The Times They Are a-Changin'
Cellphones, iPods and laptops are standard equipment for young people these days. But there's one device that they are increasingly doing without: the wristwatch.
In a challenging development for watchmakers, some teens and young adults say they have no need for a gadget that merely tells time and does nothing else. After all, they have digital clocks flashing at them constantly from the screens of their portable devices.
In 2005, sales of watches that cost roughly $30 to $150 -- those usually bought by teens and young adults -- declined by more than 10% from 2004, says Deborah Rudinsky of the Doneger Group, a New York fashion-merchandising consultant. (Watches in other price ranges -- cheaper and more expensive -- saw single-digit growth.) Domestic wholesale sales of Fossil Inc.'s youth-oriented Fossil brand watches fell 13% during the quarter ending Oct. 1, its fifth straight quarter of year-to-year declines.
The $150 Swatch Paparazzi
Exports of Swiss plastic watches such as Swatches were down 12% from January to October compared with the year-earlier period, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry in Bienne, Switzerland. Roughly 30% of those exports go to the U.S. Genender International, which licenses watches for teen brands such as HotKiss and Unionbay, says its sales of watches for young men have fallen by around 5% over the past several years due to competition from other gadgets.
But watchmakers are not counting the teen market out. The current strategy: coming up with new models that go well beyond telling time. Watches with ear buds that play digital music files were on display earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The watches, manufactured by Xonix Electronics Co., range from $120 to $250 and can store up to 400 songs.
In September, Fossil launched a watch with 11 programmable channels that users can set to scroll memos to themselves across a small digital display. Suunto, owned by Amer Sports Corp., whose pricier heart monitor and GPS-enabled watches don't typically appeal to teens and young adults, says it will launch a lower-priced and more fashionable line by the end of 2006.
Old-school analog watches are also getting a face lift. Timex Corp., based in Middlebury, Conn., is going after the young multitasker with watches that are equipped with compasses and thermometers. The company added a fourth hand to some of its analog watches this summer, creating the Timex Expedition e-Tide & Temp, which displays water or air temperatures as well as the time. Fashion brands like Guess Inc. are reinventing themselves too. Popular this season: charm bracelets in which a watch face is one of several of other baubles.
A Guess charm bracelet, $95, with watch face.
Retailers say that some of their new styles appear to be catching on. Fossil reported strong interest in the digital watch with 11 programmable channels. Guess says that it has also seen strong demand for watches with fake jewels and other embellishments that imitate luxury brands.
The youth market is extremely lucrative. The buying power of teenagers aged 12 to 19 will reach almost $200 billion in 2006, up 28% from 2001, according to Packaged Facts, a division of research firm Marketresearch.com.
But watchmakers could face an uphill battle in trying to give teens and 20-somethings new reasons to wear a watch. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 45% of teens have a cellphone, and a much larger percentage of young adults carry a phone or personal digital assistant with them at all times. And it's not just cellphones that broadcast the time digitally -- or on a display that resembles an analog watch face. Nearly 90% of teens also surf the Internet, according to Pew, where clocks flash at them constantly. They have iPod music players, which tell the time, too.
"The time is constantly being drilled into your head," says Justin Udelhofen, a 26-year-old who works for a mutual-fund company in New York. He hasn't worn a watch since he wore a stopwatch to train for the Boston Marathon in 2002, and sees no reason to, thanks to his cellphone and the meeting reminders that pop up at work telling him where he ought to be.
Using a cellphone to tell time can pose new etiquette problems. Liz Frankel, a 26-year-old who works for an entertainment company in Manhattan, says she doesn't wear a watch and uses her cellphone instead. But when her friends started to accuse her of incessantly checking to see if she had any phone calls, she asked her boyfriend to buy her a pocket watch so that when she wanted to see the time, there wouldn't be any misunderstanding.
To be sure, many young adults still do wear watches. Moreover, high-end luxury watches haven't taken a hit, with their sales edging up, according to Ms. Rudinsky. While some retailers say they are aware of cellphones' impact on sales, many largely shrug off the development, believing that teens and young adults will continue to wear watches to be fashionable. "They want the latest and newest -- even if they are not necessarily using it to tell time," says Kim Anderson-Curry, senior vice president for products and marketing for Callanen International, the company licensed to produce Guess Watches.
Fossil is trying to bring youngsters into the design process, selling straps and watch faces that customers can mix and match themselves. Unlike watch sets that include the same heads and straps in an assortment of colors, Fossil's rhinestone-studded faces and thick leather straps allow each customer to create her own watch from scratch. The company says the watch heads, which retail for around $45, and the straps which cost around $20, are selling well.
The Swatch Paparazzi has been advertised as a mini multimedia center that provides news, horoscopes, and tips on hot bars and clubs. Swatch rolled it out in late 2004 with a contest featuring the chance to meet teen icon Mischa Barton of the hit television show "The O.C." Joseph Panetta, a spokesman for Swatch Group US Inc. in Weehawken, N.J., says the watch is selling well but not among teens. The real demand, he says, appears to be among late-twenty- and thirty-year-olds who he says are more willing to pay $150 for the gadget.
Dustin Nyhus, who works for a T-shirt company in Denver, says he has collected around a dozen watches in the last few years, including a Swatch scuba watch he bought last month. But Mr. Nyhus, 25, acknowledges that he is not typical; indeed, among his friends he is known as "that watch guy."
手表变身记
如今，手机、iPod和笔记本电脑成为年轻人的标准装备。与此同时，有一样东西却越来越被他们忽视，这就是手表。
对制表商而言，一个严峻的现实是，部分青少年表示，他们不需要只能显示时间而别无它用的东西。毕竟，在他们便携式产品的屏幕上，有数字时钟让他们能够掌握时间。
纽约时尚产品咨询公司Doneger Group的黛博拉?鲁金斯基(Deborah Rudinsky)说，2005年，价格在30美元至150美元之间（通常是青少年购买手表的价位）的手表销量比2004年减少了10%以上。（价位更高或更低的手表则实现了一位数的增长。）截至10月1日的季度，Fossil Inc.面向年轻人的Fossil品牌手表的国内批发量较上年同期下降了13%，是连续第五个季度低于上年同期水平。
根据瑞士钟表协会(Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry)的数据，2005年1至10月份，斯沃琪(Swatch)等瑞士塑料手表的出口量比上年同期下降了12%。出口的手表中约有30%进入了美国市场。HotKiss和Unionbay等青少年手表的授权商Genender International称，由于其它产品的竞争，该公司针对年轻人的手表销量在过去几年里下降了5%左右。
但手表制造商并未准备放弃青少年市场。他们目前采取的策略是：推出有更多功能的新款手表。本月初在拉斯维加斯消费电子产品展上，出现了能够播放数码音乐、带耳塞的手表。Xonix Electronics Co.生产的这些手表售价为120至250美元之间，能够储存多达400首歌曲。
去年9月份，Fossil推出了一款有11个可编程序频道的手表，用户能够在一个小数字屏幕上滚动备忘录。Amer Sports Corp.旗下的Suunto表示，将在2006年底以前推出价格更低、更为时尚的手表。该公司此前推出的能够监测心律、并具有GPS功能的高价手表没有受到青年人的垂青。
老式的指针手表也旧貌换新颜了。Timex Corp.考虑到年轻人的多重需求，推出了带有指南针和温度计的手表。该公司去年夏季在部分指针手表上添加了第四个指针，推出了除时间外，还能显示水温或气温的Timex Expedition e-Tide & Temp手表。Guess Inc.等时尚手表生产商也对手表进行了改头换面。本季流行的款式是：整块手表就像一个漂亮的手链，表盘只是上面装饰物的一部分。
零售商说，其中的一些新款手表似乎颇受欢迎。Fossil称，其具有11个可编程序频道的数字手表深受欢迎。Guess称，对其模仿豪华品牌、带有仿珠宝和其它饰品的手表的需求非常强劲。
年轻人的市场具有相当大的利润空间。根据研究机构Marketresearch.com旗下Packaged Facts的数据，2006年12至19岁年龄段人群的购买力将达到2,000亿美元左右，比2001年增长28%。
但制表商在吸引青少年人群购买手表方面可能面临越来越大的困难。来自Pew Internet & American Life Project的数据显示，45%的青少年拥有手机，而青年中随身携带手机或个人数字助理(PDA)的比例更高。不仅是手机能够显示时间，Pew的数据称，近90%的青少年上网，电脑屏幕上也一直会显示时间。他们还有iPod音乐播放器，也能看到时间。
在纽约一家共同基金公司工作的26岁的贾斯汀?乌德尔霍芬(Justin Udelhofen)说，时间始终都在你的视线之内。自2002年接受马拉松培训而戴过秒表后，他就再也没戴过表，有了手机、以及上面的日程提醒功能，他认为没有必要再戴手表了。
用手机看时间可能会带来礼节上的问题。在曼哈顿一家娱乐公司工作的26岁的丽兹?弗兰克尔(Liz Frankel)说，她不戴手表，而是使用手机看时间。但后来她的朋友责怪她总是看手机检查有没有电话，于是她就让男友给她买了一块怀表，这样在她想知道时间时，就不会产生误解了。
当然，许多青年人还戴表。而且，鲁金斯基说，高级豪华表并未受到打击，销售量还小幅上升。尽管部分零售商表示，他们已经意识到手机对销售的影响，但许多人仍对此不以为然，认为年轻人为了时髦会继续戴表。Callanen International的产品及营销高级副总裁凯姆?安德森-克里(Kim Anderson-Curry)说，他们要的是最新潮的款式，尽管可能并不一定要用它来了解时间。Callanen是Guess表的授权公司。
Fossil正设法让年轻人加入到设计过程中，公司出售表带和表盘，让客户能够根据情况自行组合搭配。一般同样款式的手表表盘和表带都大体相同，不同的只是颜色，而Fossil镶嵌著人造钻石的表盘和厚实的皮表带能自由组合，让每个客户搭配出自己的手表。该公司称，这种售价45美元的表盘和20美元的表带销售情况相当不错。
Swatch Paparazzi被宣传成了微型多媒体中心，能够提供新闻、星座和热门酒吧及俱乐部的信息。斯沃琪在2004年末推出这款手表，当时还为此搞了一场比赛，获胜者将有机会与电视剧“The O.C.”的主演、年轻偶像米斯克?巴顿(Mischa Barton)会面。Swatch Group US Inc.的发言人约瑟夫?帕内塔(Joseph Panetta)说，这款表销售情况良好，但大多数购买者并不是十几岁的孩子。他称，真正的需求是二十多岁到三十岁的人，他们更愿意以150美元的价格购买这款表。
在丹佛一家T恤衫公司工作的达斯丁?尼赫斯(Dustin Nyhus)说，他在过去几年里搜集了十几款手表，其中包括上个月购买的一块斯沃琪潜水表。但25岁的尼赫斯承认，他这样的人并不多见；实际上他被他的朋友称为“戴表人”。
