212. Swatch Group Strikes Back, The Smartlet Double Watch Experiment, And Jumping Hour Madness

212. Swatch Group Strikes Back, The Smartlet Double Watch Experiment, And Jumping Hour Madness

March 6, 2026 · 1h 14m · Season 5 · Episode 212

About this episode

The episode discusses watch industry news, including Swatch Group's response to a report and the introduction of the Smartlet bracelet.

This week on aBlogtoWatch Weekly, Ariel Adams is joined by Rick, David, and Ripley for a lively conversation that begins with a painful toe injury and quickly turns into a discussion about the hazards of working with watches, from dropped cases to the finger stabs that come with changing straps and spring bars. The team then dives into one of the biggest industry stories of the week as Swatch Group publicly pushes back against the latest Morgan Stanley and Luxconsult watch industry report, raising questions about transparency, data quality, and how much anyone outside the brands actually knows about watch sales. Later in the episode, the crew looks at one of the stranger new accessories to hit the watch world: the Smartlet bracelet, a modular system designed to let you wear a traditional watch alongside a smartwatch on the same wrist. From there, the conversation moves into the recent surge of jumping hour watches, including a very high-end Louis Vuitton minute repeater and a new take from MeisterSinger. Naturally, the episode also drifts into the usual mix of watch industry commentary and total nonsense, including the increasingly chaotic Brand Wheel of Death, where brands face…

People in this episode

Host: Ariel Adams

Guests: Rick, David, Ripley

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Swatch Group, Morgan Stanley, Luxconsult

Products: Smartlet bracelet, Louis Vuitton minute repeater, MeisterSinger

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