The Microbrand Industry in the Age of AI

Current State

As we all know, AI is here. And it seems to be here to stay. This has positive and negative effects.

At Chronoscout, I use AI for certain processes, like making sure that a watch detected on a Microbrand website is truly new or if it's a re-release. I also distill all of the watch's features, like colors and shapes, from the watch image, so I can offer the extensive functionality of the filter. This is done by AI as well.

I consider use cases like these "good" because they benefit the community.

Issues Emerge

One place I'm already seeing issues with AI in the watch industry is the generated watch mockups and concept art that show up on Reddit once in a while. These are mostly from aspiring watchmakers who try to (kick)start their brand, seek feedback and/or test the market. The Reddit community is very good at spotting these low-value attempts and mostly shuts them down.

While this is not really a big issue right now, I feel that we are heading down a path where watches have no real value creation process behind them anymore. The mockups are generated, the CAD files are generated and out comes a soulless watch. The parts manufacturers don't care and just produce what's ordered. And on top, the marketing material is generated as well.

From the perspective of a software guy, this is just the beginning. AI Agents might emerge that handle everything. You tell it how the watch should look, it generates a parts list and sends out the orders to the manufacturers. Then some cheap assembler puts it all together and dropships it to the consumer. The "brand" did nothing but write a prompt and some AI influencers show AI-generated marketing to the masses. I know this is a very extreme example. And feels dystopian.

Big Question

Now for the big questions:

How can we, as the Microbrand community, make sure that we are not buying AI-generated, crappy watches in the future?

How can we keep genuine, creative and inventive watchmakers thriving?

And how can we spot new and emerging, genuine watchmakers among the low-effort ones that might flood the market?

Risks

I already see on Social Media that people can't seem to detect if a clip is AI-generated, even the ones that are watermarked by Sora. Or they simply don't care. Regardless, these videos get millions of views.

Applied to the watch industry, this probably means that people will buy these "AI-generated" watches nonetheless and won't care about the skill and the artistry behind the watch at all, as long as it looks good.

Consequence: The brands that do it "right" will not be able to sell enough watches to make their business viable and we will observe the death of an entire industry.

Let's discuss

As this Blog does not have a comment section, I've taken it to Reddit, where you probably just came from.

I'm interested in how y'all see this and feel about it and if I'm just delusional in my bubble. :)

Cheers, Michel