Wristwatches An Endangered Species?

[David]

LA Times

Wristwatches Get the Back of the Hand
Young consumers tend to see the time-honored timepiece as irrelevant. The up-to-the-minute accessory now is the ubiquitous cellphone.
By Leslie Earnest
Times Staff Writer
SOURCE
April 16, 2006

Is time running out for the wristwatch?

Surveys and sales data show that young shoppers are shunning watches for snazzier time-telling gadgets, such as cellphones and iPods.

Last year, the number of people who bought watches not in the Rolex and Patek Philippe stratosphere dropped 12% from 2004, according to a leading market research group. The runaway favorite brand for teens, Fossil Inc. of Texas, acknowledged an 18.6% decline in wholesale U.S. sales of its namesake brand.

Oakley Inc., which is based in Orange County, said watch sales fell 11% last year as it phased out digital watches and styles that weren't selling well.

For many in the cellphone generation, watches now seem about as relevant as grandfather clocks. Bare wrists were plentiful last week at the Lab, a Costa Mesa shopping center that caters to teens and young adults. Shoppers dived into purses or pockets to retrieve cellphones when a reporter casually asked the time.

You don't wear a watch?

What's the point? they answered.

"It's like a hat," said Francis Eagan, a 21-year-old waiter from Tustin. "It serves no purpose, like earrings."

Kamlyn Snyder said she hadn't worn a watch since she plucked one from a cereal box many years ago.

"The inconvenience of strapping it on in the morning," said the 21-year-old student from Huntington Beach, a pink bow tattooed on her right foot. "My grandma does; that's how she tells time. She's not that old. She's, like, 60, but still …. "

Many older people too would make the cellphone their primary timepiece if it didn't mean digging around for their reading glasses, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for the NPD Group, which tracks consumer trends.

"Once the cellphone manufacturers recognize that not everybody has X-ray vision, they'll begin to make the cellphone clock a little bit bigger and it will very quickly replace the fashion watch as the No. 1 timepiece," he said.

Cohen began polling consumers about watches after he realized that he had stopped wearing one a couple of years ago.

His conclusions were corroborated by the Piper Jaffray investment bank, which produces a semiannual report on teen preferences. In the latest study, teenagers who said they never wore a watch rose to 59% from 48%. The number of teens who said they wore a watch daily declined to 13% in this spring's survey, compared with 18% of those polled in the fall.

And 82% said they didn't plan to buy a watch in the next six months, compared with 76% last fall.

"Some people just buy nice watches to be cool," said skateboarder Hayden Navarro at the Camp, an outdoor-themed shopping center in Costa Mesa. "That's a dumb reason to buy a watch."

Hair flipping up from under a striped beanie, Navarro sat on his skateboard and described how he props up his watch in his bedroom and uses it as a clock.

Attitudes like that might make watchmakers yearn to turn back the clock.

The dismal poll results caused Piper Jaffray to maintain its "neutral-to-cautious stance" on Fossil's stock.

"No matter how you sliced the data, it looked incrementally worse for the fashion watch industry when catering to teens," said Neely J.N. Tamminga, one of the report's authors. "The punch line for us is, clearly, the teens are using other means to tell time."

When another group, Teen Research Unlimited in Illinois, asked teens how they use their cellphones, 87% said to tell time, said Rob Callender, the group's trends director.

"The watch turns into something that's completely incidental to their lives," he said.

The vast majority of people still use wristwatches to tell time, and few people expect the device to end up on the endangered accessories list. But many think they'll be linked more to status and fashion than to function.

"People usually don't buy a Rolex just to tell time," said Nitin Gupta an analyst with the Yankee Group research firm.

Cohen, the NPD analyst, said his research showed that the number of people buying watches that cost more than $1,000 — such brands as Rolex, Breguet and Patek Philippe, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars — dipped 2% last year.

But the Swiss, who are not expected to be neutral on this topic, said they didn't think that time was ticking on the industry.

Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group, with 19 watch companies including Longines and Omega, called 2005 "a banner year" for its business, including its machine-washable Swatch Flik Flak for children.

But cellphones have other advantages over the watch, including automatic time-zone changes. Many people use their cells as alarm clocks and calculators. Some even watch TV on them. You can't do that with your watch — unless you're Dick Tracy.

Of course, watch batteries last longer. And, in some ways, watches are more durable. You can't go surfing with your cellphone.

At least not yet.

Some watchmakers are responding with "jigged up" styles that appeal to young people, said Paula Correri, accessories editor for the Tobe Report, published by a retail consulting and trend forecasting firm in New York. They're light-years beyond the first wristwatch, made by Patek Philippe in 1868.

Microsoft has teamed up with Fossil, Swatch Group and another watchmaker to create what it calls the Smart Watch. Wearers pay a monthly fee to get up-to-date information including news headlines, stock quotes and weather reports.

About 84% of adults have cellphones. And manufacturers are counting on both seniors and youngsters to expand future sales, experts note.

Targeting older consumers who are "a little techno-phobic," said analyst David Chamberlain of the high-tech consulting firm In-Stat, at least one company has a stripped-down cellphone (no camera, video, text messaging or wireless connection) that sports larger numbers and a bigger screen.

You might think the cellphone's race against the most time-honored device would be troubling to the National Assn. of Watch and Clock Collectors in Pennsylvania, which boasts a museum with about 12,000 timepieces and a school of horology — the study of timekeeping.

But spokeswoman Kim Craven didn't blanch.

"It seems from what we've seen … watches are more of a fashion statement," she said.

"Why use both?" she asked, echoing shoppers at the Lab. "The watch doesn't do anything that a cellphone can't."

*

(INFOBOX BELOW)

Time out

Fewer teenagers are wearing watches, according to a survey of about 2,000 high school students.

Q. How often do you wear a watch?

Spring 2006

Never – 59%

Sometimes – 28%

Every day – 13%

Fall 2005

Never – 48%

Sometimes – 34%

Every day – 18%

*

Sources: Piper Jaffray & Co.

[pbrauer]

I wear my Timex all the time, in fact I keep it on my night stand because in can't see the time on the clock radio without my specs on. But I'm not a young consumer either.

Speaking of cellphones, I get a kick out all these people who wear an earpiece where ever they go. I guess they think they are really important.

Pete

[mariamarry]

Originally Posted by pbrauer

I wear my Timex all the time, in fact I keep it on my night stand because in can't see the time on the clock radio without my specs on. But I'm not a young consumer either.

Speaking of cellphones, I get a kick out all these people who wear an earpiece where ever they go. I guess they think they are really important.

Pete

That's really funny but for you I would suggest, must go for Patek Philippe Watches,for sure, you wont ask for Timex again..I tried the collection from their store..though they are bit expensive but that gives you the feeling of royalty..

[Orin]

I wear my Timex all the time, in fact I keep it on my night stand because in can't see the time on the clock radio without my specs on. But I'm not a young consumer either.

Speaking of cellphones, I get a kick out all these people who wear an earpiece where ever they go. I guess they think they are really important.

I hear that loud and clear. My hearing is still good. I can still read without glasses, but the clocks are usually far away. My classroom has not had a clock for years, so my wrist watch is vital.

Never had a cell phone, and I'm not important enough to have one until my son gets old enough to leave the house on his own. I like walking around the grocery store and hearing all the earphoners talking to themselves. If one can't stand to be away from someone or one's work so much that one needs to call them that frequently, one might consider therapy.

Maybe we are just dinosaurs, Mr. Brauer.

[Zebediah]

My Timex is indespensable: time is pieces of pie, not digits to be added and subtracted (maybe if it went base 10... but base 12 or 60? Oh my.)

And no one ever asked you to turn your watch off during takeoff and landing, either.

[rachel]

How many times have I seen someone walking around the grocery store yakking away to what seems to be thin air, met them in line doing the same thing, and watched them go out the door, still yakking.

What do people talk about that is so important they have to say it while squeezing tomatoes but not important enough to stop and give the conversation their full attention?

What makes grown, supposedly independent adults quiver with stress attacks if their cel phone is broken? I can remember not very long ago, when people could go hours at a time out of reach of others.

Gosh, I'm starting with the, "I remember when" stuff, I am getting old. :shock:

[Zebediah]

Blue tooth stuck in the ear blinking light makes folk look like The Borg from Star Trek. Uh oh. Mentioned Trek... Now y'all know ...

[dcannady]

I would as soon walk out of the house without my pants on as without my cellphone and I use it to tell the time because I hate to wear watches. I am unrepentent on both counts.

[KBOC]

I've never liked wearing a wrist watch.

[no_cell_phone]

I love nice watches, and I ususally wear one when I'm out, at work, etc.
As far as cell phones, look at my moniker :wink:

[Greg J.]

There are times when I need to wear a wrist watch. When I'm going to meet friends and don't feel like bringing my cell phone. I don't wear it all the time, it's just nice to have.

[Bemused]

Originally Posted by Greg J.

There are times when I need to wear a wrist watch. When I'm going to meet friends and don't feel like bringing my cell phone. I don't wear it all the time, it's just nice to have.

We shoud believe this because?

No one leaves the house without their phone. Children or not.



..

[toobdoow]

Originally Posted by Bemused

We shoud believe this because?

No one leaves the house without their phone. Children or not.



..

Ummm, I do...often.

Sometimes I let it run down and don't charge it for days.

I never answer voicemail...if you need to get in touch with me keep trying.

Text? sometimes...but not often.


I hate my phone...I hate being interrupted in my own pursuits at the whim of others.

Over the last year my monthly average of use is 6.7 minutes/mo.

I don't even answer the land line...my wife does and if important she'll pass it to me.

40 years of being on call/standby 24/7 does that to a retired guy.

[Richard]

I hate cell phones so much I think I shall start writing viruses for them.

[toobdoow]

I'm going to approve this post and allow you to continue as I see no specific reason to think you a spammer, but calling up a five year old thread to talk about a specific brand of watches is a bit curious.

If you are a spammer you will be shown the door...sorry if that seems harsh, but that's the way it works...toob

[bellerose]

I'm a bit of an OC, so the trusty wristwatch I'll never get tired of.