THE BIG IDEA BACK TO BASICS
AFTER AN UNPARALLELED pandemic-era boom, an aura of reticence and safetyseeking has settled over the watch industry. Reasons include everything from shoppers having less disposable income to manufactures playing catch-up on early-Covid production delays to—most significantly— global economic uncertainty.
The cool-off was made abundantly clear in April at Watches & Wonders, the world's largest horological trade show. The sector's biggest luxury brands largely played it safe, remixing existing models with minor tweaks—new dial colors, say, or swapping one metal for another. Rolex's most desirable releases were positively subdued compared to its colorful 2023 lineup. The Crown debuted a Day-Date in Everose gold with a slate ombré dial and a GMT-Master II in steel with a gray and black ceramic bezel—not the much hoped-for updated GMT-Master II “Coke”—which didn't exactly send the internet into a frenzy. The other tone-setting titan, Patek Phillipe, offered revised Nautilus and Aquanaut models on straps cut from a material resembling that workwear staple, denim, while the Ellipse got a new gold bracelet. And while it's a great bracelet, overall it's clear that brands weren't splashing out on R&D.
But if 2024's timepieces failed to stir up the same hype as in years past, the rebalancing act should have collectors rejoicing. Dimming the spotlight on the high end of horology may make room for deserving clients to get their hands on new watches, rather than lingering on interminable waiting lists. Softening prices on the secondary market suggest that the speculators who drove up prices over the past few years have started to fall out
