Richemont Shifts Power To Jewelry

Plus: Timex leans into meme culture to sell

Author

Avinash Duggempudi
August 20, 2025

ClickZ Watches

Here's what's happening this week in the world of watch marketing:
- Richemont trims watch dip as jewelry accelerates
- Timex turns nickname lore into sellout SKUs
- Glashütte doubles down on dial verticalization
- Color-led limited drops surge in new releases
- Hello Kitty x G-Shock taps anniversary fandom

💸 The $200B Miscalculation Marketers Can’t Afford

On stage at eTail Boston, Fospha’s Chief Product Officer, Dom Devlin, warned that retail’s reliance on last-click metrics is outdated, and it’s costing brands $200 billion in under-credited sales.

The missed connection is clear: shoppers often discover on TikTok, Meta, or Snap, but complete their purchase on Amazon, Walmart, or Target. Traditional attribution frameworks rarely connect those dots. As a result, channels that spark demand are stripped of credit, while budgets overweight the “closers” - whether or not they truly created the sale.

Dom called this the bottom-of-funnel trap: over-investing in channels that finish the purchase while underfunding those that generate demand. The fallout is higher acquisition costs and shrinking pipelines of future customers.

Fospha’s Halo platform was built to break that cycle. By integrating marketplace and DTC sales into one unified ROAS, it captures the full impact of discovery spend across the funnel. For brands like Nécessaire and Give Me Cosmetics, that visibility has unlocked the confidence to double down on demand generation while protecting profitability.

📥Download Fospha’s Halo Report to see how leaders are funding growth where it really starts.

📌WEEKLY MUST-KNOWS

Richemont posted Q1 FY26 sales up 6% at constant FX as jewelry maisons climbed 11% while Specialist Watchmakers fell 7% yet improved from the prior quarter. The group is leaning on high jewelry resilience and events-driven demand in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East to offset Asia softness. For watch brands, this signals tighter allocations at the top end and a pivot to ultra-high-net-worth storytelling and clienteling to maintain mix and margin.

Timex and seconde/seconde/ expand the sold-out IYKYK series with tongue-in-cheek “Kermit” and “Smurf” variants that reference enthusiast nicknames without licensing. The drop shows how meme-native design and scarcity can convert enthusiast lore into mainstream volume without IP entanglements. Expect fast sellouts, high social share rates and strong halo effects for entry price points.

PRODUCT INNOVATION AND MANUFACTURING
Glashütte Original Seventies Chronograph Panorama Date Plasma, Fusion
Glashütte Original launches two 100-piece Seventies Chronograph editions in vivid Plasma and Fusion hues, showcasing its newly inaugurated dial manufactory and in-house Caliber 37-02. Verticalized dial making enables fast-turn creative colorways that keep core references fresh without retooling movements. This is a repeatable playbook for limited-run excitement that fuels earned media and DTC waitlists.

Roger Dubuis unveils a 45mm pink-gold Excalibur Spider Flyback Chronograph DBEX1138, limited to 88 pieces, reinforcing supply-led scarcity at the hyper-luxury tier. Ultra-limited chrono drops concentrate demand, support high-touch allocations and drive PR without mass media spend. Expect secondary market price validation to inform future capsule cadence and bespoke client experiences.

🧐 What Does Brand Building Really Mean in eCommerce?

We discussed where most brands get it wrong when it comes to brand building, with bad measurement and poor organizational structure amongst the biggest contributing factors - and how Fospha is aiming to solve the biggest questions around brand measurement with Glow.

⚡QUICK READS

17 New Watches You Missed From Omega, Timex, Unimatic And More: Roundup signals color-forward limited drops and integrated steel designs rising; align launch calendars to seasonal palettes to maximize social lift.(More)

Seiko And Datsun Mark A Shared Heritage And History With Three Limited-Edition Watches: Auto heritage partnership ties Prospex Speedtimer to Datsun 240Z nostalgia, expanding cross-fandom reach and licensed storytelling for mid-tier price points.(More)

Sanrio's Hello Kitty Marks 50th Anniversary With Stylish New CASIO Watch Release: Hello Kitty x G-Shock anniversary drop leverages character IP and scarcity to activate Gen Z collectors and drive co-branded retail events.(More)

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