Watches for Children

Discuss Christopher Ward watches
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akirk
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Re: Watches for Children

Post by akirk »

jimbo wrote:On the whole....are we agreed that most folk buy watches when

they need to get one for work/play

when someone is 18
when someone is 21
when they retire (when they don't need it anymore)

Or your a sad git like us lot !
no ;) I think that misses out a huge swathe of people - who are not watch enthusiasts but who buy them as status symbols - Roelx sell what, 200,000 watches a year? I suspect that the watch enthusiast world is very much smaller than that... CWL sell what, 20,000 a year? How many to forum members - if it was 10% I would be surprised... the reality is that a lot of folks on here are assuming a perpective from their own stance - generally watch enthusiast who is after good value for money... for such a person you would rarely buy a nice watch for a child - some children would treat them well - most might not, so you buy a G-Shock / Ben-10 / Disney / hello Kitty / etc...

but the stats speak for themselves there are millions of folks every decade spending serious money on watches they don't need (a la rolex) and who are not enthusiasts - they do it for status / power / brand appeal / showing off / love of the watch / what it says about them / etc. etc. - all the right reasons for selling to a younger generation... that is the market - an they are very unlikely to be on this forum!

:)

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Re: Watches for Children

Post by gwells »

the question is: will an 11 yr old get out of the watch those things you attribute to those people: "status / power / brand appeal / showing off / love of the watch / what it says about them / etc."

status: means different things to a teen than it does a 30 something/40 something/ 50 something.
power: probably not
brand appeal: i'm not sure the brands translate (at least not unless you're buying an 11 yr old a watch that costs 4 figures)
showing off: sure
love of the watch: possible, but likely that's part of the user base you associate us here with
what it says about them: see "brand appeal"

again, i see a market, but i see it as being a small market. if you could make a rolex comparable to an iphone in cost (even unsubsidized), you might have a case here. maybe a CW is comparable financially, but it wouldn't tick off the boxes you listed that would apply to a teen.
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Re: Watches for Children

Post by Cirrus »

akirk wrote:Rolex sell what, 200,000 watches a year?
A lot more than that - perhaps as much as 5 times that number. Rolexes are, amusingly, incredibly common :-)
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Re: Watches for Children

Post by Kip »

Cirrus wrote:
akirk wrote:Rolex sell what, 200,000 watches a year?
A lot more than that - perhaps as much as 5 times that number. Rolexes are, amusingly, incredibly common :-)
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The last estimate I saw was about 750,000 in 2011.
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Re: Watches for Children

Post by downer »

I have also seen 1,000,000 Rolex sales mentioned - I think it was in the Wristwatch annual.
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Re: Watches for Children

Post by scooter »

2012 Rolex Sales were apparently 1,200,000.

These all bought by children who according to this thread have the highest % disposable income of any age group :wink:

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akirk
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Re: Watches for Children

Post by akirk »

gwells wrote:the question is: will an 11 yr old get out of the watch those things you attribute to those people: "status / power / brand appeal / showing off / love of the watch / what it says about them / etc."

status: means different things to a teen than it does a 30 something/40 something/ 50 something.
power: probably not
brand appeal: i'm not sure the brands translate (at least not unless you're buying an 11 yr old a watch that costs 4 figures)
showing off: sure
love of the watch: possible, but likely that's part of the user base you associate us here with
what it says about them: see "brand appeal"

again, i see a market, but i see it as being a small market. if you could make a rolex comparable to an iphone in cost (even unsubsidized), you might have a case here. maybe a CW is comparable financially, but it wouldn't tick off the boxes you listed that would apply to a teen.

I think that you would have dual marketing:
- to the parents who currently buy a Rolex etc. - to buy one for their child - a la IWC advert linked above (in which case the child's view is not important)
- to the child - through branding / peers / role models / etc.- the ways in which many international brands already do it...

Spend enough money on marketing and you can definitely build a brand - it would be far more challenging though to build a organically grown company like CWL which has relied on enthusiasts to drive the word as a part of their approach...
The biggest business challenge of course would be the balance of spend and sales volume required to support it...

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Re: Watches for Children

Post by gwells »

anything's possible. i think what most of us are questioning exactly what your last sentence says. obviously i think it's a much bigger hurdle than you do.
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Re: Watches for Children

Post by village »

gwells wrote:.....obviously we all think it's a much bigger hurdle than you do.
8)
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Re: Watches for Children

Post by akirk »

gwells wrote:anything's possible. i think what most of us are questioning exactly what your last sentence says. obviously i think it's a much bigger hurdle than you do.
Simply that if you spend a fortune on marketing - you increase hugely the chance of people buying (a la coke / McDonalds / etc.) - however because of how much you have spent - you then need more people to buy to pay for the marketing...

Spend less = less people buying, but also less needed - with any business there is a balance - and the challenge is working it out...

for CWL they are able to get away with quite low marketing budgets as a) there is an established market for high quality watches and b) there is an enthusiast network which has helped push their product... for a company setting out to create a new market - the balance is very different...

I started this thread as an idle thought no more ;) - I think that there is a potential business here, but I certainliy wouldn't underestimate how big a task it would be... tempting :)

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Re: Watches for Children

Post by gwells »

i think you misunderstand. i know the general concept, i just question whether there is a worthwhile return on that investment in "a fortune on marketing" in this case.

and i think that the challenge in working it out will result in a less than optimal business plan. and i don't think you've said anything that changes that view.

it's all about ROI (return on investment). i don't see it.
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