IWC for women...

I've noticed that the IWC lineup is now dominated by BIG watches.

I know all about the IWC ad on "engineered for men", but business-wise, isn't IWC ignoring women's market potential?

Just a thought for discussion...

No.

I think that women are looking for styles that are not necessarily 'feminine' and demure - but rather differentiated by larger sizes. My wife wears an IWC Portuguese Chronograph - which I find to be the perfect size for both men and women (although a Big Pilot looks great on her too!).

I might add...

This is really her watch. She picked it out, I do not wear it.

So chic in her hand. btw beautiful hand! nt

IWC for women: interesting but difficult

Quite often it is a good idea not to want to please everybody. That way you can focus without, even unintended, compromise, thus being able to do the best you can and be very successful in your chosen segment.

Although I don't know exactly, if IWC would produce, say, 70'000 watches a year, I wouldn't be surprised if there are far less than 5'000 women that buy an IWC watch in such a year. Of course it is very tempting to do something about this, but it is difficult, and maybe not wise.

Women may have quite different reasons to buy a watch than men, and it may not be really possible to service both men and women with a consistent policy. In my opinion women are far more practical in this respect, and for daily live want a not too expensive watch that they do not have to care about. They don't want to worry about a scratch on an expensive watch. They most of the time don't give a toss about special movements, they are quite happy with a no-problem quartz-movement. Only a few want for certain circumstances a very expensive luxurious watch with jewellery. And women quite often have their own ideas why they like a watch or not, the arguments that I heard over the years are of a different nature when compared to those of men. There are exceptions of course, but when trying to make a successful product you cannot live of exceptions solely.

In the recent past IWC tried to make watches that could be attractive to women, or so they thought. They tried smaller watches, the midsize ones, and they made special versions of the Da Vinci Automatic, which to me looked quite attractive to women, but maybe not to the women: all these models were discontinued. In my opinion they all were half-hearted attempts, built on men's watches: you cannot fool most of the women with that.

If you really want to be successful on the watch market for women you have to go for it for 100%, make a few lines dedicated to women, maybe designed and marketed by women who know what they are talking about. It is quite possible that results of this effort don't fit at all in the existing manufacturing possibilities or the marketing concepts of IWC, and thus the right conclusion should be: why bother, stay successful in what you are already doing. And, as pointed out, you even may set a trend of men's watches for women, like with the Portuguese Chrono, that seems to sell very well to women in Italy, as I read here before.

Thank you all for reaching this point, comments would be welcome: I like to learn from my mistakes.

Kind regards,
Paul, wearing steel VC Portuguese, why not on a trendy woman's wrist too?

Port Chrono WG with diamonds

Hi there,

I think the Portuguese Chrono in white gold with diamonds is a stunning ladies watch.

Kind regards,

Clemens

Actually, Leonardo was a woman...

This is was my entry for the 2008 Holiday Drawing.

[](s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm101/flyrobyfly/?action=view&current=ActuallyLeonardowasaawoman.jpg)

and this one too:

[](s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm101/flyrobyfly/?action=view&current=yessheisaningenieur.jpg)

I attached pictures of IWC watches for women to my fake ads, just to express your same opinion. I guess I was wrong, not for the intentions but because I should have attached images of watches for man.

I mean, it's clear the distance between men and women is getting shorter, I think the best reply IWC can give to the market is to continue creating good products, woman have already started buying man's watches...and this is just the beginning!

2008 Holiday Drawing!

Wow...... very nice!

Great watch!...But cinq >

where did you get the red nail polish? ;-)
--
Cheers from Isobars.