What discriminating women will be wearing this season
replica rolex watches
What discriminating women will be wearing this season: byelizabethdoerr. uring the mechanical renaissance of the last two decades, it has undoubtDedly been men who have constituted the main—or even only—group of consumers for mechanical watches. But a funny thing has happened in our society in the last twenty years, and even funnier in the last two: Women have become decision makers, independent and strongminded in their own right. They are ready to spend the money they make but also are careful to investigate expensive products to find just the right thing. They are learning, educating themselves in watches as well as other luxury products. And they have become the mechanical watch industry’s biggest unopened market.
Financial markets have gone down the tubes, taking the previously fertile markets for midpriced luxury products with them. A new avenue for astute watch companies has opened: selling luxury directly to women, not to the men in their lives to be passed on as gifts.
These circumstances have led to the 2003 introduction of a number of highly interesting, purpose-built mechanical watches for women. And we are not talking about diminished men’s watches here, which were the products that women interested in mechanical tickers have had to live with until now. This is the year of the feminine mechanical timekeeper, made to fit the female wrist in every aspect. These are pretty watches—there is no other term for them—but they are loaded with mechanical technology under the dial. Just the way the demanding woman, intelligent as well as conscious of status and lasting values, likes them.
Patek Philippe and the Ladies The company to have sown the first seed was, of course, Patek Philippe. Recognizing the coming trend (or perhaps even setting it), the company brought out its widely publicized and largely copied Twenty-4 line in 1999 to prepare its market for the higher class, mechanical version it introduced this year. In 1999 the Twenty-4 model was only offered in a steel case with a quartz movement (naturally Patek’s own), and it was heavily advertised directly to women.
In 2000, the company upped the ante, introducing gold and diamond-studded cases to the line. Variations have abounded, and this year Twenty-4 was introduced in Basel in a haute joaillerie version outfitted with its first manually wound movement. Placing a great deal of attention on the transparent caseback framing the beautiful move ment, the 18-karat white or rose gold back is set with 104 diamonds of its own—giving anyone a second reason to want to gaze at it. Patek’s Twenty-4 strategy has been so successful that the company now sells 40 percent of its watches to women, compared with 17 percent four years ago.
Processing your request, Please wait....
