When film producer Cubby Broccoli made the first James Bond film, Dr No, in 1962, he was adamant that 007 should wear a Rolex watch, but the film’s budget didn’t stretch to buying one.
Rolex, the story goes, refused to provide a free one. So Broccoli was forced to lend Sean Connery his own, with its black crocodile-skin strap – and a style image was born.
Fast-forward to 2006 and Casino Royale and Daniel Craig is sporting another famous Swiss timepiece. “Rolex?” his female spy assistant, Vesper Lynd, asks.
“Omega,” says Bond.
“Beautiful,” she replies.
Beautiful it might be, but, while very high-end brands like Rolex and Omega might weather the oncoming storm, the clock could be ticking for traditional wristwatches as smartwatches and fitness devices gain in popularity.
A report, entitled Is Time Running Out for The Watch?, to be published this month by the research firm Euromonitor International, suggests that a cultural phenomenon is causing a headache for makers of traditional timepieces; young people are much less interested in buying them.
It predicts that sales of watches in Britain will fall steadily over the next five years, while wearable devices, mostly fitness trackers and smartwatches, will grow by 30% annually. Their global sales are growing around 10 times faster than traditional watches, driven by the under-40s, and the report concludes that the industry needs to connect better with younger people, and quickly.
Chris Papworth, chairman of the British Watch and Clockmakers’ Guild, has worked in the industry for more than 50 years and agrees that too few 20-to-35-year-olds are buying traditional watches. “We hope that when they get to 40 they’ll start buying watches, but we simply don’t know yet,” he said.
As well as hurting big-name brands, Papworth says the ripple effect could be severe for hundreds of independent watch repairers. It’s a craft that’s been in decline for the past 20 years and he says that could reach ‘‘a catastrophic level”.
Robin James, 28, from the YouTube men’s grooming channel Man For Himself, says smartphones, not wearables such as Fitbits, are the main reason why fewer young people buy watches.
“I don’t consciously think of my phone as a time-telling piece, but I’m using it for that,” he said.
Joe Elsworth, a 28-year old advertising executive in London, said: “I wear an £8 Casio watch, but most of my mates don’t wear watches. Phones have pretty much usurped them.” If young people like him have spare cash, he says, they would rather spend it on cool accessories such as Beats headphones.
Sammi Rowe, watch buyer for John Lewis, says young people haven’t been using watches to tell the time for the past five years. “We’ve got some watches that don’t even tell the time. They’re just used as accessories for your outfit,” she said.
John Lewis’s sales of affordable fashion watches, such as Michael Kors and Olivia Burton, grew by 16% last year. A big chunk of that demand, Rowe says, came from 20-to-35-year-old women. However, that pales in comparison with its sales of smartwatches and wearables, up 153%.
Rowe believes that connectivity in watches will be the next big trend. “They [the watchmakers] are now recognising the importance of combining technology with fashion. That’s the future,” she said.
Brands such as Kate Spade and Michael Kors are about to launch their own smartwatch versions. And Fossil last year acquired Misfit, a competitor to Fitbit, to combat falling watch sales.
None of this is helped by figures that show that in 2015, for the first time in six years, exports of Swiss watches fell, down 3.2%, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. And exports in March fell for the ninth consecutive month as manufacturers blamed currency volatility and tricky trading conditions in formerly fast-growing markets such as China and Hong Kong.
The pricier Swiss brands are wary that gizmos might dilute some of their handcrafted “Made in Switzerland” image. But it is probably only a matter of time before they too jump on the bandwagon. “It’s where the smart money will go. They will be foolish not to,” said Papworth.
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