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Without fail, there’s a moment at big industry events when you realize you’re in a bubble. At every Watches & Wonders I’ve attended, and now following my first Geneva Watch Days, there’s been a new release that has “worked” in the room among the press and other members of the community who have actually seen it, but has been less warmly received (in certain quarters) by those back home. I felt this acutely when looking at the latest from H. Moser, a collaboration with Studio Underd0g that, when I saw the press release ahead of leaving for Switzerland, I was certain would be the enthusiast community’s favorite walking away. And while I think overall you’d have to admit the watch was widely praised from all sides, there was a surprising chorus of supposed Studio Underd0g fans who didn’t take to it as kindly.
When I was pointed toward heated Instagram comment threads by friends and colleagues days after seeing the watches I was genuinely surprised. When you’re at an event like this, you’re really kind of on your own little watch industry planet. I find that there’s simply not enough time to monitor reactions to everything with a busy meeting schedule and almost no down time. It’s kind of nice, honestly, to be consumed by a single thing for a short period of time. It has a cleansing effect. But it means I’m not idly scrolling through Instagram, so the peanut gallery commentary on all the new releases was lost on me.
To summarize, the reactions in the immediate aftermath of the announcement ranged from pure excitement, to confusion and bewilderment, to downright toxic. One Instagram commenter referred to the buildup and eventual release as “a little mean to core customers.” Another said he was “sad and disappointed” and that the retail price of the set is “ridiculous.” One commenter said the release was “completely contrary to the Studio Underd0g client base.” You get the idea.
Every watch release, at least every high profile one, has its share of haters. That’s part of the way internet culture has seeped into watch culture, and we’re probably never going to get it out. But it was still surprising to me, even now with some distance from the announcement, to see so many fans of Studio Underd0g loudly voicing their disapproval. I’ve always felt, and still feel, that microbrand and independent watch brand enthusiasts and collectors are among the most savvy and knowledgeable in the community. It was surprising to see so many get this one completely wrong.
To be clear, this isn’t about liking or not liking a particular colorway or even a particular watch. It’s about a reaction to the release itself, and the nature of the collaboration. The strategy, the campaign, and the access one gets (or doesn’t get) to the physical product. Finding a watch aesthetically pleasing or not is of course highly subjective, but the comments and reactions I’m referring to here are coming from individuals who ostensibly are already invested in Studio Underd0g’s particular brand of quirkiness.
My own take is that this collaboration is an objectively great thing for our community. It brings watches many of us love and have always known were great and worthy of wider attention to a completely new segment of the market that either wasn’t aware of a brand like Studio Underd0g, or wrote them off as frivolous. The attention paid to this release across all segments of watch media (and regular old social media) should prove to anyone watching that it is not frivolous, and that’s an inherent positive for Studio Underd0g and other brands of their ilk. A rising tide lifts all ships.
Studio Underd0g didn’t need Moser to legitimize them, but let’s be real: getting this brand in front of collectors who might be inclined to spend $60,000 on a perpetual calendar from an offbeat Swiss indie raises Studio Underd0g’s cache, and opens up all kinds of opportunities. And not just for Studio Underd0g – this is surely not the last time we’ll see a traditional micro work with a high end indie. This is now part of the playbook and will almost certainly be tried again. If you’re a fan of microbrands, you should be rooting for collaborations like this to be a screaming success so they might take the proceeds from sales (from a heretofore untapped segment of the market) and invest it in doing, well, whatever comes next. And maybe whatever comes next will be cooler and better than what would have come otherwise, now that they’ve got a brand like Moser on the proverbial speed dial.
I get that people are upset, perhaps, that they simply aren’t able to buy the new Studio Underd0g. This was something I too was disappointed about, and even wrote about it in my introduction of the project. But my perspective has shifted. I hear people saying that they would have liked to own a Studio Underd0g that was somehow stamped with the approval of Moser, but I’d argue that if you already own one of Richard’s watches, you kind of do, and always have. That’s the point of this collaboration, after all, to draw a line between the specific type of creative energy that Moser has always communicated to the high end crowd, and the very similar energy Studio Underd0g has perfected in a more affordable sphere. That pizza watch you picked up at Windup has more Moser energy than you know. Enjoy it in a slightly new context!
Something else I’ve been thinking about as I’ve observed the discourse on this release is the perception across the watch world of what a typical Moser client looks like versus a typical Studio Underd0g client. There’s a sense, I think, that this release is specifically “for” high end collectors, and that rubs some Studio Underd0g collectors the wrong way. Worse, it pits them against each other. That’s unfortunate. While the price tag and limited production will certainly keep these watches out of the hands of many enthusiastic collectors of affordable watches, it’s still something that can be enjoyed, even if from afar, by literally anyone with whom it resonates. You don’t need to physically possess a watch, after all, to appreciate or even love it.
I’ve come to have the belief that the archetypical high end collector with a chip on his shoulder about inexpensive watches is something of a myth. At meetup after meetup where I talk to owners of watches with five and even six figure price tags, I find that they invariably have a real interest and curiosity for the affordable and accessible stuff as well. Certainly not all of them, but enough to make me feel as if we’re genuinely all in this together, and that the elitist mentality you think is pervasive in the luxury watch world is less common than many would imagine. We see it at literally every Windup Watch Fair. So it’s disorienting, and disappointing, to see so many hardcore microbrand supporters fail to recognize that this release is a moment of triumph. Personally, I prefer to support a brand like Studio Underd0g branching out and trying something different, taking a risk, and making it clear that their sensibilities are shared by brands and customers outside of our core community. Not every watch needs to be for everyone, but everyone should welcome microbrands and high end indies joining forces creatively.
