What mechanical watchmakers and smartwatches can learn from one another
Mechanical watches no longer win by telling the time more accurately.
A phone, cooker or moderately competent microwave can do that.
Their value lies elsewhere: engineering, craftsmanship, design, permanence, symbolism, collection and transmission between generations.
Smartwatches operate through a different logic. They monitor activity, organise communication, track health and encourage behavioural change. Their relationship with time is immediate, measurable and continuously updated.
One promises permanence. The other promises permanent updates.
Both are relevant. Both create rituals. Both shape behaviour. But they do so through fundamentally different propositions.
Ambidextrous Strategy provides a useful way of understanding how traditional watchmakers can protect their mechanical and cultural authority whilst exploring digital services, authentication, resale, personalisation and new relationships with customers.
It also shows what technology brands can learn from objects designed to last longer than their operating systems.
Time as a Company Philosophy
At company level, traditional watchmakers preserve:
- Mechanical expertise.
- Specialist crafts.
- Independence and continuity.
- Long-term quality standards.
- Archives, tools and components.
- Relationships with collectors.
- The ability to repair and restore.
Their legacy is not just historical. It is embedded in people, processes and technical knowledge.
For technology companies, the company-level challenge is different. They need to build trust around privacy, health information, software support and the long-term usefulness of connected devices.
One protects centuries of knowledge. The other manages ecosystems evolving by the month.
Ambidexterity does not make them identical. It helps both understand which capabilities must remain stable and which must evolve.
Business Beyond the Initial Sale
Traditional watchmaking can extend its business through:
- Restoration.
- Certified pre-owned programmes.
- Authentication.
- Archive services.
- Collector communities.
- Experiences and education.
- Personalisation.
- Long-term servicing.
These activities turn permanence into an economic model.
Smartwatch businesses build recurring value through:
- Software.
- Health services.
- Applications.
- Device ecosystems.
- Data integration.
- Subscription services.
- Continuous feature development.
Traditional manufacturers sell an object that can outlive its owner. Technology companies sell an evolving relationship.
The future may require each side to learn from the other.
Symbols, Rituals and Stories
Patek Philippe
- Symbol: The Calatrava Cross and the restrained Calatrava form.
- Ritual: Gifting, inheritance, servicing and restoration across generations.
- Story: The manufacture commits to repairing or restoring watches produced since its foundation in 1839.
That promise changes the meaning of ownership. A watch is not merely purchased; it is temporarily cared for.
The brand story therefore depends on a real organisational capability: archives, components, specialist knowledge and restoration.
This is legacy as an operating system.
Rolex
- Symbol: The crown, the Oyster case and the Explorer dial.
- Ritual: Marking achievement and wearing the watch through demanding environments.
- Story: The Explorer’s identity is associated with the 1953 ascent of Everest, when expedition members wore Oyster Perpetual watches.
The symbolism works because it is connected to demonstrated performance.
A mountain in an advertising campaign is atmosphere. A mountain on which the product was tested is evidence.
Audemars Piguet
- Symbol: The Royal Oak’s octagonal bezel, visible screws and integrated bracelet.
- Ritual: Examining the finishing, recognising the silhouette and participating in collector culture.
- Story: Introduced in 1972, the Royal Oak challenged conventional luxury by transforming steel and industrial visual codes into haute horlogerie.
It preserved craftsmanship whilst changing the category’s idea of preciousness.
That is Ambidextrous Branding: continuity of capability combined with disruption of expression.
Omega
- Symbol: The Speedmaster Moonwatch and its chronograph.
- Ritual: Winding the watch, using the chronograph and connecting editions to space missions.
- Story: The Speedmaster was qualified by NASA for manned spaceflight and accompanied the lunar programme.
The brand continues to reinterpret this association through movements, materials and contemporary editions.
The story remains valuable because the product first earned it as a working instrument.
Apple Watch
- Symbol: The Digital Crown and the three Activity Rings.
- Ritual: Closing Move, Exercise and Stand rings, monitoring health and responding to daily prompts.
- Story: The Apple Watch still frequently called the “iWatch”, despite Apple never naming it that turns the wrist into a behavioural and health interface.
Its central ritual is not inheritance but repetition.
Move. Measure. Improve. Repeat tomorrow.
Samsung Galaxy Watch
- Symbol: The circular screen and rotating bezel of the Classic models.
- Ritual: Rotating the bezel, monitoring sleep and reviewing health metrics.
- Story: The physical interaction of a traditional bezel is translated into digital navigation.
The familiar circular form reassures users whilst the software expands what the device can do.
Technology does not always need to destroy old codes. Occasionally, it notices that several centuries of product design may have contained a decent idea.
What Traditional Watchmakers Can Learn
Mechanical watchmakers can learn from smartwatches about:
- Personalisation.
- Connected services.
- Continuous customer relationships.
- Intuitive interfaces.
- Data-enabled experiences.
- Frequent improvement.
- Health and wellbeing relevance.
This means recognising that customers increasingly expect brands to remain useful after purchase.
What Smartwatch Brands Can Learn
Technology brands can learn from watchmakers about:
- Permanence.
- Emotional transmission.
- Repairability.
- Material quality.
- Symbolic continuity.
- Restraint.
- The value of ageing well.
A software update creates utility. A restored watch creates continuity. The two forms of value need not cancel one another.
The Strategic Choice
Traditional watchmakers should not become technology companies with nicer cases while technology companies should not imitate mechanical heritage through decorative watch faces alone. Each should understand its central meaning.
- For mechanical watchmaking, the future lies in preserving craftsmanship and emotional continuity whilst creating new services, channels and relationships.
- For smartwatches, the opportunity lies in becoming more durable, meaningful and trusted -not simply more demanding of attention-.
Time can be measured in seconds, heartbeats, software cycles or generations. The most interesting brands know which form of time they truly own.
Further Reading from Allegro 234
- Ambidextrous Branding
- Brand Positioning through Ambidextrous Strategy
- Brand as an Operating System
- Ambidextrous Strategy and Brand
