[hotpotamus]

I don't know about watches, but Porsche does make a Corolla competitor; the VW Golf. I'm sure the analogy isn't perfect, but obviously large manufacturers want to compete across market segments which is why the same company makes Audis and Bugattis as well.

Also, as someone who's not that into watches - the Neptune and Mercury Swatches are gorgeous.

[CydeWeys]

Porsche:VW::Omega:Swatch is a pretty good analogy, actually. In both cases you have a large conglomerate with different brands targeting different price points.

[Arainach]

But they didn't compromise the Porsche brand to do so.

Brand prestige is huge. A much better example here is the Volkswagen Phaeton. A truly stunning product at a great price point - significantly better than the luxury cars it competed with - but it failed because no one wanted to spend their luxury money on a brand associated with affordable normal products.

[rosndo]

Phaeton existed in a weird segment, it was like a gimped S-class for the price of an E-class.

It failed because there wasn’t a huge market for gimped S-classes among the E-class buying segment.

The only people interested in Phaetons ended up being corrupt mid-level politicians in eastern Europe, they had full time drivers but didn’t want to be seen in a S-class.

Also keep in mind that for the price of a V8 phaeton you could’ve had such cars as a V6 LS.

Had the phaeton been just a bit nicer, it could very well have survived. But that’s not the car VW built.

[asjldkfin]

That's the point; VW puts out the "VW Golf", not the "Bugatti Golf", for a reason.

[hotpotamus]

I agree it's not a perfect analogy. That said, I doubt you would sell me an Omega at a discount due to the existence of this new watch.