OPINION: AI is a godsend for the watch industry

Artificial intelligence can be a scary concept for both the technophiles and the technophobes amongst us. It may be in its relative infancy, but already it’s increasingly shaping the world we live in. Rather than this putting fear into those who work across the multi-layered infrastructure of the watch sector, writer and podcast host Robin Swithinbank sees it as potentially the best thing to happen to the industry in years.

I don’t like AI. I’m incredibly, extremely, stubbornly scared of it. Initially, I’m terrified it’s going to take my job. And then my kids’ jobs. Lord knows they can kick their heels given the chance, but I think even they recognise that a purpose and a salary will prove handy one day. 

And then I’m Terminator—scared of a Judgement Day scenario where the AI achieves singularity and decides it would be just fine without us parasitical humans clogging up the world’s arteries, and decides to destroy us.

But let’s leave that doomsday forecast for another time and imagine for a moment that the outer limits of AI are that, day-to-day, it makes us even more disconnected from reality—people, community, each other—than we are now, after we obligingly resign large chunks of our agency to the machines. Come that time, maybe AI isn’t washing our clothes or putting the spoon in our mouths, but it’s making most of our life decisions for us, leaving large parts of our brains in atrophy.

I suspect most of us see that coming. And I suspect most of us don’t like it, either. It seems a safe enough bet. You’re reading this when you could be fighting bots on Call of Duty or watching ITV2. But you’re smarter than that. Solidarity.

And that means most of you will already be thinking about the antidotes to AI. With what and whom, and where are we going to find the connections, the meaning and the purpose that AI is going to take from us and that ultimately make us human? 

You may by now have your own answers to that. Perhaps you’re already hunkering down in your Anderson Shelter with your dog, a lifetime supply of baked beans and the entire Beano back catalogue for company. But at this point, I’m only interested in what it means for the watch industry.

AI, it won’t surprise you to hear, is deep in the watchmaking system already, even if it’s not immediately visible. It’s in automated manufacturing and logistics. It’s in finance and HR. Big boo-hoo? Frankly, these were all pretty faceless anyway, and few will be shedding tears over them. 

Now, it’s starting to creep into strategic areas too, where for now humans still rule, like marketing and market analysis. AI, and by extension something called a Model Context Protocol, or MCP, which you can overlay on top of your proprietary AI to make it even more efficient (Hello? Still with me?), is giving rapid, detailed, cross-category data insights that are shaping how luxury watch brand execs make daily decisions about where and how they invest their money. Hands up, I can see why that’s appealing and even exciting. Like Google, these are tools that can make us better at our jobs without creating explicit opportunities to replace us. I think.

But what about design? Or mechanical innovation? Where’s AI here? Since the dawn of horology, these have been almost entirely under the influence of human intuition and ingenuity. Okay, so CAD (computer aided design) and digital tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, not to mention many proprietary specialist bits of software besides, have given the machines their moments to shine, too.

But they’ve never fully replaced the designer, the engineer, the marketeer and all the many creatives who contribute to the story of a watch. Could that happen, too? 

Over the past few months, I’ve been interviewing watch industry leaders on my podcast (shout out for The Luxury Society Podcast – thanks ed.), and inviting them to comment on whether they might become the first to release an AI-designed watch. Most have batted the question away. 

But not Hublot’s chief executive Julien Tornare. Hublot, as many will know, made its name being “first, unique, different”, the familiar mantra of its former co-owner Jean-Claude Biver. 

Last month, Tornare confessed to our audience that he’d taken to dabbling in AI watch design. As in he, himself, him. He said he does it while he’s on a plane to thrash out his ideas. While he said he’s not about to announce himself, Jacob Arabo-style, as his company’s creative director, he does take his AI-generated homework to his design team. I’d be amazed if he’s alone in doing this, and almost as amazed if we’ve not seen at least one AI-designed luxury mechanical watch by the end of this year.

So, is this it? The moment just before the watch industry yields to generative AI?

Honestly? I don’t see it. Because, presented with a watch entirely conceived and delivered by AI, would anyone actually buy it? I wouldn’t. Luxury watches are, and have been for some time, little more than art. Status symbols on the wrist. Things no-one needs. Worn tropes, now. 

And in art, certainly in the art people spend money on, the vast majority of the value is in the bit that’s human. Not the canvas. Not the frame. Not the hook in the wall. Although assuming someone with vital organs and a soul banged that in, we’ve got to appreciate that at some level, too. Take the human away from a luxury watch, and what’s left? Much more than some bits of metal brought together to do a sub-optimal job of keeping track of the time? 

At the time of writing, we’ve recorded four episodes of this podcast season. In each, we’ve found ourselves discussing this theme, always returning to the maxim: luxury consumers want what is real, what is tangible, and what is human. And that is a huge opportunity. Because the industry already has it.

Some brands have tried to prove the theory wrong before. Remember those “luxury” watch NFTs of a few years back? Wonder what Jacob & Co.’s  $100,000 NFT watch is worth now (insert gag here about it not being worth the paper it’s written on). Or what about Frederique Constant’s “Web3” Time to Travel NFT line? Anyone? And what about the boost TAG Heuer got for its Connected collection when it announced the E4 variant could display NFT artworks on its screen? Me neither. And if the mention of any of these excites you now, perhaps I could invite you to go for lunch with the T-1000. Nice lad.

Maybe we should look at it this way: if buyers really, genuinely wanted AI luxury watches, wouldn’t brands be making them already?

I mean, really. Forget it. It’s not going to happen. Which is just about the best news the watch industry has had in years. Everything else has been a real threat. Smartwatches? Check. Cost of living crisis? Check. Soaring gold prices? Check. And so on. AI could be another. But it’s not. On the contrary, luxury watches are, in their own small, extremely precious way, one of the antidotes to AI. And all the more attractive for it. 

And that might just be the best thing to happen to this industry in years.