The digital transformation of watchmaking


Watchmaking’s “pre-Netflix” moment

CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES

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April 2020


Watchmaking's “pre-Netflix” moment

The pandemic has led to the accelerated digitisation of our daily life. However, the watch industry finds itself still stuck at a stage similar to that of film or music, before the emergence of Netflix and Spotify – a vast digital jungle where counterfeiting and piracy prevail over the few authorised spaces. As inventories pile up and online outlets begin massively discounting, it’s high time the digital landscape was properly structured and legitimised. But how is the watch industry to go from Napster to Netflix?

W

ho didn’t download a song or a movie from a pirate site during the 2000s? At the time, it was difficult to find authorised sites: “illegitimate” platforms, such as Napster, dominated the digital field, and a lack of agreement between the parties concerned meant that concerted solutions were slow to emerge. For want of anything better, illegal downloading became the norm for the internet’s early adopters, as the most convenient way to access the content they wanted to consume. The pirates had set up their own ecosystem, and it was a lawless jungle.


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