The Future Of Time: Gen Z, Their Wants, And The Watch Brands That Could Woo Them

Two years ago, I had the privilege of being invited to Washington D.C. to attend the New York Times Global Leaders’ Inaugural Meeting on Luxury that was held over a two-day period at the Watergate Hotel. It was there I first heard futurist Ray Kurzweil discuss supercomputers, A.I., his daily vitamin intake (over 90 of them!) and living forever. It was also where I had a front-row seat to author Thomas Friedman’s incredible insight into the advantages of being late. But the discussion that affected me most – and dare I say, everyone else in the room – had to have been the interview that NYT’s Fashion Director Vanessa Friedman conducted with Meridith Valiando Rojas – author of the upcoming book, “Selfie Made” and co-founder/chief executive of DigiTour Media – which delved deeply into the world of Generation Z.

Gen Z, for those unaware, is the post millennial generation that was born in 1995 or later (the end date for the generation has yet to be officially determined but some say it’s around 2015). They have also been referred to as “digital natives” as they came into a life fully surrounded by technology and have grown up in the era of the smartphone. As a Gen X-er and a parent to two kids who are Gen Z-ers, the information that Valiando Rojas put forth blew my mind ten times over. She explained that this group – which according to the 2017 Nielsen Audience Report, makes up 26% of the U.S. population – is unlike their older peers (the millennials) because millennials were all about individuality and their own uniqueness, while Gen Z wants to be popular and part of a group. She referred to Gen Z as the “Influenced Generation” but added that being influenced doesn’t mean they’re easily swayed.

A number of articles have been written about Generation Z kids with similar conclusions stated about them as a whole: their attention spans are short, they bypass advertisements on all forms of media, they can smell bullsh*t from a mile away, they feel that “likes” and “follows” are an extension of who they are, they believe they can learn everything on their own via the internet, they hate being “sold”, they love a good laugh, and they are relatively frugal on everything but technology. If those morsels of information don’t make the marketing departments at the world’s most famous watch brands’ heads explode, I don’t know what will.

Believe it or not, many of the web’s biggest YouTube stars (keep in mind that Gen Z made them who they are by becoming the largest demographic of their millions of followers) don’t really give a damn about labels on clothing, watches, or otherwise. Or rather, they don’t give a damn about the labels we know and are familiar with. YouTuber Ryan Higa doesn’t wear a watch. PewDiePie (aka Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg) wears a 2nd generation Moto 360 on his wrist and has been quoted as saying he only wears cheap watches because he gets tired of them so easily. The guys who made up team Smosh on YouTube even did an episode on just how much the Apple watch sucks, and yet these are the guys who are influencing Gen Z. Are we scared yet? We should be. But there’s also some validity in what these young entrepreneurs are saying because the fact remains they’re saying it RIGHT NOW. Hell, I had a shaved head and wore combat boots in my 20s, doesn’t mean I still do. If what they want now is something they don’t have to pay a lot of money for because they know themselves and how quickly they outgrow trends, then heck, good for them! This is growth, people! This generation will show a maturity like none of the generations before them, and if we follow their clues, we’ll know exactly what they’ll eventually want.

The way it’s looking right now is this: even if you’re a big brand, it’s imperative that you pay attention to who your future customers may be, because some of you didn’t pay much attention to the millennials when it mattered and now the millennials are in their late 30s and are starting to have money to spend. 

The brands who very well may be able to get in early with Generation Z are the ones that go after what these future buyers are about. Take TAG Heuer, for instance. Sure, the company technically started as Uhrenmanufaktur Heuer AG back in 1860, but these kids aren’t going to care about that. What they’ll go after is the fact that the brand’s “Connected” watch keeps them, well, connected, while not being the Apple watch that every one of their parents’ friends has. And even if they grow “tired” of said Connected watch and move onto something different (see my earlier points about Gen Z’s short attention spans), the name, TAG Heuer, will still likely stick in the back of their minds and wind up being a watch they potentially buy as they get into their 30s and 40s when they want more of a traditional timepiece.

Another watch brand that is already appealing to Gen Z is G-Shock simply because they offer everything from price point, fashionable watches to “smart” watches like the “G Steel Connected Bluetooth” watch. 

The appeal of G-Shock is that even if a Gen Z-er does grow tired of the look of the one they have, it’s easy and fairly inexpensive to pick up another of these watches in a completely different style. This generation loves the vibe of what they wear regardless of label, so if they think that G Shock offers something cool, then G Shock needs to keep doing what they’re doing.

And while there’s nothing connected about them, Swatch watches offer Generation Z the opportunity to express themselves through fun and creative design without having to ask their parents for yet another loan. Swatch watches are easily accessible, unisex, inexpensive, and not as popular with millennials, which makes the brand pretty much everything Gen Z wants outside of a watch that’s tech-friendly.

Chances are, the watch industry will likely fail at marketing to this generation at the beginning in a similar way that it did with the millennials, but eventually, watch brands tend to figure it out. What’s most important with this generation is that they don’t want to be marketed to... directly. Marketing tactics will need to be smart, subtle, and outside of the norm if we want to see this industry survive the force that will be Generation Z.