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A couple of considerations were taken into account. Firstly, some brand names such as Omega and Tudor are commonly searched for outside of the watch industry. To account for this, I added the term “watch” after the brand name in all searches and to ensure accuracy, this was kept consistent for all other brands in these comparisons (e.g., Omega watch vs. Rolex watch).
This same thinking of adding “watch” applies to Cartier and Hermès, which would have some jewelry interests embedded into their search popularity.
Secondly, all results are for search terms specifically. There are other searches for these brands which are categorized into “Manufacturing Company” or similar, but these were avoided to capture the broadest audience.
Then we need to be aware of the limitations. The most obvious is that this analysis set search terms based on the brand’s name, and assumes no other searches are being done. This is not the reality, where a person interested in Rolex could search for “Rolex”, “Rolex watch”, “Submariner” and so on. There are endless search terms possible, including spelling mistakes, but for this analysis, we are considering just the brand name.
Results
There is a lot of information to digest in the results and it becomes immediately clear that different countries prefer different brands. I want to highlight a few of my main takeaways before getting into discussion points about why this might be the case.
Watch brands by country
First, and without surprise, Rolex is the most popular brand, followed closely by Omega. These two names are synonymous with luxury watches for both enthusiasts and the broader population. These two bemouths being the most popular regardless of region and country makes sense and is a testament to the mass appeal they both have.
Moving down the table, you will notice several more affordable brands ranking highly such as Longines, Tissot, and, to some degree, TAG Heuer. This was to be expected. By being relatively more attainable, they have the broadest consumer footprint meaning as more people can purchase one, so more are searching for them.
On the flip side, more expensive brands like Vacheron Constantin which feature in the middle of the pack according to Morgan Stanley, are towards the bottom. This demonstrates it is a more well-heeled enthusiast brand and so does not capture broader societal interest. It is a similar situation with Blancpain even though there was a large spike of attention around the Swatch x Blancpain launch.
Rolex Milgauss
There are several factors to consider when trying to understand why the results turned out as they did. It essentially comes down to the taste and style that each country prefers. This can be influenced by various aspects like the average size of the watch, the level of subtlety, or even the choice between wearing watches on leather straps or bracelets (for example, the USA tends to prefer bracelets over leather straps).
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