[CydeWeys]

> unpopular opinion but crossing over these brands only makes sense if you think youre capable of targeting a lower income customer without risk of damaging your existing luxury brand, or if your existing luxury brand is floundering. [...] I suspect its the latter, and i suspect its confirmation that the last decade of rennaisance for Rolex is starting to impact the bottom line at Swatch.

You've actually got it precisely backwards here. Omega, like most other Swiss luxury watch brands, has been absolutely killing it these past two years. Profits are up substantially. Omega is doing fantastic*. What isn't doing fantastic is Swatch -- their numbers are down substantially over the past decade. Smart watches are really killing them. An Apple Watch is not a replacement good for a $6k mechanical work of art, but it absolutely is a replacement good for a similarly priced quartz watch with fewer features, which is exactly what Swatch makes.

So I view this as a successful attempt at leveraging the brand value of Omega to prop up their lower-end brand.

> call me a cynic, but mark my words...in 10 years time youll see the same phenomenon with these watches as you saw with Timex. repair shops wont touch them, and they exist as a valueless testament to disposable faux luxury.

You're being over-dramatic here. And you don't generally repair cheap quartz watches like a Swatch anyway; you replace the battery as needed, and eventually in some number of decades they stop working entirely and that's that. You could do a movement swap at that point if you really wanted.

* See https://watchesbysjx.com/2022/03/morgan-stanley-watch-indust...

[coredog64]

Omega did very well out of the Craig and Brosnan series of Bond films. Outside of a few special editions, an Omega won’t appreciate like a Rolex, but it’s also not gonna run you $25k.