2020 VISION


Predictions for the year to come…


SERVICE STANDARDS For some time, the watch industry has neglected the ownership side of the business, preferring to focus on sales. The cost and frequency of servicing your timepiece (upwards of £500; roughly once every five years) is rarely discussed and hasn’t improved in years; as more watches have been pumped into the world, services have taken longer to carry out. The answer is to make watches capable of going longer without maintenance, and to increase manufacturer’s warranties. Some of the recent technological advances should yield progress on this front, and it was encouraging to see Jaeger-LeCoultre (above) increase its warranty to eight years. I hope others follow suit; the warranty should cover the first regular service.


SMARTWATCH SLIDE Since its introduction in 2014, the Apple Watch (pictured) has not had the destructive impact on the Swiss watch industry that many predicted. But it has been a phenomenal success, and 2019 looks like it will be the year that Apple Watch sales outperform the entire Swiss watch industry by value. At the same time, I predict that Swiss firms will quietly drop their own smartwatches; the initial enthusiasm for TAG Heuer’s Connected and Montblanc’s Summit seems muted at best. It’s hard to get excited about chunky, short-lived designs with unremarkable specs when brands want to build their reputations on peerless quality and craft.


MOST OTHERWORLDLY: HYT SOONOW Pioneering Swiss brand HYT uses liquids in tiny glass tubes to mark the literal flow of time, here doubling down with a skull-shaped play on the notion of time’s inexorable passage. Te leſt eye houses a dial containing the words “soon” and “now”, which alternate every 30 seconds. It’s one for the sci-fi fans and philosophers. £68,000; hyt.com


bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om


ROLEX WILL BE ROLEX Taking a broad view, the past few years in watches can be characterised thus: most brands have hugely diversified their ranges, offering more metals, colours, shapes and sizes than ever and numerous new designs. A few – Rolex, Patek Philippe – have offered the same limited selection of models with subtle upgrades and variations. Which approach has been more successful? I predict that Rolex will continue to frustrate and titillate buyers with its Henry Ford attitude to choice and Machiavellian limits on production, shrugging off its critics in the way that only the world’s most trusted brand (according to Forbes magazine) can. Oh, and I foresee a new Submariner. Because one of these years I will actually be right.


BT NOV EMB E R 20 19 95


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160