There used to be the good mechanical clock that was given to you for communion, confirmation or youth consecration.

Until the seventies of the last century, such a wristwatch was usually expensive and often a gift for life.

With the advent of the electromechanical quartz watches, which have since been built for the mass market, prices fell.

Quartz watches were significantly cheaper than purely mechanical timepieces and, moreover, more accurate.

Michael Spehr

Editor in the “Technology and Engine” section.

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    The first versions of the smart, fully electronic clocks with a display instead of a pointer mechanism and connection to a cell phone were available almost 20 years ago. However, the device category only became successful with the first Apple Watch introduced in 2014. It was accompanied by a fundamental paradigm shift: There is only one design, one construction and almost identical functionality. The difference and differentiation result from the case material and the bracelet.

    The watch remains the same, and in addition to the software-adjustable dial, only the bracelet is used for customization. We remove the blue bracelet from our dark Apple Watch in the titanium case "Space", put on a mango-colored one and change the display color from subtle old white to Mango: a completely new look is created in less than a minute. You tune the clock to your clothes and the appointments of the day.

    The changeable bracelet has changed the world of watches. Whereas it used to be common for a watch to include a bracelet that the watchmaker had to change if it was worn out or no longer pleasing, Apple designed a system that allows the bracelet to be changed in seconds without the watchmaker's spring bar. Even the Apple link bracelet made of stainless steel with a double folding clasp, which consists of 100 individual parts, can be individually adapted to the wrist circumference by removing or inserting individual links without any tools.

    So the bracelet makes the difference, and not just at Apple anymore. Every provider of a smartwatch, be it Samsung, Huawei, Garmin, Fitbit or Fossil, brings an independent bracelet collection onto the market for their watches. Customers expect it. The regular swapping of bracelets is a new trend, so it is hardly surprising that a whole new industry has emerged, namely the third-party manufacturers of bracelets. Your economic success rests on two pillars: design, material and colors are ruthlessly copied, and pricing is just as ruthless.

    The black stainless steel link bracelet from Apple costs 450 euros. Amazon delivers the cheapest copy for around 20 euros. A real Hermès leather bracelet costs almost 600 euros, and Amazon sells amazingly real-looking copies from China for less than 20 euros. It remains to be seen what to think of it in terms of material and quality.