Marketing is a tool that for the most part allows sellers to decide where, when and how to sell a product. The watch industry during the thirties and early forties had to face the challenge of a shrinking economy and a paucity of disposable income amongst potential customers. The watch companies of the time therefore targeted the most impressionable set of customers to push sales. Advertising was the most effective way of reaching out to people and the nature of the advertisements of the time proves that there was an element of desperation in the strategies chosen by the watch companies.
Advertising used for watches during the time period reflected the sense of urgency on the subject of time. Hamilton watches used the story of a first time father missing his firstborns appearance in the world because he missed the commuter train. The message was clear, the father did not have an accurate time piece, an essential if one were expected to meet deadlines and time schedules (Saturday Evening Post p. 6).
Left: The Traditional Men's Pocket Watch. Right: Hamilton Wrist Watches becoming dominant timepiece.
Hamilton watches also used the emotional appeal in their advertising campaigns. They targeted their ad campaigns at the fairer sex. Up till 1930, men had been reluctant to make the transition from pocket watches to wrist watches. However, women were already wearing them, thus the idea of giving husbands wrist watches for gifts. The Hamilton company ran an advertising campaign that shows a woman giving her husband a wrist watch, as a gift. Since it was an expensive item she seems to feel the need to justify its purchase. The woman is seen listing her husbands virtues and his generosity to others while doing without things himself (National Geographic p.257). The ad appealed to wives of hard working men who seldom had the time to shop for expensive items when essentials were at a premium. It was obvious that Hamilton watches came to be symbols of unselfish love and were considered an acknowledgement of devotion when received as a gift. Even though the target was to sell wrist watches to men the vehicle chosen to accomplish this objective was the emotional side of women under any circumstances. Likewise, children were also targeted but here the scenario was just a little different. While adults could save for a wedding or anniversary present children only had the birthday or Christmas to look forward to. Ingersoll bridged this gap by offering a Mickey Mouse watch at the affordable price of $1.33 (Time Magazine p. 56).
In the face of the growing economic depression and later the second World War, some manufacturers thought it prudent to curtail sales. However, they knew that the War would not last forever and that they could not afford to lose any ground with the customer base. To this end the leading manufacturers continued to place ads in newspapers and magazines. The Elgin Watch Company projected itself as the employer of the most talented craftsmen whose services the nation needed in its war effort. This conveyed a sense of confidence in the quality of workmanship and engendered a feeling that Elgin craftsmen were much in demand and were capable of dealing with the stringent demands of war. To illustrate my point here is a recreation of an advertisement run by the Elgin Watch Company in the December 9th, 1944 issue of the Saturday Evening Post:
ELGINS ...BORN OF A FINE CRAFTSMANSHIP
NEEDED ELSEWHERE TODAY .....
ELGIN ....WITH ITS CRAFTSMEN LONG EXPERIENCED IN MAKING OF PRECISION TIMEPIECES......WITH A FACTORY THAT 'S THE LARGEST FINE WATCH FACTORY IN THE WORLD ....WAS EARLY CALLED UPON FOR AMERICA'S WAR EFFORT.
ELGIN SKILLS AND EQUIPMENT COULD PRODUCE MANY TYPES OF TIMING DEVICES AND PRECISION INSTRUMENTS NEEDED BY OUR FIGHTING FORCES ON LAND, ON SEA AND IN THE AIR...
REMEMBER THIS : WHEN VICTORY IS WON, ELGIN CRAFTSMEN WILL AGAIN DEVOTE THEIR SKILLS TO THE CREATION OF WATCHES DISTINCTLY STYLED TO ADVANCE THE ELGIN TRADITION FOR PRECISION ACCURACY.
"YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU WAITED FOR AN ELGIN".
ELGIN
AMERICA'S OWN DISTINCTIVE WATCH WORD SINCE 1865.
The Ingersoll Watch Company had the advantage of being relatively inexpensive. Yet this in itself seemed to be an impediment to sales, since the bigger companies could invest more in their advertising campaigns. Ingersoll therefore came up with the idea of using its "jewel" technology as a selling point. The Ingersoll advertisements in the November 1938 issue of the Time Magazine ran as under:
JEWELED MOVEMENT ! CURVED CASE !
OUTSTANDING VALUE IN THE HISTORY OF TIMEKEEPING! A BEAUTIFUL WATCH, LOW PRICED-AND JEWELED! CURVED CASE IS CHROME-FINISHED. HAS A SECOND HAND. UNBREAKABLE CRYSTAL.
The Montgomery Ward catalog of 1945 advertised watches to help boost the sales of wrist watches. It came complete with a writeup on different features of watches, the advantages of 'jeweled watches" over others, indegenous watches over imported ones. The catalog also listed what considerations to make when wheighing the advantages of price over elegance. Since both cheap and expensive watches were sold by Montgomery Ward, the write up advised those that were involved in "hard work" to consider Ingersoll or Ingraham watches for everyday use and an Elgin or a Bulova for occasions such as weddings, anniversaries and other impotant events (Montgomery Ward Catalog p.471).
Clearly the attempt was to establish a balance between profits through volume and profits through pricing. Advertising campaigns reflected both these trends and it was obvious by the late fortis that people were buying more than one wrist watch to complete their wardrobes.
