Of Watch Collabs And The Case Of Outsourced Creativity

The urgency to remain relevant in the short term is a trend. That’s why we have the “drop culture” permeate many commodity disciplines. When brands decide to go bold and become viral, it’s not always for a legacy intent. Most of the time, it’s for expansion into a new customer base. And yes, that’s quick bucks in the bag. By occupying novel ‘subcultures’ and capitalizing on the now, watch brands too grab attention from everywhere.

Watch Collabs are released as ‘product drops’ and leverage scarcity principle for quick sales.

There’re means to getting your brand in front of new audiences, and collaboration is one vehicle which the watch industry has chosen as a standard for the intent. Along with client acquisition, it’s about giving the existing buyers novel experiences via an unusual crossover of interests. This at-scale onboarding of the watch industry onto the hype trends is a given of social media and is thus attributed as a cause for the high-frequency “watch drop” effect.

The legitimacy of requisites, risks and redundancies around these watch collabs will be our subject for today.

Making A Watch Interesting

A mechanical watch is the peak realization of micro-engineering refinement. In its petite yield, a wristwatch integrates mechanics and artisanal craft of exacting standards, and the realized contraption is an inspiring showcase of innate human affinity towards the beautiful. Here quality attains a benchmark measure and the reverence for tradition is holy. That’s why the purists are always hesitant to adapt. At this level of horological-nerdiness, pure mechanical craft is an uncompromising affair and pleasure is sought in its traditional execution.

But horological culture is an evolving entity.

The 'hypebeast' trend in watch collecting favors trends over artisanal substance.

The fresh breed of consumers isn’t inclined towards the rarity of haute horlogerie craft. These fast-food savoring and fast-fashion draping audiences are ignorant to the distinct gravitas of tradition and heritage in watchmaking. The culture of watch collabs is a dear entity to the said, for tastes have evolved beyond a purely mechanical nature. Now, the relevance of pop culture commodities and celebrities finds a dear permeance in the watchmaking space, and watches become interesting for masses.

The Categories Of Collabs

The sprawling genres of collabs in the watch world make it a wide encompassing exercise. Partnerships, co-branding, celebrity affiliations, brand tie-ins, outsourcing ebauches and artisanal/technical loaning, all come under the collaborations umbrella. In many ways, the Swiss watchmaking tradition is founded on collaboration and the widespread pivot towards outsourcing creative and technical expertise has been a dominant theme for its 20th century functioning. There has been a genuine willingness from brands, now attributed as strictly in-house, to engage out-house expertise.

Creative, artisanal and technical (ebauche base calibers) collabs have been prominent in 20th century watchmaking.

The modern realizations of the watch collab trend are however distant asides from the usual similar-fetching amalgamations of collective expertise. Nowadays, collaborative processes involve an indulgence of a watchmaking entity and someone or something that’s not innately anything horological. By involving multiple entities, distinguished in their DNA, products or even disciplines to collaborate, watchmaking executions take on a bold new form and sit aside among their own.

Most of the time, the synergy seeks the ‘current appeal’ of in-trend form factors, celebrities, brands and even marketing themes, all in a bid to make the co-creation a product of hot hype and mass market appeal.

Secrets Of A Successful Collab

The fleeting nature of trends and the notoriously fickle audiences demand a strong product. Then only can a collab actually last. While the majority of such creations are limited to small volume production, their impact and broader appeal on the recurring catalog offerings can be major. That’s why collabs require suitable efforts to keep them original, interesting and impactful. There’s no lazy way around collab watches. It has to go beyond a caseback engraving or a small marking on the dial. It could be subtle, but should have the right creative or even technical nuances to differentiate it from the more mainstream eccentricity.

A successful collab watch is pioneeringly original.

The best examples of successful watch collabs have an element of pioneering originality and enough creative content to differentiate the same from regular iterations. The affordable plastic interpretation of an iconic luxury watch, the Swatch MoonSwatch, is a reference for the same. The novelty of the concept as well as the effort that went into its synthesis was every bit original and pioneering. The Oris Kermit too merits the credit of novelty in creative collaboration.

The best collabs go the extra mile in technical novelty as well. With a watch meant to serve a specific purpose, that’s very much in synergy with the collab theme, a yielding of unique sorts is realized. The Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra “Ultra Light” is one such inception. Weighing just 55 grams with a telescopic push-in crown and Omega’s first-ever titanium movement, this synthesis results from the brand’s collaboration with pro-golfer Rory McIlroy. The Richard Mille RM 70-01 Tourbillon Alain Prost is another example of technical novelty materialized via collaboration. This watch functions like a hand-held tally counter for cyclists to manually enter the number of miles traveled on the bike. The use cases are actually infinite here.

Great collab watches have serious technical or aesthetic distinction.

Then are the thematically consistent collabs which make the majority executions of the collaborative process. Here material matching, colorway pairing and special text references become the highlight. The best of this lot however isn’t an ‘overdone’ product. The Omega Speedmaster Racing Schumacher World Champion 2000 Limited Edition is a seminal execution in this regard with a subtle yet notable referencing of the collaborative endeavor.

A Symptom Of Creative Fatigue

While the impetus and impact of watch collabs stands established, what does it say about the phenomenon of outsourced creativity? Why borrowed creativity and inspiration is the new standard for introducing excitement in a watch drop is the only true concern from the trends-driven phenomenon. This now-mainstream tactic to make a product interesting, when repeatedly done, becomes an element of cutting corners and taking shortcuts in the watchmaking craft.

Don’t brands possess the creative drive and impetus to introduce in-house eccentricity? In all honesty, with the abundance of creative legacy and technical heritage that watchmakers pronounce so vividly, can’t anything exciting come from within the house. Is it necessary to rely on ‘outside assistance’ for creative input? What we need to expect and demand from brands is for them to excite us without looking elsewhere for that boost of energy or excitement.

Risks And Redundancies Of Watch Collabs

The absolute oversaturation of watch collaborations is so dense, that the novelty of the concept itself has somewhat lost a part of its charm. Excess of everything is bad and too much of a special thing makes it lose its specialness. The key is the strategic positioning and selection of collaborations to maintain conceptual novelty. Also important is the balance of creative input. You can’t create a collab watch with your brand input being overly dominant, so much so that the essence of the collab gets sidelined in the pursuit of a self-serving objective.

Too many collabs is a bad thing. Also, a collab product must be one of effort and balanced input.

About the risk that’s ingrained into the structural premise of watch collaborations, the inherent vulnerability of alienating people as much as winning over novel demographics is omnipresent. Every collaboration poses a gamble of the dilution of brand value. When done well, the collab works - when not, it’s bad not only for the synergistic execution, but for the brand’s broader vision and offerings.

There’s No Such Thing As Bad Publicity

While the more purist enthusiasts hesitate to praise trends-driven watch collabs, the interesting tangents that the exercise yields become a catalyst for technical innovation and creative novelty. The equal parts risk and reward in luxury watch collaborations guarantees attention beyond the usual demographic. In that way, there’s a marketing gain, although at a high cost. But as Oscar Wilde once remarked, “There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”