Hey all, I made a watch brand hierarchy tier list

226273 Views 394 Replies 175 Participants Last post by KingOfQueens, 5 mo ago

Earthjade

Discussion Starter · Mar 18, 2021 (Edited)

So there was a watch hierarchy thread going round on the board right now and everyone can agree that it was pretty freaking bad in how it ranked watch brands.
There has always been this one graphic from a blog (link HERE) that I thought ranked watches very well but it was missing a lot of brands we talk about around here. So I updated that graphic and tweaked a few of the rankings I thought were a little off. I tried to be as objective as possible, but there were a few placings that I felt were borderline.
So here it is (comments welcome):

Font Material property Art Circle Parallel

EDITS since original post:

Bumped Tissot from Enthusiast to Consumer - too mainstream to be an enthusiast watch.
Glashutte Original down to "Luxury" (an average unit sale is more comparable to Omega than Zenith)
Added Epos, Tourby and Mathey-Tissot.
Added Muhle Glashutte (playing in the same kind of space as Longines)
Baume & Mercier down to quasi-luxury
Added Junkers, Meistersinger and Vulcain
Roger Dubuis and Harry Winston moved from Ultra Luxury to High End Luxury
Added Seiko Prospex as a separate brand to Enthusiast (but if I make an exception for one???) and added Dubsy & Shoobadoobee
Column formatting change. Added Eberhard & Co and Eterna (can't believe I forgot Eterna)
Added Pulsar
Glashutte original back up to high-end luxury
Zenith down to luxury (mainly b/c of brand strength)
Mido up to quasi-luxury
Added Nixon, MVMT, Monta, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Ressence
Bulgari to luxury
Added Vostok (the original), Revue Thommen and Corum
Panerai down to Luxury, removed the Vincero joke category.
Added Czapek, Armin Strom, Ming, Graham, Kurono, Minase, anOrdian, Habring, ZRC, Formex, Le Jour and Aristo.

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Reactions: 5

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kritameth

· #2 · Mar 18, 2021

You absolutely nailed it with Vincero.

Reactions: 5

top-quark

· #3 · Mar 18, 2021

Actually, not a bad effort. Hermes are a high-end luxury brand, I would say, and whatever talent Franck Muller possessed has largely gone up his nose.

Reactions: 5

Earthjade

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 18, 2021

top-quark said:
Hermes are a high-end luxury brand

I'm comfortable with where they are on the list in terms of their watches.
The ones I felt were borderline were:

Blancpain - could arguably be bumped up to ultra luxury
Hublot - objectively, there is a case to bump them up to ultra luxury as well (as much as I don't want to admit it)

Reactions: 2

Alallthetime

· #5 · Mar 18, 2021

Earthjade said:
I tried to be as objective as possible

You can't be serious.

Reactions: 5

Seidinho

· #6 · Mar 18, 2021

Not a bad effort. I disagree with the tudor spot, and think the luxury / high end luxury distinction is extremely subjective. Not sure I agree with your classification / distinction of Omega, Rolex, Cartier, zenith, JLC and panerai. It almost sounds like you based a lot of it purely on pricing.

Reactions: 5

sleepyhead123

· #7 · Mar 18, 2021

Close enough. Everyone has different opinions. There are a decent that I would feel could move up or down one, which is pretty good in it of itself (it's not like we're moving 2-3 spots). And there are brands that play in very wide ranges.

Reactions: 5

Sean Pizzle

· #8 · Mar 18, 2021

Rolex isn’t high end.
Also, didn’t Christopher Ward invent the whole affordable luxury by cutting out the middle man schtick?

Reactions: 5

Jean1888

· #9 · Mar 18, 2021

Earthjade said:
So there was a watch hierarchy thread going round on the board right now and everyone can agree that it was pretty freaking bad in how it ranked watch brands.
There has always been this one graphic from a blog (link HERE) that I thought ranked watches very well but it was missing a lot of brands we talk about around here. So I updated that graphic and tweaked a few of the rankings I thought were a little off. I tried to be as objective as possible, but there were a few placings that I felt were borderline.
So here it is (comments welcome):

View attachment 15774665

lol nice. This is gonna become edited million times

Reactions: 1

Dietly

· #10 · Mar 18, 2021

I know this is a joke but I'm curious if most people actually see Breitling as being on the same "tier" as Omega. I don't know why but I've always had kind of a so-so opinion of them, they definitely don't seem nearly as prestigious or popular as Omega or Rolex.

Reactions: 5

tommy_boy

· #11 · Mar 18, 2021

I have now added another brand name to my lengthy and ever-expanding list of known watch brand names: Vincero.

NC_Hager626

· #12 · Mar 18, 2021

Not a bad effort and it is a start. It should probably be treated as a living document.

Reactions: 5

Mr Auto

· #13 · Mar 18, 2021

Cant argue with that.

Only change I would make is moving Tissot into the consumer catagory.

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Reactions: 2

One-Seventy

· #14 · Mar 18, 2021

You got it right putting Hublot and Rolex together given they now cost the same thanks to the grey markup. And as for disruptingthemarketbycuttingoutthemiddleman...

One-Seventy

· #15 · Mar 18, 2021

Dietly said:
I know this is a joke but I'm curious if most people actually see Breitling as being on the same "tier" as Omega. I don't know why but I've always had kind of a so-so opinion of them, they definitely don't seem nearly as prestigious or popular as Omega or Rolex.

WIS like to think that Omega is a tier above because of oh-the-history etc but the general public doesn't really see it that way, and that drives them up the wall.

Reactions: 5

rob3691

· #16 · Mar 18, 2021

Interesting and great topic for discussion. There are several brands I didn't know existed.

Reactions: 2

Ginseng108

· #17 · Mar 18, 2021

Always a good way to start a barfight.
Anyway...which Seiko line? Sport 5? Seiko? Prospex? Prospex LX? Sub-lines are going to complicate matters.
This would probably work better as a continuum with a zone between the categories..

Reactions: 5

godfrey19

· #18 · Mar 19, 2021

This is a great summary!

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Reactions: 1

Here's Johnny

· #19 · Mar 19, 2021

Clicked with low expectations, but this is solid. Now I'll follow for the Seiko comments. Consumer watches with quasi luxury prices?

J/k

Reactions: 4

TheoTheQ

· #20 · Mar 19, 2021

What would be cool is to make the size of the various logos reflect the market share for the respective brand. This would be a great reference to stop me from accidentally buying a "consumer" brand watch when I wanted an "enthusiast" brand one.

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