An Open Letter To IWC, From John Mayer

[IzTaPa]

An Open Letter To IWC, From John Mayer

http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-iwc-from-john-mayer

 

dobre cteni - jsem rad, ze to nekdo z 'prominentnich' blogeru jasne pojmenoval...

 

... If the IWC of the early 2000s was engineered for men they knew valued practicality, the new company was engineered for men they figured must be out there, based on the success of other luxury markets. Whatever this visual algorithm you were playing with, it was using multipliers I didn?t identify with; does polished steel mean it?s like a private jet? Does carbon fiber mean it?s like a Bugatti? If you craft the hour markers to look like numbers on a gear box, will owners of ultra-high-end toys identify so much with these features that the completist in them will be compelled to own the watch?....

 

... The Big Pilot, your most popular offering and possibly the best overall watch of the '00s, spawned so many special editions it?s as if you hired the people from NIKE ID to help manufacture them. And this leads me to a thought on watch brands that I feel every company needs to understand from a collector?s perspective ? future releases affect the relationship that passionate owners have with past ones...

 

... Over the next several years, the IWC I had come to know and love had all but disappeared. In its place stood a company that seemed at times more like a luxury hotel chain than a watch manufacturer. You started inviting a certain strain of particularly accomplished celebrities to events, and though they posed with your watches on their wrists in red carpet photos, I didn?t get the sense that they loved them, that they shared the passion for them that my fellow collectors and I did. I wondered if they even appreciated them for the incredible workmanship they housed, or just saw them as an incentive. This ?friend of the brand? program, as you now call it, has managed to come off as equal parts withholding and alienating...

Upraveno 16. ledna 2015 uživatelem IzTaPa

[Hasňa]

Yep. Perfektně napsané. Bohužel finanční ředitel se jen zasměje. Prachy jsou právě v těch červených kobercích a davech, které je sledují, ne v hrstce chronomagorů, jako autor. Nezbývá, než jít o dům dal a hledat tu hodinářskou autenticitu jinde. Paradoxně třeba Rolex si pořád udržel svůj ksicht. Ale jsou i jiní, kteří nezblbli karbonem a stovkami limitek a řekněme nezhublovatěli. PP, JLC, VC, AL&S, ale všechny tyhle postrádají to co měly IWC, tedy jakousi plebejskost, normálnost, už jsou to hodně HH značky.

Upraveno 16. ledna 2015 uživatelem Hasňa

[gougy]

Dobře napsáno, nenahradili v té "normálnosti pro chlapy, bez nutnosti edice se zářivě fialovým cifrem, co ji prodá Leonardo" o které píše Hasňa značku IWC ti od Panerai? Těžko říct, vnímání se evidentně v čase mění a to dost. 

Ty pravé konstanty naštěstí zůstávají (a sem tam se zadaří se mezi ně dostat, jako v případě ALS).

Edit: a to, že jde především o business je stejně dobře, jinak by jsme přišli o hromadu slintání nad kreacemi těchto výrobců. Čím rozmanitěji, tím lépe

Upraveno 16. ledna 2015 uživatelem gougy

[Hasňa]

Jo jo, rozmanitost je dobrá, o tom žádná. A navíc komu ten cirkus celebrit vadí, může jít svobodně jinam, viz. já.

Upraveno 16. ledna 2015 uživatelem Hasňa

[gougy]

Jo jo, rozmanitost je dobrá, o tom žádná. A navíc komu ten PR cirkus vadí, může jít svobodně jinam, viz. já.

Přesně - stejně skoro každému přijde období "back to basics", ale tentokrát už to chce pořádně

[romulada]

Yep. Perfektně napsané. Bohužel finanční ředitel se jen zasměje. Prachy jsou právě v těch červených kobercích a davech, které je sledují, ne v hrstce chronomagorů, jako autor. Nezbývá, než jít o dům dal a hledat tu hodinářskou autenticitu jinde. Paradoxně třeba Rolex si pořád udržel svůj ksicht. Ale jsou i jiní, kteří nezblbli karbonem a stovkami limitek a řekněme nezhublovatěli. PP, JLC, VC, AL&S, ale všechny tyhle postrádají to co měly IWC, tedy jakousi plebejskost, normálnost, už jsou to hodně HH značky.

No, Rolex právě svůj ksicht už dávno ztratil - nástupem keramických modelů a všech těch Sky Dwellerů a Yacht Masterů II. Bohužel dnešní produkce většiny firem je už jenom pro metrosexuály.

[Kid_A]

An Open Letter To IWC, From John Mayer

http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-iwc-from-john-mayer

 

dobre cteni - jsem rad, ze to nekdo z 'prominentnich' blogeru jasne pojmenoval...

 

... If the IWC of the early 2000s was engineered for men they knew valued practicality, the new company was engineered for men they figured must be out there, based on the success of other luxury markets. Whatever this visual algorithm you were playing with, it was using multipliers I didn?t identify with; does polished steel mean it?s like a private jet? Does carbon fiber mean it?s like a Bugatti? If you craft the hour markers to look like numbers on a gear box, will owners of ultra-high-end toys identify so much with these features that the completist in them will be compelled to own the watch?....

 

... The Big Pilot, your most popular offering and possibly the best overall watch of the '00s, spawned so many special editions it?s as if you hired the people from NIKE ID to help manufacture them. And this leads me to a thought on watch brands that I feel every company needs to understand from a collector?s perspective ? future releases affect the relationship that passionate owners have with past ones...

 

... Over the next several years, the IWC I had come to know and love had all but disappeared. In its place stood a company that seemed at times more like a luxury hotel chain than a watch manufacturer. You started inviting a certain strain of particularly accomplished celebrities to events, and though they posed with your watches on their wrists in red carpet photos, I didn?t get the sense that they loved them, that they shared the passion for them that my fellow collectors and I did. I wondered if they even appreciated them for the incredible workmanship they housed, or just saw them as an incentive. This ?friend of the brand? program, as you now call it, has managed to come off as equal parts withholding and alienating...

hodne dobry...bohuzel

Upraveno 17. ledna 2015 uživatelem Kid_A

[Jeremy]

Psi stekaji a karavana jede dal..

[IzTaPa]

Psi stekaji a karavana jede dal..

 

... casem zjisti, ze dostihovi kone pro karavanu pousti nejsou dobri, tak zaprahnou znovu velblouby...

[Rodkopf]

No, Rolex právě svůj ksicht už dávno ztratil - nástupem keramických modelů a všech těch Sky Dwellerů a Yacht Masterů II. Bohužel dnešní produkce většiny firem je už jenom pro metrosexuály.

Produkt v dnesni dobe nemuze zustat 100 let beze zmeny. Podle me ma Rolex jednu z nejpropracovanejsich firemnich filozilofii a identit ze vsech znacek. Inspiruji se novymy materialy,ale zustavaji verni pocatecni koncepci,strezi si sve know-how a investuji do vyvoje. Jaktoze Iphonu dal na prdel Samsung a ted jim to natira xaomi-pritom Steinhart Rolexum nikdy nemuze ublizit,i kdyz dela to same levneji? V soucasne dobe podle me neni podobna znacka s tak silnou historii,identitou,technologii a zakaznickou zakladnou. Uz jen to,jak dlouho se cekalo na pepsi Gmt,mohli udelat normalni lunetu a uz 5 let na nich trzit neskutecne penize.Misto toho ty barvy delaji nejakym silenym prepekanim keramiky...proste kazdy,kdo se podiva na prodeje rolexu a pak si precte neco o historii,technologii a fungovani firmy,tak musi uznale dat klobouk dolu. A to nejsem zadny Rolex guy...

[romulada]

Produkt v dnesni dobe nemuze zustat 100 let beze zmeny. Podle me ma Rolex jednu z nejpropracovanejsich firemnich filozilofii a identit ze vsech znacek. Inspiruji se novymy materialy,ale zustavaji verni pocatecni koncepci,strezi si sve know-how a investuji do vyvoje. Jaktoze Iphonu dal na p...l Samsung a ted jim to natira xaomi-pritom Steinhart Rolexum nikdy nemuze ublizit,i kdyz dela to same levneji? V soucasne dobe podle me neni podobna znacka s tak silnou historii,identitou,technologii a zakaznickou zakladnou. Uz jen to,jak dlouho se cekalo na pepsi Gmt,mohli udelat normalni lunetu a uz 5 let na nich trzit neskutecne penize.Misto toho ty barvy delaji nejakym silenym prepekanim keramiky...proste kazdy,kdo se podiva na prodeje rolexu a pak si precte neco o historii,technologii a fungovani firmy,tak musi uznale dat klobouk dolu. A to nejsem zadny Rolex guy...

No, myslím, že historii i filozofii značky celkem nastudovanou mám a myslím, že tak před pěti lety bych o sobě klidně prohlásil, že jsem Rolex guy, ale dnešním modelům s keramickou lunetou jsem prostě na chuť zatím nepřišel, přesto, že jsem jich šest vlastnil. Samozřejmě, že nikomu svůj názor nevnucuji - je to čistě subjektivní postřeh.

[Rodkopf]

Ja to nemyslel tak,ze ty to nevis-vis trebas mnohem vice nez ja...a pointa je,ze kdyz se na to podivas objektivne s nadhledem,tak keramicka luneta je vyvoj (nova technologie,lepsi vlastnosti),kdezto cpat nekam cim dal mene vymazlenou etu a sekat jednu lim. edici za druhou je neporovnatelne.

[Rodkopf]

Proste jsem jen chtel rict,ze z tech "dostupnejsich"znacek je pro me Rolex ta,ktera za se za dobu sveho fungovani nejmene odchyluje od nastolene linie. A to jsem Rolex nemel rad.

[romulada]

Ja to nemyslel tak,ze ty to nevis-vis trebas mnohem vice nez ja...a pointa je,ze kdyz se na to podivas objektivne s nadhledem,tak keramicka luneta je vyvoj (nova technologie,lepsi vlastnosti),kdezto cpat nekam cim dal mene vymazlenou etu a sekat jednu lim. edici za druhou je neporovnatelne.

V tom se shodneme.

[ivan_989]

.... A navíc komu ten cirkus celebrit vadí, může jít svobodně jinam, viz. já.

...mohol si napisat rovno ze moze ist do p rdele ci ako si to myslel ?

[bradda]

Odpoved IWC

 

http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-john-mayer-from-iwc

 

Dear Mr. Mayer,

As you can imagine, we read your open letter to IWC on HODINKEE with considerable interest.  We couldn't help but feel we owed you a reply and before saying anything else, we must thank you not only for your long support of our brand but also for the obvious passion for our work that is reflected in your letter.

For some reason we kept thinking of the title to a song of yours called, "I Don't Trust Myself With Loving You," as it sounds as if that's how you feel about IWC. As we?re sure you know, there are many IWC fans who, like you, continue to love the brand but wonder what happened to what they, and you, think of as the "good old" IWC. 

You write that "the [old] IWC ... had all but disappeared." We assume you feel that we have gone from being a wonderfully conservative, stolidly pragmatic tool-watch maker to that most horrible of entities to serious watch fans: a lifestyle brand that has allowed itself to be seduced into chronic insincerity and pursuit of short term goals due to our interest in embracing the interests and needs of clients in the Far East.  

Well, what can we say, Mr. Mayer ? you are of course absolutely right, in a sense.  But perhaps we here in Schaffhausen can offer you, in thanks for your very sincere letter, a bit of context.

IWC is no longer what it was in the so-called ?good old days? (although when those days actually were seems to depend a lot on who we hear from; there are fans of the brand old enough to be your grandfather who seem to feel, if we may borrow an English idiom, that we've been going to hell in a hand basket since Albert Pellaton died).

The challenge the ?old? IWC faced was actually an existential one, and goes all the way back to the Quartz Crisis ? the company lost an enormous amount of manufacturing capacity, and throughout Switzerland tens of thousands of people with the accumulated technical knowledge of centuries simply left the business.  IWC was determined to recover that technical capacity but to do so would require a fresh approach and, of course, the means to rebuild that technical capacity.  We love dinosaurs as much as the next fellow, but when the asteroid altered their world permanently 65 million years ago, they could not adapt; when our world changed, we had the opportunity to adapt or die. IWC chose to adapt.

Some facts: for a company like IWC to design and produce a chronograph or automatic, and retail it in watches priced commensurate with our market position, we have to be reasonably assured of selling over tens of thousands of units per year. Despite that, we are proud to say that we have developed, in recent years, what we frankly think is an astounding variety of in-house movements, and we're by no means finished. Our technical capacity continues to evolve and it is exactly thanks to our success with our customers, and our ability to evolve to meet their needs and tastes, that we have the ability to do so! Far from representing an abandonment of our values, it is precisely our commercial success that enables us to continue to embrace those values.

We are very proud of what IWC has managed to achieve. Our approach has allowed us to not only survive ? and we hope you will reflect, along with those who share your views, that survival was by no means guaranteed for any Swiss mechanical watch brand at one point ? but to flourish.  The hard truth of the matter is that had we not evolved, we would not only not enjoy the security we do today, but we might not exist at all; the "old" IWC certainly had a certain idiosyncratic charm, but it would have long since gone out of business had we not changed to adapt to the times.

You do not share the tastes of some of our clients, but that no more makes their tastes wrong than it makes yours wrong and while we will never ? and we say this emphatically ? never try to be all things to all people, we will and must do what the brand has done throughout its history, which is make watches that in the context of the brand's character, meet the desires of our customers. 

With respect to our relationships with celebrities, certainly you are in a better position than most to understand the power of celebrity! Look at the voice it has given you to be a part of the conversation on the direction of IWC. Just as you do, we feel we can be a part of that world without it fatally compromising our values and like you, we like to think we can be creative, interesting, and exciting to our fans without letting fame go to our heads. And as you mentioned Mr. Keith Richards ? IWC is already, organically, a part of that world.

But, we would point you to the many other groups we work with substantially, such as the Charles Darwin Foundation, The Antoine de Saint Exupéry Youth Foundation, Laureus Sports for Good Foundation and The Cousteau Society. These organizations are a much bigger part of our business than the occasional celebrity campaign and as a company that enjoys such international success, we have a corporate philosophy that embraces ecological responsibility and social commitment. We have not changed as much as some seem to think ? except perhaps that we have simply gotten better at letting people know who we already are.

So we would say, Mr. Mayer, trust yourself with loving us.  We work hard to earn it, and we promise you that we'll keep working hard. We have a wonderful past, it is true ? but in admiring what we achieved thus far, we hope you will feel encouraged to look forward to what we achieve in the future. We feel immense pride in what we will, in a few short days, share with you and our other supporters at the SIHH. May our evolution continue to surprise and excite our clients, and may our hard work continue to merit the respect of those, like you, who understand and share our deepest values. Should you like to join us in Geneva this Tuesday, we will happily share with you our exciting new launches.

Very sincerely yours,

IWC Schaffhausen

[gougy]

nečekal jsem to tak hezky, odpověď se dala očekávat, ale s touhle si alespoň dali práci,

[IzTaPa]

priserne se to cte - aspon to mohli dat nekomu, kdo ma anglictinu jako rodny jazyk a kdo jim odstrani (krom stylistickych) i ty gramaticke chyby... skoda jen, ze nevime, kdo prezentuje nazor IWC...

 

jinak nam ale nic noveho nerekli - potrebujeme rust a z nadsencu nevyrosteme natolik, abychom dosahli nasich financich cilu...

[gougy]

potrebujeme rust a z nadsencu nevyrosteme natolik, abychom dosahli nasich financich cilu...

a pak postavili něco aby nadšenci mohli alespoň slintat, vždyť o tom to je

[Rodkopf]

priserne se to cte - aspon to mohli dat nekomu, kdo ma anglictinu jako rodny jazyk a kdo jim odstrani (krom stylistickych) i ty gramaticke chyby... skoda jen, ze nevime, kdo prezentuje nazor IWC...

 

souhlas...měl by tam být podepsáno např. za IWC CEO ten a ten...