Random Watch Thread #3

[Samanator]

You’ve set me thinking - and Googling. I sometimes find I underestimate the sales of some of these companies. In particular, I’m often surprised that small British companies have significant international sales - and aren’t necessarily that small.

Then I reflect that Mr Jones has a shop in Covent Garden where rents are going to be very high, and they employ 40 people (although not necessarily full-time). They must be selling a good number of watches.

After a bit of Googling I’ve come up with a list of annual production figures. Obviously, there are companies here that don’t bear comparison, but funky little oddball Mr Jones is selling around 200 watches a week, which is more than I might have guessed. The same as GO, not absolutely tiny compared with Nomos, more than twice as many as Stowa. Broadly comparable with Zenith and Sinn.


Christopher Ward 25,000 *
Nomos 20,000
Doxa 15,000 *
Bell & Ross 13,600
Sinn 12,000
Zenith 12,000
Glashütte Original 10,000
Mr Jones 10,000
Girard Perregaux 9,500
Harry Winston 8,500
Ulysse Nardin 7,000
Lange & Söhne 6,000
Richard Mille 5,600
Stowa 4,000
Moser 3,500
Parmigiani 3,000
F. P. Journe 1,800

* involves a bit of guesswork


I guess a Mr Jones watch can be worth faking, especially as they’re about a kind of pop-art appeal.

Yes, but the business model here is around the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) and Profit margin after any channel players, warehousing and, shipping to the customer. So for this let's say $20 is the profit from the $61 sale, but it may be lower. So they are making $4000 a week with some split internally. Add that the watch is $257 retail but it looks more like the average street prices is $169. I'm assuming that 200 per week is across multiple models since I saw 5-6 different models. So that number goes down to something lower lets say 50% and we're at $2000 per week. Take this against a Datejust, MoonSwatch or some other popular model replica and I go back to my original point. This model does not make sense to replicate. The closer the replica price goes to the real thing the harder it is to justify the replica unless supply issues are happening with the real one.

I see these figures in Watch Time but usually a year behind. It's staggering then the Swatch Group company, Seiko, Casio and Rolex numbers for volume. Yet seven years latter I still don't have my white Daytona.

[geoffbot]

They fake f71ws so...

[tribe125]

I’ve now Googled ‘fake Mr Jones watch’ and found myself in some dubious corners of the internet. There’s a demand for them and Ali Express is the place to get one. The swimming pool watch seems to be the one that people go for, and it’s the only one stocked by the trader you linked to. From general reading, that does seem to be the big seller in Mr Jones’ catalogue.

On one forum, it was suggested that the real ones weren’t expensive, so why buy a fake? The member in question said he couldn’t justify $200 on a quartz watch. Maybe there are a good number of people who think that way.

The Ali Express trader says he has 93 available but also indicates that he has sold 1. 700+ customers are interested in the item. It’s hard to know if this means that they’re a hard sell, or are available for even less elsewhere. I didn’t search any further for other suppliers.

But I did come across this while I was browsing -




More than 3,000 of those sold. It’s another world, but these traders presumably know what they’re doing with profit margins.

[geoffbot]

I’ve now Googled ‘fake Mr Jones watch’ and found myself in some dubious corners of the internet. There’s a demand for them and Ali Express is the place to get one. The swimming pool watch seems to be the one that people go for, and it’s the only one stocked by the trader you linked to. From general reading, that does seem to be the big seller in Mr Jones’ catalogue.

On one forum, it was suggested that the real ones weren’t expensive, so why buy a fake? The member in question said he couldn’t justify $200 on a quartz watch. Maybe there are a good number of people who think that way.

The Ali Express trader says he has 93 available but also indicates that he has sold 1. 700+ customers are interested in the item. It’s hard to know if this means that they’re a hard sell, or are available for even less elsewhere. I didn’t search any further for other suppliers.

But I did come across this while I was browsing -




More than 3,000 of those sold. It’s another world, but these traders presumably know what they’re doing with profit margins.

That's not fake though-that's an homage

[tribe125]

That's not fake though-that's an homage

True enough. I might get one.

[Raza]

Attachment 134528

Terrible use of space, but still, intriguing all the same. Great color combination.

[mlcor]

5,600 is around the number of professional footballers in England.

Plus 20 F1 drivers.

[hayday]

I'm kind of gobsmacked that Richard Mille sells that many each year, given their stratospheric prices. Wow.

I'm very gobsmacked that Richard Mille sells any at all, given how stratespherically fugly they are. Enjoy the 5600 puking emojis.

[skywatch]

I'm very gobsmacked that Richard Mille sells any at all, given how stratespherically fugly they are. Enjoy the 5600 puking emojis.

Don't hide your feelings, @hayday. Tell us what you REALLY think.

[hayday]

Don't hide your feelings, @hayday. Tell us what you REALLY think.

If you don't like my opinion, that's ok. I've got others.