Just.

Perception vs. Reality: Watches & What’s Really Inside

I recently did some serious research into watches. I’ve always been a sucker for neat vintage-style digital watches but decided it was fine time to have a real watch, a watch I can hand down someday.

This process, mostly from research in forums like watchuseek, led me to peel back the onion on what it is about watches that are valuable and what it is about watches that we’re emotional about. I found out some interesting things that are relevant to a brand and design discussion.

The net of what I learned is this. There’s a lot of very expensive watches made very cheaply sold to people willing to trust luxury brands for their name’s intrinsic value. But the second thing I learned is there’s a growing subculture of watch makers and lovers that are creating and supporting brands that make watches the old way, well designed, well engineered and built to last.

Here’s what I learned:

1. A watch is essentially made out of 4 things:

(A) The Movement: Either battery operated (called Quartz), Automatic or Wound. Here’s a good overview of movement types. This is the guts, it’s what makes the watch run and keeps time essentially. There are only a few companies in the world that make these movements, as the Swatch Group has consolidated many of them. You can ask any jeweler what kind of movement any watch he sells has in it. If he can’t tell you, he doesn’t know watches. Buy a watch that’s made with a movement that’s well known, either Swiss or Japanese.

(B) The Body: This is the solid piece of plastic or metal or wood, etc. that houses the watch. The movement goes inside this. This is really the part that’s “designed”. Look to see if it’s pressed in a machine or tooled.

(C) The Face & Hands: This is what the surface of the watch looks like, it’s what you look at to tell time. A nice watch will have a “Sapphire” crystal. This is industry language for “scratch proof”. It’s not real crystal. Hands and face designs are really about appropriateness to the watch style and to the preference of the owner.

(D) The Band: This is what you use to attach the watch to your wrist. Look to see if it’s real leather, or SOLID stainless. If it’s not solid stainless, it’s a cheapo.

This is interesting because if you’re a design savvy person and you want to start producing watches, it’s quite doable. Choose a movement (quartz (battery operated) or automatic (self winding) and then design the body, and then make a band. Note to self.

It’s also interesting because companies like Gucci have these kinds of things thrown together and with the Gucci name on it, charge upwards of 2-3k per watch. Yet they may share the same movement as a lesser priced watch. At this point you’re paying for brand and design. But the buyer of this watch isn’t thinking about the movement, they’re thinking about the outside of the watch.

2. Women almost never buy automatic watches:

I found this funny because automatic watches really should be the expensive ones. But they’re not necessarily. My wife was dying trying to find an auto watch with a nice design from brand that wasn’t too widely worn. Nearly impossible (we finally figured it out). For a woman who’s not interested in the mystique of the self winding watch, there’s a quartz movement, essentially a fancy name for a battery operated watch. Gucci watches are mostly quartz. Again, you’re paying in the thousands for a battery operated movement. It’s pretty much the same as what’s in a swatch. The money is for the case design and brand name.

I was surprised to find out that people were willing to just “trust” a jeweler or watch brand that because it’s expensive it must be good. This is not the case with cars, or with any other mechanical device I can think of. It’s true of clothing, but that’s a more superficial purchase.

So if you’re going to buy a watch, ask what kind of movement is in it. If it’s nothing special know you’re paying for something that has no other value to it other than the perception of brand value. Try and find watches that use the best movement sin the world, and if you’re feeling adventurous, something automatic. They have a life of their own.

The fruit of my labors (with a preference slanted towards chunky men’s watches):

Here’s a few brands I’ve discovered that offer tremendous value and unique craftmanship on watches you might love but have never heard of. They’re also all beautifully designed and won’t be unnecessarily perceived as “showy” (it takes a special person to pull off a gold Rolex. Not that it can’t be done, but it’s definitely not me pulling this off):

Hamilton Khaki Watches (mostly Auto) made in switzerland, similar movements to Omega if not the same. Note: In looking to grab one of these I discovered that hands down the best prices are from a jeweler in Cali named “Topper”, I almost bought one of these so I know first hand (this was unsolicited FYI). If you don’t believe me,  check them out on the watchuseek forums, their reputation is widely understood as honest and helpful.

Here’s a few watches from the “Khaki” series:

Bill Yao’s MKII Watches, custom designs based on vintage men’s watches. To me, this is the quintessential men’s watch, classic gentleman’s watch with a touch of black ops bad-assness thrown in. Each one hand made and custom orders are accepted as well. Bill has a 4 month turnaround on these, out of Pennsylvania, US. I find these incredibly sexy, and his reputation is for watches worth far beyond what he charges, this will probably change soon:

This guy goes by “watchesu571″ on ebay. He makes these by hand, and uses Japanese movements. These are all homages to vintage and military divers and tactical watches, similar to MKII’s but much cheaper, these are “beater” watches, but a hell of a lot of watch if you buy the solid stainless quartz diver. The quartz divers go for about 70 US dollars, and the autos go for about 400. A few weeks ago the autos were going for about 150. I should have bought one. I picked up one of the quartz divers (while I wait for my custom Bill Yao) and replaced the band with a vintage James Bond NATO band from Gnomon Watches.

Here’s that NATO band from Gnomon. Gnomon’s located in Malaysia, but they have the real deal on watches and bands. Compare their prices to anything retail in the US and you’ll be sold. Gnomon also sells MKII watches here.

Ollech & Wajs Watches:

These are such a screaming bargain that they’re almost impossible to get. They apparently make these in batches and are consistently on backorder. They’re designed and manufactured in Germany but use Swiss movements exclusively. These, like Bill Yao’s watches are the kind of watches people will spend 2 – 10k on just by looks alone. These are extremely well made, using fine movements and are gorgeous designs. I tried to get the M65 but then gave up because it’s so widely unavailable. This just ups the appeal.

Brand Strategy for Diet Business is Missing Huge Opportunities

I had a conversation with someone this morning that made me painfully aware of a breach in the strategic hull of the “Diet” business. They mentioned to me they had just quit smoking and wanted to shed a few pounds they’d picked up in the process. I mentioned a book that outlines a process I have had success with written by Ian K. Smith, the nutritionist responsible for the food programs the competitors in the show “Celebrity Fit Club” follow (or fail following).

But her understanding of what she needed to do was to go on some sort of “military diet” thing where she could lose 11 pounds in 3 days of suffering and then be done with it. I decided not to press the subject or tell her the human body is only capable of losing 3 pounds of fat a week, really no matter what you do, since I’d be crashing her dream of a quick fix. This is a commonly known fact among nutritionists and trainers but not among the average person.

The problem is that even the best sources of information are branded like the ones that peddle false hopes of and easy fix to a complex problem. Ironically, the ones that sell are telling people a version of the story they want to hear and therefore illicit a behavior, they buy it, but upon certain failure many give up and never come close to their goals. But no one is checking statistics to measure the success rates of those readers before they buy, they instead buy based on the $15.00 hope that the manufactured fantasy of rapid effortless weight loss that the book promises is true. It isn’t!

So what’s wrong with this picture and where’s an opportunity to redesign the strategy?

1. The publishers marketing these books are all crowding together under the same umbrella afraid to get wet. They’ve decided there’s one way to market a diet book that will work. Design it like an airport bookstore business title and make sure there’s a picture of the celebrity (or soon to be celebrity) author on the cover. Budget for author photo shoot? $500.

2. With a huge health and organic food craze going on right now, how come nobody is designing a weight loss system based on wholistic, sustainable food choices? This could be huge if positioned properly. Farm partnerships and tours?

3. The real change that most people need to make to succeed at weight loss is by eating more fruits and vegetables, especially raw. Why not piggy back on the raw craze and create a designer diet?

4. The reality behind the successful training programs is that they retrain your mind and body to crave foods that are good for you. This is a paradigm shift for anyone used to eating take out and restaurant food. By changing the position from promises of “rapid weight loss” to helping people get re-acquainted with the vegetarian in them there’s a huge amount of different opportunities for sustainable and culinarily interesting “diets”.

This occurred to me while doing the “Fat Smash Diet”. Really the gist of it is you drop all the wheat and fried foods and empty dry carbs, even meat for the first couple weeks in place of fruits and vegetables. At first it was hard, but once underway I realized it was less about weight loss and more about retraining my brain to crave and be satisfied by foods that make my body happy. This is what they’re all afraid to say! But why?

My question is, why is this not an attractive story to tell markets? Dropping meat and expensive packaged foods for sustainable fruits and veggies, grown locally and organically, this is the real secret behind the best diets, and ironically it’s huge now in the media. So when are these two going to marry?

Good Enough is the New Great

I recently backed out of a project because I started to see analysis paralysis setting in, and this was at the planning stage! Very smart people with a lot of experience in the corporate world, good at navigating politics, good public speakers, but these skills don’t translate to the startup bootstrappers mentality. The goals were unattainable, the team too big, lack of laser focus and discipline, the kitchen sink mentality. All this project needed was a few people and some simple goals followed by some heads down hard work  and a slightly scary soft launch to test consumer response.

Many people, myself included, self-loathingly praise themselves for perfectionism. But really it’s a procrastination tool of the highest level–An excuse to never get anything done, because it’s never, ever, quite good enough. If only I had realized this ten years ago! This is definitely a symptom of corporate management, where incremental safe steps are made in an environment where experimentation is translated into “risk of public failure and embarrassment”. The reality is you must risk failure at some point to get something done fast enough for it to move forward at a speed that you can afford. The faster you get it done, the less financial risk and the more opportunity you have to test in a live environment.

I think the concept of “Good to Great” is a little flawed. Not in the process but the outcome. Here’s the reality: The person who gets to market with their new brand/service/product is generally at a huge advantage. She’s got the turf on her side, and over time as everyone is catching up to her she’s also suddenly got the advantage of experience as well. While the other 5 people who had the same idea are “perfecting” their offering, the person who got it to “good” launched, built a community, developed a following, and got stuff done.

Plan it out, be sure the idea is sound, do your research and then get it done. Maybe skip the venture funding you think you need and self fund. Get it to market and get people using it, then test and improve as you go. I guarantee you can perfect it later, but be sure perfecting it now isn’t preventing you from even getting it done at all.