Artificial intelligence, whether we like it or not, plays an active role in all of our lives. When we search for something on the internet, call a customer service representative, or dash off a quick email, AI is working either passively in the background or very actively in the foreground in a number of ways that we simply can’t avoid. For a long time, I was a skeptic. I still am, basically, but I’ve accepted there are ways artificial intelligence can make my life easier. Like many others, I’ve started using ChatGPT nearly everyday for a variety of things that would otherwise suck time out of my day, and quite possibly the joy out of my life. (But never, it’s worth pointing out, to create articles for Worn & Wound – this is a red line we won’t cross.)
Naturally, I’ve thought a little about how artificial intelligence could impact the watch industry, and change it for both the better and worse. Of course, it already is impacting the watch industry in a number of ways. I receive press releases on a daily basis that have clearly been polished or written from start to finish by artificial intelligence, and the impact of artificial intelligence on search results plays a huge role in who finds websites like ours, and how. But we haven’t yet reached a point where the use of AI is spilling over into actual watches worn on people’s wrists, at least not in ways that are transparent to the end user.
This G-SHOCK was designed with an assist from AI
I started to reflect on all of this in a major way earlier this year shortly after we published this post on a G-SHOCK designed in part by artificial intelligence. I wrote that article and frankly it felt somewhat unremarkable to me in the moment, but this G-SHOCK post, to my complete surprise, became one of the top performing posts on our website this year. I’m not sure if that’s a reflection of a deep interest in AI among our readers, necessarily, but I think it definitely represents a desire for information from the broader public on how artificial intelligence plays a role in shaping how the products we use everyday are designed.
The G-SHOCK in question strikes me as an interesting half measure between a human designed watch and, what I think many in our community fear, a watch created completely from artificial intelligence. According to G-SHOCK, the “frame” of the watch was designed with an AI assist – they were not super clear on exactly what that means, but I imagine it indicates that generative AI provided an initial design, and it was tweaked by humans. Or perhaps the reverse is more likely, and AI was used to strengthen certain aspects of the design that escaped the human designers. Either way, it was framed as a collaborative process between human beings and our AI overlords.
When I look at what AI seems to do well, I become concerned that the watch industry (and other industries, to be fair) will use these powerful tools to extract as much profit as possible from consumers, rather than create better products and solve watchmaking problems. Artificial intelligence is quite good at analyzing data, so it follows that number crunchers at brands might read that as a way to predict trends, and put watches conceived in boardrooms on a glidepath to production based on engagement, Instagram likes, and YouTube views. A version of this is certainly already happening in those same boardrooms at many big, conglomerate owned brands. But until now they’ve always had to rely on the human factor to actually make decisions. There will come a time, if it’s not already here, when decision making on the greenlighting of new products will be left to artificial intelligence.
There’s nothing wrong with brands wanting to put out products that they know will sell well, of course. But we’ll reach a point where it will become so easy for an artificial intelligence to tell us exactly what will be a hit, any incentive for pure creativity or risk will be thrown out the window. Imagine Tudor asking a powerful AI tool to scrub the internet and all of their sales data to determine the watch that should be their next point of focus. Do you think we’ll get something like the Black Bay P01 or a silver cased Black Bay 58? I suspect it would suggest new dial colors that would be popular for Pelagos and Black Bay models that sell well. And everything would be made into a GMT.
Could AI ever come up with something as weird and wonderful as the Black Bay P01?
There is an AI future as it relates to the watch landscape that’s bleak, and it points toward watches that are dull, and watch brands leaning heavily on AI generated slop that replaces the work of professionals. Benrus recently launched a new digital AI campaign they’re calling “For the Brave, By the Brave.” It features a series of short films created using AI tools meant to “stir a sense of timeless bravery and nostalgic purpose.” OK, sure. They are clips of a simulated baseball game, and a simulated soldier crawling through the mud, and a simulated woman stepping toward a ship. They are meant, I suppose, to tie history to Benrus watches, but the history here is, plainly, imagined and enhanced by artificial intelligence. Benrus has a century of real history and heritage to draw from, so the use of artificial intelligence in this way, and leaning directly into it, strikes me as a missed opportunity. It also reflects a calculation that their customers will accept this type of marketing as authentic to the brand and its values, which is something that will be tested over time.
In my mind the most exciting possibility of artificial intelligence use as it relates to watchmaking is the next step that could potentially be taken in the G-SHOCK example above. Will there be a future where actual chronometry problems that have plagued watchmakers for centuries could be solved by artificial intelligence? Imagine hyper accurate mechanical watches made in ways we currently can’t even conceive of aided by AI. With every generation of new watchmakers there are ideas and developments that the previous generation couldn’t have imagined. The high frequency oscillators used instead of the traditional balance by brands like Frederique Constant and Zenith weren’t dreamed up by artificial intelligence, but this is the kind of big leap that the most optimistic observers hope is something we can look forward to in the future. And even if human watchmakers come up with the idea, it seems like a good use of AI might be to assist in solving the inevitable production problems that plague any new generation of technology, potentially getting something innovative on the wrists of enthusiasts more quickly and more affordably. Maybe it’s not too late to use artificial intelligence for that purpose to get those oscillator based movements a little more exposure – this already feels like an advancement destined to be an afterthought.
In the meantime, there’s at least one incredibly useful application for artificial intelligence that all watch enthusiasts can take advantage of right now. The next time you’re scrolling through Instagram, watching a movie, or out in the wild and catch a watch on a wrist that you can’t quite identify, take a screenshot or (discreetly) snap a picture and ask your chatbot of choice to tell you what it is. I’ve been doing this with old YouTube clips recently and I haven’t been steered wrong once.
