Watch Industry SITREP - August 2024

The Olympics, Swiss Industry Challenges, & Watch-Related Crime

In general, the daily watch media news cycle doesn’t interest us. Numerous websites are hanging their collective hat on being up-to-the-minute, covering new releases and other watch industry shenanigans, and doing a far better job than we ever could. That said, we are often asked for our opinions on current watch events, and there are certain stories from the world of watch media and beyond that are interesting for our community. To keep you updated on the intriguing trends, military-adjacent developments, or current events you might actually care about, we decided to test a watch industry “SITREP” or situation report, a quick snapshot of the previous month’s news coupled with our commentary. To start, we’ll take a look at the news from August when all eyes were on the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games In Paris

Daniel Craig wearing an as-yet-unreleased no-date Omega Seamaster in Paris during the Olympic Games. (Photo Credit: Hodinkee)

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve been beaten over the head with content from the Olympic Games this past month. As important for marketing as it is for sports, the watch industry also played its part, with Olympic sponsor Omega garnering the majority of the headlines with a carefully orchestrated campaign. In addition to the obvious celebrity watch spotting and a slew of athletes including pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis competing while wearing the newly-released Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M Ultra Light, Daniel Craig “accidentally” unveiled what appears to be an as-yet-unreleased no-date version of the Seamaster Diver 300 so often associated with James Bond. Keen observers will note that this no-date version is close to the Seamaster currently available as a unit watch solely to SpecOps personnel.

An Omega Seamaster Diver 300 “Unit Watch” celebrating elite French law enforcement units tasked with security at the Olympics.

While the Bond connection is always interesting, even if carefully curated by Omega’s marketing department, a more intriguing W.O.E.-related development occurred at the Olympics with Omega’s unit watch program. Omega is producing a Seamaster “unit watch” for the three elite French law enforcement units tasked with security for the event: GIGN, RAID, and BRI. The marketing stuff is fun, but a GIGN/RAID/BRI unit Seamaster is what really gets us going. Beyond the insignia on the case back, this is effectively the same watch as the one utilized by US Secret Service officers during the recent assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump and a unit-specific model created for the Danish Frogman Corps. Unit watches appear to be having something of a moment, one industry trend we can get behind. We are told that this picture is actually a prototype and the final versions are expected to be delivered in the fall of 2024.

Astronauts Stranded In Space Also Wearing Omega Watches

A planned week-long space flight was extended for a pair of American astronauts because of doubts surrounding a potential return in a troubled Boeing space capsule, confirming once again that one of the world’s hardest jobs is working with Boeing PR. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both retired US Navy Captains, will extend their stay until February of 2025 when they can be safely brought back to Earth on a more proven SpaceX capsule.

The only element we have to add is that in the photo being circulated along with the headline, Wilmore is seen wearing an Omega X-33, a seldom-seen ana-digi titanium watch developed specifically for astronauts and introduced in 1998. Where the mechanical Speedmaster Professional continues to be the only watch qualified for space walks, the X-33 is issued to astronauts for use inside the International Space Station (ISS), offering a suite of digital timing functions specific to the needs of astronauts.

Swiss Watch Market In Decline

It may not be good for the industry, but secondary market pricing for brands like Rolex continue to fall in 2024. (Photo Credit: W.O.E./James Rupley)

As has been the case for a couple of years now, Forbes reported a further decline in Swiss secondary market prices for virtually all of the major Swiss luxury brands including Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet. Falling secondary market prices also impact perceived value among consumers, leading to broader challenges for the industry at large, with the Swatch Group conglomerate—which owns Omega—posting an over 10% drop in sales in the first six months of 2024 led by Asian markets where the fall-off was closer to 30%. Ouch.

Richemont, one of the other biggest luxury conglomerates and the owner of IWC, Cartier, Panerai, and others also reported double-digit declines in sales once again led by Asian markets including China. What does all of this mean for you and me? Again reported by Forbes, the wait time for treasured Rolex models including the Submariner is going down, now estimated at 68 days as opposed to 105 days only one year ago.

While we don’t think it’s as bad as some of the trolls on Reddit, Bremont’s latest releases left much to be desired for the brand’s biggest fans.

Perhaps more impactful to our community, Bremont, a brand known for working closely with military organizations, appears in serious distress, reporting a loss of 14M GBP earlier this year. This news comes after American billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman purchased a minority stake in the brand in early 2023 and following a few releases that were not warmly received at Watches and Wonders in 2024. We’re big fans of Bremont’s earlier efforts and penchant for military collaboration under the aptly-named English brothers and would welcome a return to form that does not include many of the newest designs from the brand. Fingers crossed.

Rolex To End Sponsorship Of F1

More of a quick hit here, but Rolex is set to end its 11-year partnership with F1 in 2025, with LVMH stepping in to the tune of an estimated $150M per year, according to Coronet. There are a few ways to look at this, but whatever it is, it isn’t a money problem for Rolex, which according to Morgan Stanley posted earnings of over $10Bn in 2023, more than its five biggest competitors combined. What is perhaps more likely is that LVMH hopes to align TAG Heuer with F1, cementing the brand’s hopeful perceived position as the premier watch brand of motorsports. Rolex, which was reportedly paying closer to $50M per year, may simply have felt the investment was too large for the return in consumer influence, especially when the Crown is already raking in the cash hand over fist.

Watches & Crime

London has become a hotbed for watch-related muggings in recent years, a trend that is leading billionaires to mild discomfort. (Photo Credit: Sky News)

Always a favorite subject of ours, luxury watches continue to be in the news associated with crime, whether that’s street-level mugging as has become so prevalent in London and other European capitals or more elaborate robberies of retail locations. According to Fortune, at least one British billionaire, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, says he will no longer wear his Rolex watches in London for fear of having his watch stripped off by scooter-riding hoodlums (our language). What is the world coming to when billionaires no longer feel safe wearing their luxury watches?

According to police, this gentleman approached victims from behind before choking them out and relieving them of their Orient and Rolex watches. (Photo Credit: NYPD Crimestoppers)

On a more serious note, a man is wanted in New York City after a trio of robberies in which he placed his victims in a choke hold until they lost consciousness before stealing their watches. Two of the stolen watches were from Rolex while the other was an Orient valued at $300, not the sort of thing you expect to get choked out over. And finally, while his DUI arrest took place on June 18th, the keen journalists at the NY Post released a story a few weeks back saying Justin Timberlake—who single-handedly brought sexy back in 2006—had a “...vape, a Rolex, a gold ring, and a wallet with $306 in cash when he was placed in handcuffs in Sag Harbor”. We wish we knew the Rolex model in question, but Timberlake has clearly read our EDC article where we explain the value of not only a watch but also keeping a few crisp Benjamins on your person at all times, even when you’re hammered.

The Tudor Black Bay Chrono Is Now Available In Blue

While Tudor’s divers including the Black Bay and Pelagos and especially unit-specific variants (T.O.E.) of those models tend to garner the majority of our attention, the Black Bay Chrono is another excellent luxury sports watch from the brand. A few days ago, Tudor unveiled a blue version of the Black Bay Chrono, the appropriately named Tudor Black Bay Chrono Blue. We know this isn’t much of a breaking news story. We love Tudors, and the new variant looks cool, but if you are looking for in-depth watch reviews on new releases, you won't find them here.

Is Watch News Even News?

To be clear, a post like this is as close as we ever intend to get to “the news”, which is soon to become an even more off-putting cesspool as the election looms. Still, knowledge is power, and while some months are spicier than ever, we mostly enjoyed putting together this quick and hopefully easy-to-digest look at events and releases that are related to or interesting for members of our community. Were there any other watch-related events or news you think is worthy of sharing this past month or so?

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