Green is the color of the 2020s. Not as in ecology, sustainable development, environment awareness or the proverbial washing that goes along with a heavy conscience. I mean watches ! Among the hundred or so brands that count in today's watchmaking landscape, one would be hard pressed to name ten which haven't launched a timepiece with a green dial, a green flange or a green strap over the past two years. It feels like « It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that green. Doowap doowap doowap doowaaaaap »
Don't get me wrong, I love green. I wear it all the time. Neckties, jackets, pants, even shoes (three pairs, yes sir!) and watches too. I even own a green mesh nylon strap I wear on one of my chronographs (all true, I swear). But enough is enough, though !
Like bamboo, like weed in Colorado, like conspiracy theories : they're spreading too fast. Are they from outer space ? Mars ? Venus ? A galaxy far far away ? The Little Shop of Horrors ? They have landed, taken hold and are now set to rule the Earth !!!!! Seriously, they've outgrown their original pot, the field they were born into, which is the drab olive dial from military-styled watches, and also Rolex, because it's their color. But before 2018, they had no weight, no influence, no traction.
As for today, let's just say this : when you're fresh out of ideas, make a green watch. To widen an existing range, make a green watch. To rejuvenate a dwindling line, make a green watch. If you don't have any idea what to do, no vision, no perspective, just do the green strap thing. Green, green, green : it's everywhere ! Really, have plants grown inside the cerebllum of people who decide what watches look like ?
To them, it's all the rage. They don't even need to put any thought into it. All that matters is that they have at least one green watch. Doesn't matter if it's vivid or drab, military or Scottish, like almond skin or Shrek, light or metallic. The one important thing is not to miss that sale when a client enters a boutique and asks in front of a bewildered audience « I've had enough of these blue watches. They're so everywhere it's boring. You wouldn't happen to have the same, only in greeen ? »
That's the thing with trends. They free you from projecting yourself in the future. The future is still uncertain while the present is already visible and tangible. If other people are going for green, they must have a good reason, i.e. demand. So why don't we merrily jump on the bandwagon and do yet another one? And on the double, because we're two years late compared to the trailblazers (it's more like ten really, but who's counting?).
So far, all the lights are green : they're blooming like a rainforest in the middle of the monsoon. Like Egyptian wheat after the Nile has flooded. But what happens when the spaceship comes to pick them back up and they go home ? When we run out of fertilizer ? When spring is over ? Then it will be dry season, summer, the end of everything cool and easy. Wait... in the summer, nature dries up and turns beige. So that should be the color of the future ! Here's an idea. Let's do beige watches...all of us...at the same time...again !
