Luxury Watch Market Dissertation

[watchluxus]

Hi all!

(DISCLAIMER: Not looking for anyone to do work for me, just thought this would be a good place to bounce ideas back and forth )

I am in my final year of university, and will be writing a dissertation. I want my dissertation to focus on the luxury watch industry and innovation, and have come up with potential topics.

1. To what extent does innovation affect performance in the watch industry?

2. How vulnerable is the established luxury watch market to new entrants?

I am debating how I will measure the different metrics such as innovation, and its relative performance, and would gladly accept any suggestions!

Thank you all!

[keschete]

My advice, find a simple topic. When writing Thesis and Dissertations, even the most simple topics become a complex maze of mathematical equations. I would just use question 1 and measure innovation and price point compared to sales. Just my 2 cents.

[GB-man]

I think topic 2 would be easier to prove. It's essentially just an assessment of barriers to entry which has defined terms. Good luck

[Etschell]

why not go with the effect of gold rolex on strippers lap dance pricing?

lol jk.

[MILGAUSS88]

Originally Posted by GB-man

I think topic 2 would be easier to prove. It's essentially just an assessment of barriers to entry which has defined terms. Good luck

Having written a dissertation, I agree the 2nd would be easier. But, it may still be too broad of a subject. You do not want your biggest challenge to be finding information
You want what is easiest to quantify. How would you quantify innovation.

I suggest looking at average sales price of a brand, quantity sold of a brand.
I have seen numbers for the amount of employees per watch produced.
You may need to look at the MSRP on a per year basis. Or possibly grey market sales prices year over year for individual models.
Once you have numbers there are many things to look at extrapolating for.

Perhaps MSRP versus grey market price.
Break it down to dress watches VS sport models VS precious metals models vs ladies watches.

I am sure there are other things to look at but, just a quick idea off the top of my head.

Maybe a little harder to research, compare income brackets and typical price of watch purchased. Is it different depending on which country You are from. (not sure if that info is available.)

[Chewbacca]

Originally Posted by keschete

My advice, find a simple topic. When writing Thesis and Dissertations, even the most simple topics become a complex maze of mathematical equations. I would just use question 1 and measure innovation and price point compared to sales. Just my 2 cents.

agree.


20

[GB-man]

Good point. For the record I have not written a dissertation. Just a lowly MBA grad

Originally Posted by MILGAUSS88

Having written a dissertation, I agree the 2nd would be easier. But, it may still be too broad of a subject. You do not want your biggest challaenge to be finding information
You want what is easiest to quantify. How would you quantify innovation.

I suggeest looking at average sales price of a brand, quantity sold of a brand.
I have seen numbers for the amount of employees per watch produced.
You may need to look at the MSRP on a per year basis. Or possibly grey market sales prices year over year for individual models.
Once you have numbers there are many things to look at extrapolating for.

Perhaps MSRP versus grey market price.
Break it down to dress watches VS sport models VS precious metals models vs ladies watches.

I am sure there are other things to look at but, just a quick idea off the top of my head.

Maybe a little harder to research, compare income brackets and typical price of watch purchased. Is it different depending on which country You are from. (not sure if that info is available.)

[MILGAUSS88]

I learned the hard way by spending a month finding out nothing, in my dissertation research.
(Pre-internet, so I could not go back to my dorm and just google it.)
Start with what you can quantify, and then ask yourself what can that indicate. Then analyze your hypothesis.

[watchluxus]

Thank you for the input everyone!

After talking to my dissertation supervisor, I am thinking of potentially getting ten brands and comparing their flagship watch, over x years. Ie. Rolex Submariner. I would then quantify innovation, through number of patents filed for that watch per each new upgrade etc.

[THC]

this may help with research

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/inside-rolex

[BrazenC5]

Originally Posted by watchluxus

Thank you for the input everyone!

After talking to my dissertation supervisor, I am thinking of potentially getting ten brands and comparing their flagship watch, over x years. Ie. Rolex Submariner. I would then quantify innovation, through number of patents filed for that watch per each new upgrade etc.

"Correlation does not imply causation" comes to mind. I bet most Rolex owners buy from brand awareness, not because of innovation.

[codecow]

1 is much easier, the technological achievements in the industry have produced extremely accurate movements at very large scales.

[braxd]

Originally Posted by Etschell

why not go with the effect of gold rolex on strippers lap dance pricing?

lol jk.

That would be easy..lol

[keschete]

Originally Posted by watchluxus

Thank you for the input everyone!

After talking to my dissertation supervisor, I am thinking of potentially getting ten brands and comparing their flagship watch, over x years. Ie. Rolex Submariner. I would then quantify innovation, through number of patents filed for that watch per each new upgrade etc.

Good idea. Keep it simple. You're going to have to twist and bend when explaining results. So the key is to ask simple questions. It's amazing once you get into it how complex one simple research question can become.

[MILGAUSS88]

Originally Posted by watchluxus

Thank you for the input everyone!

After talking to my dissertation supervisor, I am thinking of potentially getting ten brands and comparing their flagship watch, over x years. Ie. Rolex Submariner. I would then quantify innovation, through number of patents filed for that watch per each new upgrade etc.

I am trying to point out pitfalls here.
Rolex typically files a patent for a hairspring, etc that they use in all of there watches, not just one model. It gets even more convoluted when you look at a watch like Breguet, owned by ETA, where the patent for ETA and not necessarily Breguet.
They may stagger the improvements to the individual models. i.e. ceramic bezels.
Is a ceramic bezel an innovation? Or just a design change? Or are you including both design changes and patents? A design change can be as little as a different colored dial, in this market.
Is there a database where you can easily search watch patents?

Curious, how are you quantifying performance in the watch industry?
Price?
Increase in price?
Number of units sold? (I would guess that would have an inverse relationship to innovation.)
Profit?

I am assuming this is an Economics dissertation.