Apple Watch beats Rolex in luxury brands ranking

 ·28 Jan 2016
Apple Watch Edition

A new survey puts the Apple Watch ahead the iconic Rolex wrist watch in the luxury brand segment.

A study, conducted by analytics firm NetBase, using social media sentiment  from more than 700 million posts between 2014 and 2015, found that the Apple Watch placed 13th on the list of luxury brands, with Rolex placing 14th.

A Rolex Submariner is priced at R100,000 while a Yacht-Master II sells for about R250,000. The more specialized models can cost millions.

The Apple Watch starts at R6,500 – going up to R270,000 for the ‘Edition’ – subject to rand volatility.

NetBase Brand Passion Report: Luxury Brands 2016, defines luxury ‘as something that’s logically pretty unnecessary, but brings enough pleasure to justify the expense and just screams you’re worth it’.

“It might be the quality of a product, the showmanship of the brand, or, usually, a little bit of both. Who’s to judge? The point is, luxury products inspire an emotional response in consumers.”

The study found that in the wake of the Apple Watch launch in 2015, watches overall account for 7% of mentions among the top 45 luxury brand conversations.

“Digital retailers are very, very in,” the report said, accounting for around 10% of the top 45 mentions.

Chanel overtook Louis Vuitton as the number one luxury brand. Gucci stepped in at number two.

Though Apple as an overall brand dropped two places to fourth, iPhone is still securely in the top 15, and the Apple Watch debuted there (at numbers 11 and 13 respectively).

eBay improved from the 27th spot year one to number five on the list.

More on luxury brands

Most popular super-luxury watches in SA

Discovery to give away a free Apple Watch to Vitality members

Here’s why the Apple Watch is so expensive in South Africa

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