I'm sure every watch collector and aficionado knows high-end brands like Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Lange und Söhne, Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. In fact I think most will know all brands gathered in the Swatch Group, Richemont and the LVMH Group. And of course they all know Rolex!
The names Vianney Halter, Pita Barcelona, Stepan Sarpaneva, Roger Smith, Peter Speake-Marin and Kari Voutilainen will not sound familiar for many watch collectors. Unless they found their way to the few watch forums or weblogs that do give attention to these independent watchmakers.
There are many reasons watch collectors are much more familiar with the names and watches of the ‘big names'. Most of them have a long lasting history. This means time to build up name and fame. However there are also relatively newcomers who made name very fast. Just think of Hublot.
Just open a newspaper or a magazine and I'm sure you will see several advertisements for watches. Watches made by the ‘big names'. Of course advertisement is not restricted to print media. Also online the big brands are omnipresent with advertisement banners and sponsored articles. Only on television I haven't seen many commercials for watches, at least not for high-end watches.
Than there's web 2.0… This is a trend that's been growing in the past years and refers to an increase of interactivity on websites. Think of forums, social networking websites like LinkedIn and Facebook or weblogs like my own.
Most of the forums have dedicated brand sections, at least for the big brands. The independents are grouped in one ‘independent watchmaking' section, if they get attention at all.
Lately more and more independent brands and watchmakers find their way to media like Facebook and Twitter to connect to potential customer and inform them about new products. These media offer them a cheap way to inform those interested.
The difference in the possibilities for the big brands (brand sections on the forums, advertisement in print and online media) and the possibilities for independents (Facebook, Twitter and a shared section on some forums) is huge. And so are the results. The described communication of big brands will be visible to much more people. The communication possibilities of the independents will mostly only attract attention of those who know what to look for.
All this is of course due to the small budgets independents have for advertising. The big brands produce a totally different amount of watches. Most independents produce from 10 to maybe a few hundred watches a year. The big brands have production number of 5, 6 or sometimes even 6 figures. So it's only logical they earn more money and thus have larger budgets for advertising. When it comes to numbers of watches, the production numbers of the independents are of no threat to the big brands.
Personally I think the independent give the total high-end watch market a pleasant and valuable extra. I hope they will get more attention and survive these hard times for this luxury industry.
