Apple has just announced a pair of limited edition smartwatches with red bands to mark Chinese New Year, available only for one month starting January 15, 2016. Here’s all you need to know, complete with prices.
Select markets in Asia will soon be able to order the Apple Watch Sport limited edition for Chinese New Year, featuring an elastomer band in red, a colour traditionally associated with the occasion. The red band will only be available with the Chinese New Year edition. Joining the Apple Watch Hermes as a more elaborate version of the Apple smartwatch, the limited edition Apple Watch Sport is offered either in the natural, silver tone of aluminium, or a yellow gold-plated model, in both the standard Apple Watch sizes, 38 mm and 42 mm. The gold-plated version is matched with a gilded pin on the red strap.
Prices are exactly the same as the ordinary versions of Apple Watch Sport, shown below for the 42 mm and 38 mm respectively: China RMB2988 and RMB2588 Hong Kong HK$3088 and HK$2728 Malaysia RM1849 and RM1599 Singapore S$598 and S$518 Taiwan NT$13,500 and NT$11,500 The limited edition Apple Watch Sport will be available from January 15 to February 22, 2016 either from the Apple online store or authorised resellers, only in the following countries China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.
The final instalment of the two-parter on my predictions for 2016 is all about the independents, outlining the whittling down of the field, but also green shoots with affordable, crowdsourced brands.
While part one of my take on the upcoming year covered the big watch brands, part two, on the other hand, will be about the independents, a segment that will become a lot less crowded in the coming year.
Getting crowded on the road less travelled…
Independent watchmaking has been rather lucrative for a select few in the last decade or two – Franck Muller and Richard Mille are two examples that come to mind – with the added benefit of being glamorous and good for the ego. But having one’s name on a watch dial is going from difficult to impossible as the number of independent watchmakers slowly but surely is being whittled down. The independents are being assailed by a slowing market that reduces (or eliminates) demand for their product, while finding it difficult to raise money.
Funding is even hard to come by for more established brands: Swiss trading house DKSH has thrown in the towel with Maurice Lacroix, having publicly put it up for sale last year, with no takers to date. The most recent casualty was Breva, infamous for its US$150,000 mechanical watch with an barometer. It lasted just under five years, going bust in October last year. Other independents will follow suit, with more rather than less following Breva down the road of perdition.
Deconstructing distribution
Independents are also suffering from a shrinking distribution network, as retailers double down on sure bets and reduce inventory of watches that sell slowly or not at all. While in good times retailers were happy to have slow moving inventory to offer their customers variety, that generosity has dissipated. That’s the reason why independents are increasingly abandoning the traditional distribution network, and opting to sell direct to the consumer, or via online platforms like blogs and forums.
This will go some way to alleviating their woes, but the strategy will be more helpful for affordable brands than for those at the high-end. It’s still difficult to sell a pricey watch online or sight unseen. Consequently, the landscape of high-end independent watchmaking will become less populated, and also less interesting as new ideas will not get off the ground. But the weeding out of the marginal players will be healthy of the industry, by reinforcing the prominence of the brands that are on solid ground, and also convincing collectors that independent watchmakers are not flaky outfits.
More interesting are those that are taking a different route with more unusual timepieces. The best example is klokers, which has surprisingly successful, raising several times its target. Klokers’ timepieces are affordable, but not cheap, and designed to resemble old school instruments, giving them a familiar but vintage look, like the KLOK-01. Given their success, expect others to follow in their footsteps. This is likely to be the segment that will bring surprisingly interesting new products in 2016.
