Is watch still a time teller?

When people talk about watches nowadays, does the function time telling come into your mind first? Or is it the fashion or brand names that the watch reflects come into your mind first? Over the past decades, as the technology advances in personal devices, we no longer need a watch to determine time. When we want to know the time, all we need to do is to pull out our blackberry or iPhone, and look at the screen. It even tells you the date, day of the week, alarm you set, and stuff that you need to do by clicking on the date. Can watches do it? Probably not. It will contain too much information in a small surface area, which might make you feel dizzy. Personally, although I wear a watch every day, instead of just looking at my watch on my wrist, I would rather spend the time to take out my blackberry from my pocket and find the time. So if a watch is no longer a medium that tells you time, why do we still need watches? The answer is watch has changed their role as a medium in the society. It no longer connects people with time; it has become a medium of fashion. 

Nowadays, when you open up a magazine or watch a TV commercial about a watch advertisement, what value is the marketer trying to emphasize? About 2 decades ago it might still be about the additional special functions of the watch, however, it is now more about the value the watch depicts about a certain person. Let’s look at a few advertisements for famous men watches.

As we can see in these ads, it does not advertise anything about the accuracy of the watch, or the function of the watch gives, but advertises what you can be if you own such watch by choosing a successful celebrity, athletes, or businessman. Take the example of the Tag Heuer ad, the slogan “What are you made of?” implies that if you buy this watch, it will pull you up to a higher society, since only successful people owns this watch. In a feeling, watch is a medium of reflecting a person’s value and status, and how it associates with other luxury goods. Watch is no longer a time teller, it is a luxurious accessory in the mind of the watch company, and they have successfully market this value in the past two decades. The social role of watch has also gradually changing. 

Here’s a video of a Rolex TV Commercial

The change of marketing strategy could be due to the stress come from the advance in technologies. When no one values time from a watch anymore, the company will slowly shut down. Therefore, marketing new values for watches is a critical move by the watch companies in order to survive. But one thing that they didn’t realize is that they have also changed the role of watch as a medium.

ps: one interesting fact, you will notice that on watch advertisement, the hour hand and minute is almost always at 10.10. This is because it allow us to see the whole dial (watch surface) of the watch. It also kinda gives a happy smiley face.