Watches, strategies and innovations to overcome market uncertainties

We anticipate an extract from the article that opens the Watch Special on newsstands tomorrow as a supplement to Il Sole 24 Ore, with 40 pages of analysis, insights and news from the leading companies in the time industry.

To try to define or even understand what time is, one would need a degree in physics. Better if combined with one in philosophy and, it wouldn't hurt, one in theology. Because making sense of the time of our days and existences has always been the cross and delight of us human beings. Most people - especially in times of ever-increasing social, economic and even cultural uncertainty - try to live anyway, which is quite different from surviving. Because time is always too short and the only thing we can do with certainty is to measure it.

Perhaps this is also why wristwatches have survived the digital revolution brilliantly, even though many in the early 2000s predicted the decline of more traditional watches in favour of mobile phones, smartwatches or other devices. Incautious Cassandras for several reasons: the first is that the watch remains the main accessory for defining a man's style and for the more rigid arbiter elegantiarum - an appellation from Petronius, who lived in the first century AD - they are the only jewellery allowed to a man of good taste. Stylistic rigidity aside, the resilience of wristwatches, especially mechanical ones, is evidenced by a perhaps more curious fact: the Silicon Valley managers and entrepreneurs who have transformed our existences into an osmosis of the real and the virtual are for the most part watch collectors (and devotees of sartorial garments, a fact only seemingly disconnected from handcrafted wristwatches).

What about women, who have much more choice for jewellery? Data indicate that - particularly in Asia - the barriers between male and female collectors are falling, and that women too - especially if they are self-employed and have large disposable income - are investing in watches, choosing them from the most exclusive offerings of historic names and more.

The decline in luxury personal goods - among which many watches fall - has been underway since 2024, with very rare exceptions, and as far as hard luxury is concerned, jewellery is holding up better than watches, as certified by the balance sheet figures of the listed luxury groups Lvmh and Kering and especially of Richemont, which closed the 24-25 fiscal year with revenues up 4% to EUR 21.4 billion and a net profit increase of almost 16.8% to EUR 2.75 billion. The figure is important because Richemont controls maisons such as Cartier (the second largest watch brand in the world after Rolex), but also Panerai, Vacheron Constantin and others.