A thought for an August morning.
What’s next?
I mean – what’s really next – different; revolutionary – something we never thought about.
I find that as time goes on what seemed a revolution really only works if you apply best practices and learning from what preceded it – raising the question – revolution or evolution?
Look at retail – do we shop more because we can do so digitally or have we merely created a one to one – at best – migration from brick and mortar to on-line? And by the way, guess where the average basket price is higher….
All in all, we need to be constantly learning; applying what we know; trend watching; open and inquisitive; curious and yes a little bit cynical and world wise.
Love the following quote:
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
Tom Stoppard
If you don’t get this – do some research – worth the time and learning.
When I was a teen – digital watches were expensive; cool and very aspirational. The Swiss began to worry about the demise of their business – an industry that they worked hard to perfect and own.
So where are we today? Pick up any high end magazine; go to any watch web site; walk by any watch store and tell me: what kind of watches do you see?
And which are the most aspirational – the high tech digital or the low tech mechanical ones…?
The days are numbered……
A beautiful, inspiring and clever metaphor for the dialectic nature of the world we live in.
Dialectic = The contradiction between two conflicting forces viewed as the determining factor in their continuing interaction.
If the world is flat and rapidly globalizing, how come nationalism is alive and well and century-old analog tribes and instant digital ones (our social graphs) shape our identity? Without the cheap apples from China nobody would blog about the joys of eating local food…
lets continue the thinking — high end glossy magazines still fill the racks at newstands; bicycles have made a comeback; organic..not hydroponic..veggies are the rage…radio — delivered over the web or via satellite is still radio and Batman rules the movie screens…what else??
Well, the prestige brands versus commoditised timepieces. Post-Stoppard, the watch has been usurped by the mobile phone in a lot of cases, but the attraction of prestige still holds. Maybe the attraction of nostalgia as well. Blinking is in the now, but nostalgia is as long as anyone’s memory.
Trend watching is fascinating even in boring categories. Ever noticed the steady decline in supermarket aisles given to breakfast cereal? Must be 50% less in a decade. But where is the growth? More “health and beauty”, more “gourmet”, more product extensions, more soft drinks…
And more shopping trips with smaller baskets. Ie, simpler missions.
Online is like the simplest missions of all. One at a time, get the best price for the desired big purchase. In this country, online grocery shopping isn’t strong.
Tom.
PS: I have a Seiko Kinetic – which has an analogue face, a quartz movement, but a recharging mechanism that works like an old fashioned “automatic” watch. I feel a time schism on my wrist.
I love my low technical “hand driven” watch. But watching out, I can see that glossy high-end brand watches everywhere. Of course, they don´t take that charisma and that spirit. Let´s say, it´s a different one. Let´s continue: Yesterday I saw the first electric motorbike, driven by “muscle power”. Looking like a high-tech endure-machine, but it´s just a bike. your own power, goin´up to 90km/h. perfect to drive the highways. but it´s just a bike, driven by muscle power. no gas needed, no co2-emissions, just a bike, driven by muscle power. cool, retro, hightech, low-high-tech.
http://www.n24.de/news/newsitem_972149.html – have fun by watching that
Here’s something to replace the Swiss watch as the status symbol of the future: the $999 iPhone App…
http://valleywag.com/5033740/behold-the-99999-do+nothing-iphone-app-buy-it-because-you-can
try the app for the rotary phone!!!!!! wild!!
Isn’t it interesting how even popular iphone apps mimic analog things such as: a rotary phone dial, a snow globe, a lava lamp, a piece of wood to knock on for good luck, an abacus – the list goes on. And the whole Steampunk subculture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk) is based on making new things look old – dialectic forces everywhere!
Prof Douglas Holt (quoted in Judith Levine’s “Not Buying It”, paraphrased by me): It’s not really about status, but more about a process of open-ended self-creation and identity.
Ie, not social, but more self-centred. Not the appeal of recognition, but more personal. The appeal of the mechanical watch, because of what it “makes me”. Emphasis on “makes”. Emphasis on “me”. Maybe Freud and existentialism are making a revival… …tick, tick, tick…
Tom.
check out the differences between the IPOD and the Zune
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/magazine/10wwln-consumed-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=zune&st=cse&oref=slogin
Completely agree with your comments on this – thanks for taking the time to post.