Watch Brand Draft – Picking Our Fantasy Watch Businesses – Episode 75
About this episode
Gabe and Asher conduct a fantasy draft selecting watch brands to own and operate, analyzing their values and strategic choices in the watch industry.
Gabe and Asher conduct the first-ever Openwork Watch Brand Draft — a snake-style, six-pick fantasy exercise where each host selects watch brands they'd want to own and operate across three categories: independent, micro/challenger (under $5,000), and mainstream luxury. Ground rules exclude AP, Patek, Rolex, Richard Mille, and any brand Collective Horology carries, keeping the conversation free of commercial conflicts and full of candid business analysis. The independent and micro picks reveal what Gabe and Asher value most in a watch business — from creative extensibility and succession planning to supply chain execution and untapped product categories. Some selections are love letters to brands already firing on all cylinders; others are driven by a conviction that the right operational changes could unlock serious growth. The hosts don't hold back on where they'd steer things differently if handed the keys. The mainstream luxury round sparks the sharpest strategic debate, with one pick framed as a direct competitive threat to Patek Philippe and the other as a brand with world-class watchmaking credentials that just needs permission to break out of a self-imposed design box…
More episodes of Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry
- Breitling vs. Richemont – Opposite Bets on an Industry in Flux – Episode 78
- The Sleepers of Watches and Wonders 2026 – Our Favorite Releases from Geneva – Episode 77
- Is Watches and Wonders Dead? – Long Live Geneva Watch Week – Episode 76
- The Rise of F.P.Journe – Hype, Substance, or Both? – Episode 74
- Rolex Pre-owned Values Slide – Certified Pre-owned to the Rescue? – Episode 73
- Unexpected Winners in a Down Market – Independents, Microbrands & Neo-vintage – Episode 72
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