Exclusive Interview: Watch Anish about Luxury facing Generation Z
Anish Bhatt (Watchanish) Portrait
As part of the thesis on "Luxury facing Generation Z" conducted by our Founder Naomé, we were delighted to interview Anish Bhatt (better known as “Watch Anish”) and get his point of view & experience. Relevant and exciting answers to follow in this exclusive interview.
What strikes you about Generation Z?
AB: For me, Generation Z is extremely fast, they adapt to technology and adopt it very quickly. They bring new platforms, and new ways of communication and adapt them very quickly in a way that has never been seen before. The way news is absorbed by this generation is exponentially faster than Millennials and previous generations.
What do you think Generation Z's expectations are of Influencers?
AB: I think Gen Z's expectations of Influencers as "people they look up to" - I guess it's partly about aspiration, showing "aspirational" moments, which can be related to luxury items, travel, business, or innovation. Or people they find entertaining, so anything from cooking to comedy, etc. Anything related to things that they can do themselves and relate to and that is communicated to them in a short, easy, digestible form.
You are the most known and recognized influencer in the "luxury watches" niche and you collaborate with the most recognized brands. Do you think there is sometimes a gap between the vision of brands and the expectations of Generation Z?
AB: I think luxury brands have a hard time targeting this audience, Generation Z. And not just as an "audience", but in terms of the growth of very young people with a large income at their disposal. It's increasingly common for young people to be able to spend more and more, which may be due to family wealth, or it may be due to young people having a career that didn't exist before, like being a YouTuber and making 20 million a year, or an influencer, or being an e-gamer. Today, these people can get paid millions of dollars a year, if you're in the top e-gamers of Fortnite or Call of Duty for example. So they get paid millions and at such a young age. And luxury brands have a hard time targeting them because that was never the target market. The target market has been the parents or even the grandparents of these types of kids.
There is a gap, but some brands are bridging it well. We can see that Louis Vuitton has bridged it very well. They brought in Virgil Abloh as their men's creative director, and he has great recognition and following. And Louis Vuitton could have become a real relic brand like many other European brands have been. But Louis Vuitton made a very bold decision. Virgil came in and brought Vuitton into the realm of streetwear, a fashion brand that you would never have imagined. But it's a good thing because it has a young audience.
The brand has become an aspiration not only for "old-timers" who appreciate the art of trunk-making history but also for young people who understand the hype of the brand. And the younger audience is the hype of the brand.
What do you think of Generation Z in relation to Fine Watchmaking?
AB: It's amazing in the world of Fine Watchmaking, how watch collectors have become so young. In terms of entry into the market. In the past, to be considered a watch collector, you had to have a collection worth X amount of pieces and X number of pieces. You had to have the financial freedom to do so.
Today, you know there are much younger people, in the early to mid-20s, who have two iPads that are a very good match for a professor, but again, that happens because the wealth of information that people can access today is much greater than it was ten years ago, like about investment lots in watchmaking, about the qualities of manufacturing in labor and so on. All this information is available online. Also, social media platforms are already very popular and used by young people, which is a big reason why watch collectors are getting younger and younger.
Do you think Generation Z has a different approach than previous generations? Do you think Generation Z will change the world?
AB: I think every generation comes along and evolves, and brings a lot of changes, like in the use of technology, our way of life, how fast we communicate with each other, how fast we travel, how small the world is becoming because of technology, etc. Each generation contributes more or less to all of this.
And so Generation Z, for now, is going to change the way the world works, the way we live. Everything is exponential in terms of the things that we will be able to achieve in the world because of the progression of technology and the adaptation to that technology, so I think they are going to help us discover it and use it, which will be huge for the development of the world as a whole!
