Designer watches struggle to keep up in 2010

2010 has seen a lot of changes in the world; the banking industry has been brought to account for its role in the global recession, Britain voted in its first coalition government in more than 50 years, and Glastonbury was sunny for the whole of the festival.
In the world of watches there has been many changes as well in 2010. It is nearly 20 years since Gucci launched its first range of ladies watches. Since this time, almost every couture fashion label has joined the watch industry from Channel to Dolce and Gabbana and from Christian Dior to Diesel. These clothing giants joined forces with some of the smallest and some of the biggest names in the watch industry like Fossil Binda and LVMH, to bring their own brand of watches to the consumer.
In these years, companies like Fossil and Binda grew beyond recognition. Growing from small national brands to big players on the world watch stage adding further licensing agreements with more and more fashion houses to bring a wider range of branded watches to the high street. The influx of designer brands has had a detrimental effect on many of the traditional brands such as Rotary watches, Pulsar, Seiko and Tissot watches. Some brands like Tissot have fought back by moving themselves out of direct competition with the designer watch brands and focusing on the sport watch market place. Others such as Rotary and Seiko have also attempted this move with varied success.
2010 though has seen a massive shift in the watch market with the addition of brands like Ice-Watch and Toy Watch decimating the designer watch market. The designer brands have been caught unaware by these non-clothes affiliated watch companies creating watches that are bag on trend for 2010. The sports watch look of these brands has been popular for over two decades since brands such as Seiko and Breil made the divers watch fashionable back in the late 80's. Ellesse carried on the movement in the late 90's however this fizzled out with the addition of the designer brands like D&G, DKNY and Emporio Armani exploding onto the watch market.Toy Watch
and Ice-Watch have re-invented this movement with resin and rubber cased watches from as little as £50 to as much as £300. The resin and rubber cases allow the manufacturers to capitalise on the 1980's fashion trends of 2010. This fashion trend coupled with the fantastic design of the watches is what has allowed these two brands to firmly gain a foot hold in the watch market, taking market share from some of the biggest designer brands of the last 10 years. The 1980's fashion movement has also allowed some of the oldest watch brands in the market place to finally see the light of day and fight back against the designer brands. Brands like Timex and Casio have re-launched styles from their back catalogue capitalising on the new 80's fashion trends.
Could this all spell the end for the watch fashion? And could this be the rise of affordable watch fashion? Well Christmas 2010 really is going to be very interesting who comes out best could be simply down to price and not just down to the name on the front of the watch.