Bezel and dial colors ok, a few strap options fine. But when it comes to sizing, casebacks, crown position, I think you can take it too far. Others may find this a great optionality, but my preference is for a brand to pick their path and hope people like it. I think CW generally get this ok, with a just-about-right number of dial variants and strap options. Where I struggle a bit more is, for example, the Trident Pro 300. I just don't know how the watch would wear at different sizes and so can't make a decision. The reality is that if it was just available in one of 40mm or 42mm I would probably buy one and like it, but if I bought one now I might always be left wondering whether the other size would have fit me better. In this particular case (no pun intended), I hope to be able to try them in the flesh to make a decision. Meanwhile, Laco is the worst example of excessive customization options I have seen.

4. Should you show every strap, dial option etc. in the "view all" section or have to navigate one step further to do the configuration? My personal view is that all dial/bezel colors should be viewable in the "view all" bit, but straps configured in next step. I find CW's configuration step very nice as you can run through various options very quickly, but having every strap option in the "view all" section gives too many variants of the same model. I must admit I have struggled to quote a website/brand that does this perfectly (will edit the post if I do).

5. At least having a filter for case size is a "must have", particularly if you have more models. A surprising number of brands don't have it.

6. One honorable mention goes to Nomos whose "compare" functionality I quite like.

Actually this post became almost entirely about website functionality... apologies.

Assuming I go, I'll post at some point about which brands/models I'm targeting in NYC, as well as take as many requests for pictures as I can accommodate (plus see if anyone else is planning to attend).

Best,
TB

the perfect number is the number that allows them to sell the most and make the most profit.

everything else is window dressing.

gwells wrote: ↑Wed Aug 28, 2024 7:47 pm the perfect number is the number that allows them to sell the most and make the most profit.

everything else is window dressing.

I don't disagree from the company's perspective but, beyond the title of my post, the content I hope suggested that I more meant from a consumer research and browsing perspective.

For me the answer would be: relatively few. I don’t like being overwhelmed by a superabundance of choices in every hue known to the paint trade. Don’t keep doing what every other company is doing (I’m not just talking about the generic diver but other genres as well). Find your métier, do it well and if it’s something I like you may interest or inspire me.

I’m a bit old-fashioned, me. I buy meat from the butcher, fruit and vegetables from the greengrocer, general foodstuffs from the grocer, coffee from a specialist coffee merchant and so on. I don’t want the coffee shop to sell bacon or the butcher to sell bread flour.

Sorry, analogy or digression? You decide.