To its benefit, the wristwatch industry (since I’ve been paying attention to it, at least) has always been somewhat fragmented. What I mean by that is that there is a great variety in the types of brands that make products, the types of timepiece models available, the places to purchase such products, and the types of people and communities that are interested in timepieces. Even though a love of ...
The strongest version of this narrative highlights a structural shift in the watch industry from centralized to decentralized models, driven by economic necessity and digital disruption. The author credibly argues that fragmentation is not a sign of health but a hunt for survival, as brands abandon traditional ecosystems for direct control. This analysis is compelling in its focus on the erosion of trust—consumers lose third-party validation, media loses access, and brands lose their "armies" of...