The watch market

The Watch Market consist of many sub-segments. These segments are driven by prices and along it the higher expectations of the consumer which we will try to cover here.

Basic / Kids Watches

These are watches that cost less than £100 to buy and are watches for people who want to pay the lowest possible price for a watch knowing that if it fails after 6 months or a year they can through it away and replace it with a new watch. These watches tend to be build in China with the with low specifications and including Quartz movements, mainly produced in China sometimes costing less than $1 each to produce. This category also includes some Kids watches.

Consumer Watches

Consumer watches tend to be the watches, some quartz and some mechanical, from all around the  individuals would buy to tell the time. These are watches of below £500 where the buyer is looking to purchase a well build at the best value for money or an aesthetically good looking watch from one of the fashion brands. As prices rise from under £100 to £500, an upgrade should be expected on some of the basic materials of the watch (Stainless Steel (ideally 316L), Sapphire Crystal, Swiss or Japanese Movements, good construction, designed by watch makers and good dial lumination where necessary. This segment will also include some of the fashion brands and  number of microbrands (usually with Swiss quartz or Japanese quartz / automatic movements). Note: more details about the materials and movements can be found in their respective sections coming soon

Consumer Sector Brands: Timex (US), Vostok (Russian), Invicta (US), Fossil (US), Swatch (Swiss), Seiko (Japan), Orient (Japan), Citizen (Japan), Casio (Japan), Skagen (Denmark), Daniel Wellington (Swedish), Calvin Klein (US).

*Note: more details about the materials and movements can be found in their respective sections coming soon

Enthusiast Watches

Enthusiast watches are usually tool watches designed for specific purposes (e.g. pilot or military watches). These are watches that can range from £300 and reach up to £1,000 (although they will be a few above £1,000 as well) and will usually have either a Japanese automatic movement or a Swiss movement (Quartz or Automatic). This section may also include a few fashion brands who has decided to have their watches produced in Switzerland and charge the consumer a bit more than their rival fashion brands.

Enthusiast Sector Brands: Luminox (US), Tissot (Swiss), Hamilton (Swiss), Victorinox (Swiss), Laco (German), Chris Ward (UK).

Quasi-luxury Watches

Higher end enthusiast and more expensive that the enthusiast watches, these Quasi-luxury watches tend to start from just under £1,000 pounds until below £2,000 and tend to have Swiss automatic movements usually produced by one of the big Swiss movement mass producers (mainly ETA and Sellita or their variations).

Quasi-luxury Sector Brands: Sinn (German), Junghans (German), Oris (Swiss), Rado (Swiss), Mido (Swiss), Longines (Swiss), Raymond Weil (Swiss)

Entry-level luxury Watches

Entry-level luxury watches is where starter luxury watches are offered. While some of these watches might use the traditional Swiss automatic movements, most also produce their own in house movements which elevates then above the quasi-luxury brands in the eyes of the enthusiast. These watches tend to start from above £1,000 and go all the way up to £4,000-£5,000.

Entry-level luxury Sector Brands: Baume & Mercier (Swiss), Nomos Glashutte (German), Tag Heuer (Swiss), Bell & Ross( Swiss), Tudor (Swiss), Mont Blanc (German), Doxa (Swiss).

Luxury Watches

Luxury watches are classed as watch brands with a lot of history which include signature watches that have left a mark in watchmaking history. These are the watches that enthusiast, collectors and watch lovers who can afford go for. These brands have full manufacturing facilities producing all their watches and in-house movements. Their watches usually start from above £3,000 and rise to above £10,000 in some cases.

Luxury Sector Brands: Breitling (Swiss), IWC (Swiss), Bulgari (Swiss), Omega (Swiss).

Premium Luxury Watches

Premium Luxury watches are some of the most in demand and well known watches in the market where wearing one of these watches of someone’s wrist are a statement. These watches have a history of producing some of the best quality watches. These are brands that all watch collectors and watch lovers will recognise and dream of having. Their prices tend to start from over £5,000 go up.

Premium Luxury Sector Watches: Ulisse Nardin (Swiss), Cartier (France), Panerai, (Swiss/Italian), Zenit (Swiss).

High-end Luxury Watches

The most well known and respected luxury watch brands with a long history producing some of the best watches. These watches go a step beyond having their own facilities and producing their own movement. They develop more complicated movements that the standard date and chronograph movements showing their credentials as a watchmaker. These watches sell from over £5,000 to the over £100,000.

High-End Luxury Sector Watches: Breguet (Swiss), Blancpain (Swiss), Jaeger LeCoultre (Swiss), Rolex (Swiss), Hublot (Swiss).

Ultra Luxury Watches

These are the most expensive watches on the market for the serious watch collectors or the very rich. The companies have facilities which focus on producing limited edition small production, using the best material available (such as platinum or gold) and produce some of the most complicated movements produced, in many cases taking watchmakers 100s of hours to manually make the watch. These watches range from over £10,000 to the £100,000s.

Ultra Luxury Sector Watches: A. Lange & Sohne (German), Richard Mille (Swiss), MB&F (Swiss), Piaget( Swiss), Patek Philippe (Swiss), Vacheron Constantin (Swiss), Audemars Piguet (Swiss).

Ultra Luxury Jewellery Watches

These segment is not meant to be a level up from the “Ultra Luxury Watches” but rather a parallel category. There are firms who produce complicated timepieces but their main beauty is derived from the stones includes on the watch. These brands will regularly include diamonds on their watches which attract a different kind of collector and thus is a separate category.

Ultra Luxury Jewellery Watches: Tiffany & Co (US), Van Cleef & Arpels (French), Buccellati (Italian).