RALPH LAUREN WATCHES HIS TIME

HIS TIME
RALPH LAUREN WATCHES
The luxury world’s most innovative storyteller is poised to reach new heights of
watchmaking success by tapping into his own unique vision of American cool.
by Wei Koh
R
alph Lauren grew up in a modest but happy home in the
Bronx, always having to consider what it was that he could
own. He explains, “When I was young, we didn’t have a
lot of money. So if I wanted something, I had to think really hard
if that particular thing was really it.” A large part of that process was
a refining and reimagining of the object as refracted through his eye
and honed by his innate taste. Lauren states, “I was always drawn to
authenticity. I would ask myself, is this the right one, is there a better
one out there? Eventually if I couldn’t find what I wanted, I would
create it myself.”
As a young man, Lauren labored in the New York garment
trade, always studying clothing and thinking if he could make it
better. Eventually he launched his own brand of neckties because
he couldn’t find just the right ones, the ties that he saw in his mind’s
eyes, anywhere in existence. He recalls, “I was working for a tie
manufacturer and explained what I wanted to do. He told me, ‘The
world is not ready for Ralph Lauren,’ but he gave me a drawer to
work out of.” If that drawer still existed in situ today, it would be
placed on permanent display at the Smithsonian Museum. Because
in this drawer, over half a century ago, the foundation for America’s
first luxury empire was born.
If you were to open that drawer, you would find drawings and
prototypes of a range of neckties that were more than just decorative
accessories. Through their sheer luxuriating largess of dimension,
unfurling like spinnakers, and the aristocratic leanings encoded in
their motifs, they transmitted emotion. They connected us to a world
of Gatsby and the Jazz Age. They ineffably expressed the American
dream of success and affluence, freed from old-world class systems.
They evoked a sense of optimism that was infective. They had the
extraordinary ability to seem as if they had always existed, yet were
also compelling, fresh and contemporary. They wove the first chapter
in the mythology that would become Ralph Lauren. It was through
these neckties that the world was introduced to a man who has
become the luxury world’s greatest storyteller.
So it must have come as a shock, when a young Lauren, dressed
in an aviator jacket and driving the Morgan he could hardly afford,
found himself putting these ties back inside the suitcase he’d brought
them in. Because the buyers at Bloomingdales had just placed a
huge order, one large enough to make him a success, but they’d also
insisted he narrow them and take his name off. “I’m sorry, but I’m
not going to sell you these ties,” Lauren had replied. Six months later,
he would be justified because Bloomingdales would retail a massive
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array of his ties in their original, intended width and with his name
emblazoned on a large rack where they were displayed.
But six months later, Lauren returned to find another rack of ties
created by someone else that looked uncomfortably similar to his.
Recognizing his dismay, the head salesman approached Lauren and
asked, “Do you know what’s the difference between the other ties and
yours?” When Lauren shook his head, the salesman replied, “Love.
With your ties you can feel that you love them. That you made them
for yourself first.” And this would define the way Lauren approached
design for the next 50 years, a philosophy that would bring him to
unimaginable heights of commercial success, critical acclaim and
enduring relevance.
Lauren explains, “What I liked about luxury in America wasn’t
related necessarily to objects, but related to a culture, a dream and a
mythology. It was related to the Ivy League, to John Kennedy. So, to
me, that was my inspiration. And then the objects that populated my
dream world came from this. I always designed the things I couldn’t
find. I started with wide ties, then I had to create the clothes that went
with them. I started making women’s clothes because I couldn’t find
the perfect hacking jacket for my wife. I started to make smallersized elegant watches because they didn’t exist.” And it was with his
watches, launched six years ago, that Ralph Lauren most recently
demonstrated his courage and assured individuality.
Cut to the horological landscape seven years ago and the world
was in the throes of seduction by the seemingly limitless swelling
in scale of watch proportions. Even the most reputed icons of
timekeeping elegance looked like they’d been put on a diet of steroids
and weightlifting. Amongst watch journalists, it became something
of a depressing expectation to see the latest totemic abomination
unveiled at Baselworld. It was a period that, in retrospect, seemed
hijacked by the ephemera and vagaries of trend. Nick Foulkes, the
editor of Vanity Fair’s On Time watch magazine, says, “Interestingly, at
a moment when the watch business had become a slave to fashion, it
took fashion designer Ralph Lauren to bring timelessness in terms
of size back to the watch industry.” Indeed, Ralph Lauren’s very
first watch, whose name “Slim Classique” says it all, demonstrated
that while Lauren was going to be respectful of the Swiss watch
industry, he wasn’t going to be misguided by it.
Lauren explains, “I have my own taste, and I don’t follow the watch
industry. With watches, I wanted to make something imaginative
that clearly stepped out of my world.” And what he created with the
Slim Classique and the subsequent Slim Classique Square, later to
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be redubbed the “867” for the address of his new flagship in New
York, were dress watches that reconnected horology with timeless
elegance. This was Lauren’s response to the great disconnect between
the massive revival in tailoring and classic style, and the type of ursine
watches men were wearing with their suits.
I’ve been around watches for a while, and the first time I saw
them, I thought that the Slim Classique and the 867 were two of
horology’s most stunning and beautifully executed dress watches,
and fantastic statements of aesthetic civility amid a period of
oversized bombast. Their backward-looking Deco aesthetic was
probably a few years ahead of their time in the same way that when
it was first launched, Cartier’s fantastic Deco-themed backwardlooking Collection Privée Cartier Paris was ahead of its time. But
look at how stratospherically the values in CPCP watches are rising
today and the message is clear. The future belongs to the past.
Indeed, the consumer today is actively looking to connect with
watches that are timeless, that are perennial, that are substantially
smaller. Look at the timepieces that are in the cross hairs of the
world’s savviest collectors and you’ll realize that they are from the
’20s and ’30s, invariably in a smaller size. Look at the comments
on any watch blog about any newly released dress watch and the
most recurring sentiment is: “I wish they’d made it smaller.” What is
clear is that consumer tastes are changing in a real and forceful way,
and Ralph Lauren foresaw this years ahead of anyone else.
Lauren explains, “I remember I was wearing my small watch,
and Nick Foulkes came up and he said, ‘I really like that.’ And
I said, ‘Well, I think that these smaller, more elegant watches
work perfectly with the kind of clothes that we’re wearing. I think
they look really cool with a suit and I like that look because they
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complement each other.’ The clothes have a lot to do with what kind
of watch I will wear. There’s an old IWC Porsche Design Titanium
watch that I wear when I’m dressed for driving my old black Porsche
930 Turbo. It’s about context. It’s like when I design clothes, I
need to know what kind of man we’re talking about. Does he live
in a mansion or does he live in Soho? Is he an aristocrat or is he an
artist? I create these movies in my mind. I think about what that
man drives, what his passions are, and then I can understand the
type of watch he would wear. The Slim Classique as well as the 867
are for the dandy. Steve McQueen in Thomas Crown. A guy who’s
about elegance and who has a certain spirit that’s a little bit vintage,
but very independent and cool at the same time, and who doesn’t
compromise on quality — which is why those watches are made with
the very best movements. I knew I had something, and now the
industry is heading toward small watches as well.”
Lauren regards the watch on his wrist and explains, “When
I put that watch on, I know it’s right. I’m designing it for my own
emotion and that’s also my own challenge. Timing is important. I
was a little early with that watch. But when you hit on something and
the is right, you can do a lot.”
What exactly are the watches that are born out of Lauren’s love?
Where do the aesthetic codes come from? If you’ve ever picked
up a luxury magazine, you’d have invariably seen Lauren’s Purple
Label ad campaigns. These are like film images. They paint pictures
of supreme, cultured elegance and are a reminder of a time when
wealth and taste aligned, set in the grandest locations. The most
recent campaign featuring Lauren’s son, Andrew, is set in Althorp,
the 17-generation home of the Earl of Spencer, Princess Diana’s
brother Charles. It was a location that came about because of
Lauren’s acquaintance with the late Diana. The Slim Classique, the
867 and the Stirrup are watches that are all born into this world.
The Slim Classique is his ultimate two-hand dress watch featuring
two areas of sumptuous guilloché: the first on the bezel, and the
second on the dial of the watch. The Roman typography of the indices,
as well as the Breguet-styled hands recall the 1920s. Although
the watch is offered in three sizes, like Lauren, we are of course
enamored with the 38mm-diameter version. As part of his opening
horological salvo, Lauren also introduced an equestrian-themed
watch called the Stirrup, with a cloche-shaped case and available
in chronograph and time-only versions. These watches featured
movements from Piaget for the Slim Classique, and Jaeger-LeCoultre
for the Stirrup.
When asked why it was important for him to feature these
movements in the early models, Lauren explained, “When I first
started, I wanted to be out there with the ultimates. I’m working with
the best brands [as movement suppliers]. I wanted to have credibility
and not just have a designer’s watch that has a certain look but
wasn’t authentic. I started with the Slim Classique and people loved
that watch. To me, in comparison [to other two-handed round,
slim watches], it’s a great watch because it is classic but also totally
unique. The watch is beautiful. It has integrity. When I was younger,
I decided I would rather have one jacket that was really good than
many that weren’t, that didn’t have that same integrity; and that was
my thinking related to using the best movements in the world and
creating the best quality I could when it came to my watches. I didn’t
start in watches because of a business plan that showed me how
much money I could make. I was making something I loved.”
Quality is something that Lauren is always driven to achieve
because he knows quality is integral to generating emotion in
products. He explains, “People are sensitive to quality even if they
don’t think about it. I have some great cars, and whether you’re a car
enthusiast or not, when you see one or get inside one, you’ll know that
they were made with no compromise in terms of quality. I get this same
emotion when I put on a watch like one of my URWERKs. I got one
a few years ago, and Ricky got me another one for our anniversary.
I look at it during the day and it’s so beautiful that it connects with
my imagination and, just as importantly, I can feel the quality.”
Having established both a unique design aesthetic and the
requisite quality, the idea of bringing his signature twist to the
conventional is something that Lauren is now pleased to inject into
his timepieces. Lauren explains, “We’re doing one [Slim Classique]
now that has a purple face that’s really fun.” This purple dial is a
nod to the commercial success of a watch customized with a purple
strap and worn by Lauren’s son, Andrew, in one of his campaigns.
Says Andrew Lauren, a successful film producer, “It’s great to inject
a touch of color in the strap of the watches because I think that
character who lives in that world has the confidence to be a little
unconventional. I love wearing the watches as part of the campaigns
because they really complete the story and the character I play.”
IWC CEO Georges Kern says, “One of the things that is
most inspiring about Ralph Lauren is his creation of individual
universes within his brand. So if you want to be the elegant guy,
you go to Purple Label; if you want to be the preppy guy, you go to
Polo. Similarly, I’ve structured IWC so we have different universes.
If you love aviation, you need to buy my Pilot’s Watch. If you love
elegance, then you need a Portuguese. This stratification of the
brand into universes was definitely inspired by Ralph Lauren, such
that each watch you purchase encourages you to explore another
universe within the brand.” As the master of segmenting and
creating universes through narrative themes in luxury menswear,
it seems — pun intended — to be a matter of time before Lauren
anchors a watch in each of these worlds.
On the subject of creating narrative universes, one of Lauren’s
greatest strengths has been his ability to evoke heroic archetypes
expressed through his clothing and accessories. In Lauren’s various
universes, you’ll find incredibly vivid expressions of the athlete
— wonderfully manifested by Lauren’s creation of the official
clothing for Wimbledon and his dressing of the US Olympic squad.
“One of my favorite films is called Chariots of Fire and it was a big
inspiration in terms of style and clothes and atmosphere,” explains
Lauren. When asked if it could be a touchstone of inspiration for
a timepiece, he replied, “Absolutely.” Lauren also wonderfully
expresses the world of the cowboy, with both Polo as well as the
cult RRL vintage themed brand; the soldier, again through Polo
and RRL; the gentleman driver, through Purple Label and its
extraordinary suede driving coats; and the motorcyclist, through the
high-tech RLX brand, as well as, again, RRL, which relates more to
motorcycling in the’40s and ’50s.
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“One of Ralph Lauren’s greatest
strengths has been his ability
to evoke heroic archetypes
expressed through his clothing
and accessories.”
One of Ralph Lauren’s greatest
strengths has been his ability to evoke
heroic archetypes expressed through
his clothing and accessories.
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With this kind of expressiveness and the ability to evoke
heroism, it seems that Ralph Lauren could easily move to create
watches that represent each of these mythical archetypes. The
incredible power of Ralph Lauren will be when each of those
universes is focused around a timepiece.
Lauren has already begun to demonstrate this powerful narrative
ability with his successful RL67 Safari Chronometer, a watch that
saliently expresses the universe of the adventurer. Lauren has always
loved the idea of safari. His very first safari-themed ready-towear collection was unveiled in 1984 — presciently enough, a year
before the release of the film Out of Africa, which was based on the
Isak Dinesen novel — and marked the first time a designer perfectly
extrapolated the idea of limitless adventure mixed with colonial
elegance in clothing. Interestingly, Lauren hadn’t been to Africa
before he created this now-legendary collection. He explains, “I
didn’t feel I needed to because I wanted to create my version of that
world.” The universe he imagined was a vision of forceful romantic
idealism that was so perfectly painted that people charged into his
stores in droves to own a bit of his storytelling magic. Similarly, his
RL67 Safari Chronometer is equally compelling. Strap it on and
feel as if you’ve been invited into a journey of self-discovery and
adventure. Part of the reason for the RL67 Safari Chronometer’s
success relates to it being the first watch to be given a sort of
“pre vintage” treatment, which creates a remarkably appealing,
authentic-looking and evocative patina.
The case of the RL67 Safari Chronograph and the RL67 Safari
Tourbillon watch uses a thermal and chemical treatment derived
from the world of firearms to turn it black. The benefit to this
treatment over the more ubiquitously adopted PVD treatment is
that, here, the dark color penetrates deep beneath the surface so
that when scratched, bare steel is never unveiled. Lauren explains,
“This was important because I wanted to hand-abrade the watches
so that they looked like they had been worn on a safari. They had to
look worn and aged, but also exude quality.” Similarly, many different
prototypes for the RL67 Safari canvas watch strap were created, but
the one that was finally adopted was based on a strap that Lauren
had worn all summer long and that had faded from hard use. Lauren
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recalls, “I remember looking at the strap after that summer and
saying, ‘This is it.’” The faded strap is a detail that brings an added
level of narrative to the watch. Lauren says, “Watches have a history,
they have a story. Someone will say this was my grandfather’s watch,
and it will show the signs of him having worn it. I don’t like shiny
watches; I want my watches to tell stories.”
When asked how storytelling and the aging of new objects to
make them look old align, Lauren explained, “I like comfort and I
think there’s something noble about an object that ages in a beautiful
way. I remember hearing how Fred Astaire used to give his clothes
to someone else to wear to get all the newness out of them, because
he thought they looked better with age.” The tearing and patching,
the intentional fraying, the wearing-in, the highly complex manual
manipulation of both materials and finished products to create
age, were all introduced to the luxury lexicon single-handedly by
Lauren. His understanding about how the appearance of age tells
a story is also why he pushed hard for the complicated process to
arrive at a new watch that looks perfectly pre-worn. And in this, he
has the potential to one-up the biggest Swiss players.
No Swiss watch brand will ever create a truly pre-aged watch
because it goes completely against the mindset of producing
something shiny new and highly polished that is so rooted in Swiss
culture. But because Ralph Lauren is not Swiss, and because the
aging of garments is a core expertise of his, he would have absolute
legitimacy in applying this same pre-vintaged aesthetic to a wide
array of his timepieces in a way no one else could. With vintage
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watches being the hottest topic and most commercially exciting
sector in watches today, this has the potential to be something really
extraordinary. How far away are we from seeing a Slim Classique
that appears bequeathed by a great-uncle who wore it while
piloting his Bentley Blower in Le Mans with Tim Birkin and Woolf
Barnato? How long before we see a pilot’s or diver’s watch that
expresses the valor of innumerable sorties or being submerged in
the most clandestine operations? Time will tell. One of the biggest
obsessions in the geekish world of vintage watches are so-called
“tropical dials” or black dials that, due to the effects of UV light,
have turned a shade of chocolate brown. They are so desirable that
Antoine Arnault refused to take his tropical-dial Rolex Daytona
off when we shot him for the cover of The Rake magazine. A tropical
dial on a “double red” Sea-Dweller, Daytona or Speedmaster can
increase the value of that timepiece five-fold. Andrew Lauren, a
huge vintage watch collector himself, says, “I think it could only be
my father who could create new watches with that aged look and
incredible tropical dials. It’s because he would insist that the dials
be aged in a way that was incredibly authentic.”
Lauren’s power as a watchmaking entity increases the more he
taps into his own mythology and the more he expresses that particular
vision for America that he sees. He says, “I love the way that soldiers
dress. I love the gallantry in the way they wear clothes that are
issued to them to do a job.” Before Lauren, there was no such thing
as a luxury army jacket. And although today this type of jacket has
become the requisite reference for any cult Japanese brand, it
was Lauren who first gentrified and elevated military clothing into
luxury garments. How long then will it be before he unveils the type
of military watch that looks as if it would be requisite equipment
for WWII US paratroopers, with a vintage look that has been
perfectly effected? Lauren says, “I love the storytelling capacity
that a watch has. Ricky and I gave our son Andrew a watch with an
engraving on the back for one of his major birthdays. I like the idea
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that each time he looks at it, he will remember, ‘My parents gave
that to me.’”
And what if the Swiss industry brings up the question about
whether it’s right to create pre-aged timepieces? Ralph Lauren
has always created his perfect version of any product with no
limitations, according to his own personal taste. It’s a formula that
has allowed him to build one of the biggest global luxury empires in
the world. Any time you want the perfect tweed jacket or denim shirt,
Lauren has already created a version of it that is better than the one
you could imagine. Not just because it’s better designed, but also
because it often looks and feels perfectly lived-in.
In 2011, Ralph Lauren unveiled his Automotive watch
collection, which draws inspiration from his car collection, which is
universally revered as the greatest assembly of automobiles on
earth. Lauren says, “I’ve always wanted to do a watch that was
inspired by a car in my collection. So, for years, I was looking at
the Jaguar D-Type. But in the end, it was the Bugatti that became
the starting point. I love the dashboard on this car. So that was
the real inspiration behind the Automotive.” The first Automotive
watch that referenced his 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic Coupe
featured an element of elm burl wood around the dial to reference
the car’s dashboard. However, this year, Lauren has sent ripples
throughout the watch world by being the first brand to use wood —
in this case, stabilized Amboyna burl — for a watch bezel. This is
combined with a movement that features a stunning contemporary
skeletonization process that lays bare its inner workings. A nice
touch is that with the mainspring of the openworked barrel
clearly visible, you can easily check the amount of power left in
the watch by how tightly this spring is coiled. The massive gold
balance wheel from the IWC Jones caliber pulsates at 8:30 and
contrasts beautifully with the black movement and case, while a new
cream-colored “RL” logo and hands remind you of aged tritium/
radium indicators.
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Lauren says, “I’m curious how the reaction is going to be,
because I think the car references have been done in an innovative
and tasteful way here. I think the ideas that I had were transmitted
in a natural way. It was something we wanted to do and we started
to play with it, selecting the color of the wood and other things. But
I don’t like gimmicky things on my wrist, so we had to be careful. I
think it has an authenticity that’s really amazing. I am curious
about how it will wear on my wrist. I think it’s going to be a very
important watch, not to the world, but to my world. It’s a step that
demonstrates what I can do that is true to myself, but that is also new.
I think that watch came out so beautiful. There’s another model
that’s not skeletonized and I think they both came out beautiful.
And that’s fitting because the Bugatti Atlantic is considered to be
the most beautiful car in the world.”
When asked if any of his other older cars, like his Bentley
Blower, are also sources of inspiration for potential watches,
Lauren replied, “Right now, I’m thinking of modern cars and
technology.” As an example of the technology he refers to, Ralph
Lauren owns not one, but three McLaren F1’s — the world’s most
desirable contemporary sports car and notably one of the first to
make extensive use of carbon fiber. Inspired by his F1’s, Lauren
became the first designer to use carbon fiber in furniture to create
the now-iconic RL-CF1 carbon-fiber lounge chair. He explains,
“I’m very proud of that chair because it took a lot of effort to create;
a lot of research into the material and how to use it in the best
way.” When asked if that material will appear in his watches, he
explained, “I don’t know if I’m going to connect cars and watches
all the time, but I like the category, and I think when it’s meaningful
and authentic and happens in a natural way, then I’ll pursue it.”
Beside his steady advancement in watches, another thing
Lauren has overseen is the massive resurgence of Polo as one of the
world’s most relevant luxury brands. Through renewed creativity
and more modern cuts, once again, Polo has become the flashpoint
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of cool, with some of the most exciting, best-quality and bestfitting clothing that also represent the best value in menswear.
Lauren says, “The thing that Polo demonstrates is that you can wear
some of our nicest clothes that are also priced the most accessibly.
While the rest of the world has embraced very European brands, I
want Polo to be what it is, to stand for something that is American.”
When asked if this would also set the stage for a Polo watch, one that
demonstrated that value, accessibility, amazing design and quality
can coexist in the same horological entity, Lauren replied, “Yes. I
have prototypes already.” But as to when he’ll launch this temporal
force of reckoning, Lauren is cagey. “It’s complicated. Watches are
somehow linked to status in the consumer’s mind. So I think, when
it comes to establishing Ralph Lauren watches, I haven’t done it yet.
It’s going to take a while, and before I jump off into something else,
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Ralph Lauren has always created his perfect version of any
product with no limitations, according to his own personal
taste. It’s a formula that has allowed him to build one of the
biggest global luxury empires in the world.
I need to focus on that. I know what I want to do, and I think that to
achieve this, I have to keep it a little restrained and not jump too soon.”
Another one of Lauren’s labels RRL has come to epitomize that
ever-elusive American quality called “coolness.” It has achieved
this by merging vintage, military, heritage work wear and motorcycle
style with Lauren’s uncompromising insistence on quality, to
create a unique, deadly seductive palimpsest. In RRL you see
businessmen, lawyers and doctors side by side with movie stars,
all wanting to tap into this zeitgeist — into this deep, fathomless
well of coolness — and if Lauren were to design the watch that
corresponds to this universe, I feel it would be a revolution. Because,
no watch brand has successfully tapped into “coolness”. In the past,
certain watches have been made cool by the men who wore them.
Men like Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. Or SAS commandos
who modified their watches by welding in solid spring bars, fitting
sword shaped hands and NATO straps. But Lauren, with his
incredible design genius and storytelling ability, has the power and
potential to make the first watches that are innately cool.
What stage do I feel that the Ralph Lauren watch brand is at?
There’s a great movie by M. Night Shyamalan called Unbreakable,
which director Quentin Tarantino loves because it asks the question:
“What if Superman lived here on Earth, but he didn’t know he was
Superman?” In that film, there is an amazing moment when the
character played by Bruce Willis, at the behest of his son, begins lifting
increasingly heavy weights, only to realize that there is nothing he
can’t lift because he is Superman. Similarly, Ralph Lauren, because
he’s a gentleman, because he’s humble and respectful, has entered
the watch world in the way a traditional Swiss watch brand would,
using the language and tools of traditional Swiss watchmaking. But
as he gains in confidence with successes like the RL Automotive
Skeleton and the RL67 Safari Chronometer, and realizes that he has
the potential to connect the haut-de-gamme Swiss quality he insists
on with a narrative ability that one man out of a billion is gifted with,
he will realize that, in watchmaking terms, he has the potential to be
Superman, simply by being himself.
In my opinion, in Luc Perramond, his new watch and jewelry
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CEO, Lauren has selected precisely the right man to help him
achieve this. Perramond was the man behind the success of Les
Montres Hermès. In particular, the very last timepiece he oversaw
before leaving Hermès, has the potential to be its most successful.
Why? Because it is a watch that has removed all the possible barriers
preventing a customer from buying it. The Hermès Slim, as it’s
called, is the perfect size, at 39mm, and the perfect thickness to suit
the prevailing trend for thinner watches. It has the perfect design,
because unlike a Dressage or Cape Cod, which are polarizing because
of their shapes, the round, flat Slim connects with everyone. It is no
coincidence that the man behind its design, the very clever Philippe
Delhotal, came from Patek Philippe and, the way I see it, he was
essentially tasked by Perramond to create Hermès’s Calatrava. Then
Perramond asked typeface artist Philippe Apeloig to create a dial
that is recognizably Hermès at a distance. And finally, he removed
the barrier related to price by offering the steel model at a hyperattractive price. So when you consider all this, Perramond’s new
collaboration with Ralph Lauren could be something extraordinary.
Because one thing is clear: the greatest potential competition to
the world’s most established watch brands is not from independent
watchmakers, but from global luxury lifestyle brands such as
Hermès and, even more so, Ralph Lauren, which has an even
greater resonance with the male audience. And as Ralph Lauren
Watches hits its stride, finds its voice and really starts creating
with confidence, the potential is limitless. Because its reach — its
capacity to convert and win hearts and minds — is far greater than
that of any traditional watch brand. For Lauren, as the man who
created and has continued to define American luxury for half a
century, the future is inexorably bright. Always humble, always
cautious, always wary of overconfidence, he states, “The watch
world is a challenging one and it takes time. I don’t consider myself
a star in this world yet, but I love the watches I create.” I think that
Ralph Lauren is destined to succeed with his watches simply by
utilizing the brilliant narrative tools that he invented and, most
of all, by listening to the one person who has always guided him
with unwavering brilliance — himself.
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