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A few months ago, I was lucky enough to have a conversation regarding exclusivity in watches with a fellow that was very much at the forefront of watch design and manufacture. I will refer to him as “The Reverend” out of respect to him and other watch companies. This is a bit of my outlook on the subject after speaking with him.
In my experiences with watch companies, a run of 100 to 300 is a tiny amount of watches to manufacture. Especially if the company has multiple watch models being designed, implemented, and manufactured at any one time.
For example: Various estimate numbers put Rolex's production between 520,000 watches a year to upwards of 800,000. That is a huge amount considering how "exclusive" Rolex's are.
I have definitely run across small watch manufactures who say "Only 50 of these made". Many times this is true as there parts supply that makes up this watch may be in short supply. Other times, this is a marketing ploy to some extent. There will be 50 of this watch in polished cases, 50 of the same watch in bead blasted, 50 with a different colored second hand, etc. The Reverend said this is often a ploy used by watch manufactures to sell watches. Changing a small item in order to rebadge that watch as a different and "limited" model. The limited number and price these limited watches command can and do make special editions lucrative.
The Reverend – “ People want to feel special, so we make them feel even more special by giving them a “special edition” with an already limited run. In other words, people who buy our watches are already in a pretty exclusive club. But there are a few that want distinction even within that group. These are people who already value the craftsmanship of our watche. They will value one that has had that extra touch or extra bit of time and love invested in its crafting even more. These special watches have to be limited in number due to time and cost so we make this extra loved watch a limited run and make both types of buyer happy with a single product”
Ok this makes sense because in the realm of watches, just owning a Dievas, Korsbek, means having a limited watch by sheer virtue of so few being manufactured. Not to mention the time it takes for these watches to be completed. So a few of these existing watches have extra care, time and capital invested by DLC coating, special dials, modified movements, etc. THESE are limited runs within the small watch manufacturing world.
BUT!!!!! There is a trap we as watch buyers need to not fall into regarding limited runs. Sometimes a watch manufacture will make a limited run using a special case or movement because there were a few of these made and will never be made again. Cool, right? Yes…unless all of the stock was used to make the watches with out regard to keeping a few for parts. This is especially true for highly modified or restored vintage movements that are touted by some Companies. You get a super rare, hard to repair watch that does a great impression of a potato after breaking since it is just going to sit there and do nothing.
The Reverend - "When we first started out we used ETA's because they were bullet proof and cost effective. But more over, if something happened and our company shuffled off this mortal coil, our customers could take their watch to any Watchsmith and have it fixed long after our company is gone. We just designed our cases to be bank vaults and we knew the movements would do their jobs"
Companies such as Dievas offer an extreme value in watch dollars by offering quality materials and quality automatic movements at a very nice price. I do wonder how many of any particular watch has to be manufactured to turn a profit though.
There is more to it of course but this post is already WAY tooo long.
Thanks.
Thoughts?
***edited because I type like crap without spellcheck!***
Last edited on Tue Oct 13th, 2009 07:42 pm by KDSpiv