Are high-end watches seeing a bifurcation of the market, between the traditional and heritage-minded, and the technological and future-minded? That’s the contention of Edouard Meylan, the CEO of H. Moser and Cie: 'Increasingly we have a market in which, say, Richard Mille can sell a watch made of ‘plastic’ at a price far in excess of the same watch made in a precious metal,' he contends. 'The idea of a high price paid for a ‘plastic’ watch would, not long ago, have seemed crazy. But now consumers are seeing value in the scientific developments behind such a material, and the functional benefits it offers.'
Of course, by ‘plastic’ Meylan is referring more to the kinds of advanced materials used by certain watchmakers to make cases of exceptional lightness, durability, scratch resistance and hypoallergenic properties, and through which they’ve positioned themselves as progressive: not just the likes of titanium, carbon fibre, forged carbon, even sapphire crystal, but also the much less well-known carbon glass and bulk metallic glass, as well as any number of proprietary hybrid materials the likes of Parmigiani’s Ultra-Cermet, Audemars Piguet’s Chroma Forged Composite, Ulysee Nardin’s Carbonium, IWC’s Ceratanium and Tag Heuer’s TH-Polylight.
'I think now [watch enthusiasts] can have an passion for the technology that goes into a watch much as they may have a feeling for the very traditional meters d’art. The watch industry loves to be first and part of that game now is being first in engineering, [though] the use of these materials is also a way for watches to express a connection to what’s new, not just watchmaking’s link to the past,' argues Maria Laffont, chief product officer for Tag Heuer, which has gone a step further for the latest rendition of its Monaco, the Air 1, by making the case using the aerospace industry’s selective laser melting (a kind of 3D printing using metallic powder).
Arguably with advances in movement design plateauing - and with recent advances having also come about through the application of advanced materials - the high-end watch world’s attention would inevitably turn to cases, creating a new, more performance-derived luxury similarly echoed in the sportscar world’s use of carbon fibre for interior decoration.
But it’s not just about performance, argues Adrian Bossard, CEO of Rado, a pioneer in the use of ceramics in watches. He argues that these new materials also offer new aesthetics - in the way they feel in the hand, in how they catch the light, or allow for distinctive effects (forged carbon’s marbling, for example).
'Customers are clearly now considering advanced materials [when it comes to choosing a watch] not just for rational reasons but emotional ones,' he says. 'The beauty of these high-tech materials is part of their appeal, especially for younger customers.' Indeed, he adds, advanced materials further serve to make a mechanical watch feel part of the contemporary design conversation to a smartphone generation that might otherwise see the object as redundant.
That appeal might only be expected to grow as the watch consumer becomes increasingly educated about the use of the kind of materials which, just a few years ago, would only been found in highly specialist applications requiring esoteric knowledge to appreciate.
'That education means they understand how hard these advanced materials can be to work with - the craft that still has to go into them - which gives them a credibility to compete with more traditional materials,' argues Marc Michel-Amadry, managing director of Girard-Perregaux. The brand is set to release a watch made from carbon silicium in an edition of just two pieces - precisely because of the challenges of using this material. 'But in doing so we’re producing watches with a unique look and giving them meaning,' he adds. 'They’re about modernity.'
