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Luxury watch manufacturers like Rolex, Tudor, TAG Heuer, and Bremont fight a never ending battle with managed expectations. When watch collector expectations fail to match the watchmaker's offerings, controversy results. Tonight, we explore several instances in which watch brands failed to match collectors' expectations for product design and engineering transparency.

The Rolex-Tudor empire is a small one from a brand count perspective - Swatch owns more than a dozen - but it's market dominance belies its brand portfolio. No luxury watch nameplates are more closely watched or furiously debated. In 2008, Rolex launched the Deesea Sea-Dweller, and watch buyers were conflicted. Despite boasting Rolex's highest dive watch technology and the company's best clasp, the 44mm case and mammoth thickness proved controversial. James Cameron-inspired updates and a 2018 redesign helped to quell objections, but many still regret the day the Rolex 116660 killed off the Sea-Dweller 16600.

The 2013 Rolex Daytona was controversial as a mild update for a major anniversary. Deeply polarizing, the platinum 50th anniversary Rolex Daytona was an historic first lauded by some as a beauty and a breakthrough but lambasted by others as a mild revision of an already 13 year-old model.

Tudor's 2019 Black Bay P01 was too radical; the same detractors of the P01 lambasted the 2020 Black Bay 58 Navy Blue as too conservative. Why can't Tudor win? The answer is simple, Tudor collectors only want a Tudor Submariner re-edition.

"In house movement" has become both a sales pitch and a cliche in 21st-century watchmaking. While the novelty of the proprietary movement wore off long ago, brands such as Bremont and TAG Heuer continue to trumpet "in-house" engineering --- sometimes at their own peril. The uproars caused by the 2009 TAG Heuer "Calibre 1887" and 2014 Bremont "BWC/01" movement deceptions have damaged their brands with lasting effect. TAG Heuer played fast and loose with the origin of its movement: the Seiko 6S37. Bremont exaggerated its role in developing its La Joux Perret-sourced manual wind caliber. While both products are sound and satisfying to own, the damage resulted from the controversy that dogged these watch launches.

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