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What Movado can teach us about marketing!Posted by Martin Green
Last week I received an promotional e-mail from Movado that had all the hallmarks of why they enjoy tremendous success;  The watch offered is from their BOLD-range, which is of course heavily inspired by the Museum watch. The Museum watch is the invention of Nathan Horwitt, who came up with it in 1947. Genius is often displayed in the most simplest of forms and the Museum watch is a prime example of this. The original was a plain, yellow gold case, empty black dial and only at 12 o’clock a golden circle, representing high noon. Plain, simple, yet genius….we think now.  Nathan George Horwitt Horwitt went pretty much to the same process as George Daniels did with his co-axial escapement. He offered many watchmanufacurers his design but nobody was interested. That is until he visited Movado and was finally successful in getting his design out to the large public. But at that time probably nobody could have ever imagined that more then six decades later the Museum watch would have become the padre de familia of an incredible family of watches, where each new generation seems to take the golden dot to an ever higher zenith. In their add Movado plays clearly in on the most current trends in watchland; with 43.5mm is this watch slightly oversized, and with case, dial and hands in dark ton-sur-ton colors, it is inline with the so popular black-out concept. The fact that it is a chronograph will most certainly appeal to most men, since we tend to like a complication or two. But this watch is quartz!! Of course it is! Do realize that Movado isn’t aiming to get die hard watch collectors to purchase this watch. They rather try to tempt those with their Red Label collection which is all mechanical. This BOLD chronograph is aimed at men who want quality, brand recognition, be in line with current trends, enjoy looking good but are not necessary very intro watches.  Another example of a Movado from the BOLD collection....indeed a bold use of color, especially for Movado! Also the price of this watch is clearly aimed at these people. $650,- is still no peanuts, but for most people in the target demographic a more then acceptable amount to spend on a watch. But, at the same time the price is also high enough to give the watch a certain class, and assure people that they get good quality. This is still a strange concept, but if you offer a high quality product at too low of a price most people will think less of the quality before they purchase. Perhaps the most brilliant move is that this particular Movado can simply be purchased online, direct from Movado itself. Not many watch manufacturers dare to make this move, but in this case it even allows for an impulse purchase. After seeing the add it will probably take less than 5 minutes to actually purchase this watch. Movado even includes free 2 day shipping for purchases in United States. How nice is it that for once it doesn’t say continental USA? Might offer even extra appeal to Jake & the Fatman and the good people of Northern Exposure. Today I’m of course not even surprised anymore about Movado’s market position in the US. A good product and cleaver marketing clearly can come a long way, but why not all the way to Europe beats me. ----------------------- Contributing Writer Moderator Revolution Online
Movado makes great products, since many years and I find it hard to understand
why the brand is not doing well in Europe, could be advertising, since I can't remember their ads. It's not only the Museum watch that grabbed me years ago already, also their vintage watches, the chronographs and perpetuals were amazing and it's very much of a pity that Movado does not produce pieces like this anymore. And don't forget the vintage 'time only' models, like this one from 1915; quite amazing. GEO 
Very true Geo! Movado is so much more then just the Museum watch. They also made a few chronographs with the El Primero movemend and the full calenders your are refering to are indeed things of beauty!
Full calendar 
El Primero powered pilto's watch But even more recent they also made unique looking watches like this one... 
I wouldn't mind to see Movado add some of these styles back into their collections. ----------------------- Contributing Writer Moderator Revolution Online |
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