Consumer goods
Survey: Cell phones and smartwatches threaten classic wristwatches
Watches in one of the electronics store. The traditional wristwatch is losing its place on the wrist of many consumers in the face of digital competition from Apple Watch and Co. Photo: Armin Weigel / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Your own watch has been a status symbol for over 500 years – first in your pocket, then on your wrist. Digitization is now threatening the traditional wristwatch.
According to a survey, the traditional wristwatch is losing its place on the wrist of many consumers in view of the digital competition from Apple Watch and Co.
According to this, traditional watches with mechanical or quartz-controlled movements have lost ground this year, while the proportion of smartwatch owners has risen rapidly both internationally and in Germany. This is what the management consultancy Deloitte determined in an analysis for the Munich jewelry and watch fair Inhorgenta.
Deloitte had previously presented a similar study focusing on Swiss watches. A total of 5558 people in eleven countries and regions were surveyed, including the USA, China, Japan and several European nations, in Germany the figure was 500.
According to this, almost a quarter (24 percent) of those surveyed in this country already wear a smartwatch; last year it was only 15 percent. And while 46 percent said they would have worn a traditional watch last year, this year it’s only 39 percent.
It looks similar beyond the German borders: only a good third (34 percent) preferred the traditional wristwatch, in 2020 it was over 40 percent. However, many respondents do not even wear a timing device on their wrists.
According to Deloitte, one factor here is that the time can also be read on the mobile phone – accordingly, timekeeping is not at all a priority for many consumers when buying a watch. And in China, more than half of the participants there said that they own both a digital and a traditional watch, albeit presumably not at the same time.
The authors attribute the development in part to a corona effect: In Germany, half of the participants named the ability to record fitness and health data as a reason for buying a smartwatch.
The Munich Inhorgenta should take place again next February. Watches are a growing segment at the fair, said Klaus Dittrich, head of the Munich exhibition company. The personal watch as a status symbol of the wealthy has been around for over half a millennium when the first craftsmen in Europe succeeded in miniaturizing clockworks. Peter Henlein from Nuremberg, who died in 1542, was one of the pioneers.