CNBC and Fossil Watches

A recent CNBC piece looked at the recent struggles of the watch brand Fossil. They skyrocketed to success in the 1980's with cheap disposable watches disguised as quality products, and in the last few years their revenues and stock prices have been plummeting.

Fossil watches (and the other watch brands Fossil manufactures such as MVMT and Michael Kors) are crap -- disposable crap made for a couple of dollars per piece and sold for $50 and up. That MIGHT be relevant to their recent struggles. 

 

Maybe Timex, championed in this ridiculous CNBC segment as a return of affordable quality, can be considered something other than garbage, but only when compared to something like Fossil, or like the mechanical watches Timex made up until 1981. In the whole piece, there was no mention of:

-- Seiko mechanical watches. CNBC mentioned that Seiko introduced quartz watches in the 1960's, but not that they are known, from before the 1960's to the present day, for offering good value for mechanical watches.

-- The many small independent brands who are competing for the low-priced end of Seiko's market share ($50 to $200 or so), as Seiko prices go a bit upscale.

 

 

-- G-Shock, quartz watches made by the Japanese corporation Casio. Most G-Shocks cost under $100, a few really fancy ones cost low four figures. 

 

The CNBC piece attributed much of Fossil's trouble to the Apple watch. There have been over 100 million Apple watches sold. There have also been over 100 million G-Shocks sold. True, G-Shock has had longer to do it, they started in 1983, but they're a force in this market.

What Seiko, many smaller brands looking to take over for Seiko in the market for inexpensive ($50-$200) mechanicals, and G-Shock all have in common is that they offer QUALITY products, and good VALUE for the money.

But you know what? I don't watch a lot of CNBC. I'm criticizing them for running a story about the watch industry without knowing much about watches, but maybe I'm the one who's being naive here, when I insinuate that things like quality products and reasonable prices are relevant in the financial news.