Independent Watch Brand Addict

This topic is a reasonably divisive one, and to be honest I really don’t understand why. Don’t get me wrong I disagree completely with buying fakes, and by this I mean rip offs of legitimate pieces, which in my view is when someone makes a watch that looks exactly like the legitimate piece including all tags and logos. This in my mind is a form of fraud that often harms the buyer as well as the brand that’s being copied. As well as this there are groups that use the proceeds from the sale of these forgeries to fund other criminal undertakings. But that is not what an homage piece is.

Homage brands take inspiration from popular watches and create their own watches from that. An independent homage brand such as OceanX don’t pretend that their watches are Rolexes, although they do get a lot of their cues from them, but they have their own name on the dial. They’re not fooling nor trying to fool anyone, at worst it could maybe be argue that they are taking custom away from those they draw inspiration from, but on the other hand it could also be said that someone who is after an expensive watch might like the design of an homage and this draws them into learning about watches and maybe discovering what gave their watch it’s inspiration.

The only people complaining about these homage brands are enthusiasts who aren’t going to be fooled into thinking that an homage is the same as it’s inspiration so why the disgust. This especially makes no sense when you take into account the fact that a lot of the watch market has discovered a liking for older styled watches, hence the abundence of watches with integrated bracelets, smaller watches and a general look back to previous designs, just look at the Casioak a watch that clearly draws from Gerald Genta’s classic AP Royal Oak, or the Seiko Speedtimer that looks so much like a Rolex Daytona it’s been nicknamed the Seitona. These two incredibly popular watches must be some of the highest sold lines of any brand. And yet they don’t seem to generate the same amount of vitriol as watches from brands such as Pagani and OceanX. This just demonstrates the hypocrisy in this dislike. It’s not only the larger Japanese brands, but members of the Swatch group such as: Tissot, Mido and Longines are looking back with their Heritage lines. Yet again no one complains. And as the above Tusenö Windseeker (which seems to draw inspiration from Omega’s Aqua Terra) shows respected indies are not immune to this.

The whole issue of dislike towards homages has the smell of another form of watch snobbery and doesn’t help with anything in my opinion other than possibly scaring people away from this hobby, who might worry that unless they spend huge amounts on a Rolex or Omega they’ll be looked down upon for getting a watch with a design they like.

Anyway I’ll get off my soapbox now and get back to my reviews. Please let me know if you have any thoughts on the matter.