Cartier VS Omega Watches
Which is a better brand? Continue reading to find out for yourself!
Both of these brands are considered really high-end watches and there are those that are loyal to each brand. But let's not just look at the opinions of watch lovers around the world, and instead look at hard data to assess the value of each of these two luxury watch brands in terms of craftsmanship, brand value, popularity, and more.
Comparison & Benchmark of Cartier VS Omega Watches
Swiss watches are known to be the crème de la crème in terms of quality and craftsmanship. Both Omega and Cartier are really high-end Swiss watch brands whose roots go back over 100 years. Both have entry-level watches that can be purchased for around the same price. Both also make more expensive gold watches too at a much higher price and everything in between. Today, however, we'll compare them on several levels that are worth considering.
Cartier Watches
Cartier was known for popularizing the wristwatch. Some even believe they invented wristwatches but the truth is that Patek Philippe was the actual inventor of the first wristwatch whereas Cartier, with their popular jewelry brand, was able to popularize them and turn them into something fashionable and mainstream in a time when pocket watches were all that. Cartier has a very strong jewelry brand which today is ranked in the top ten luxury jewelry brands in the world.
Omega Watches
Famous for many of their fine watches, Omega has a coveted position of #2 in terms of Swiss luxury watch brands. While Omega watches may not appear on Forbes's top 100 international brands list, they were found on the wrists of JFK, Buzz Aldrin at the moon landing, James Bond (every film since '95), British Royal Navy, Prince William, and many Hollywood celebrities. They have made numerous innovations and thanks to their Si14 anti-magnetic springs and Master Co-Axial chronometers many of their mechanical watches have quite amazing precision and resistance to magnetic interference.
Popularity:
Over the years, Cartier has produced many highly popular watch collections such as the various square-shaped Tank series and of course, the iconic Ballon Bleu watches with their lovely blue cabochon crowns and their very popular Drive de Cartier watches.
Omega has produced many very popular watch series as well from their Seamaster diver's watches such as the Planet Oceans and Aqua Terras to their Speedmaster chronographs such as the Speedmaster Professionals and Moon watches. All of which are extremely popular watch collections.
Brand Value:
Is a Cartier watch worth the money? In terms of brand value, Cartier rank in at #58 in the world's most valuable brands in 2016 with $6.1 Billion dollars in sales throughout their 286 stores in over 125 countries. It's not easy to say if they are ranked that high because of their jewelry, their watches, or some other reason. But that is very impressive. Because of the size of the Cartier brand, they tend to have more brand value than Omega but this doesn't necessarily have any positive effect on their resale value like with a brand like Rolex since Cartier's brand value is diversified across both their jewelry and watches.
Omega Watches did a few billion better at $8.8 Billion in sales in 2016, outshining Cartier's $6.1 billion dollar sale figures in the same year. They are the second-highest-ranking Swiss watch brand, with just Rolex above them. In terms of global brand recognition, Omega has around 70% worldwide brand recognition which is quite outstanding. Omega's parent company also has a greater market share than Cartier's.
Search Volume:
In terms of monthly internet searches, Cartier has slightly less search volume than Omega which is one of the reasons that Omega tends to be considered a more popular brand.
Craftsmanship:
When it comes to watches, both Cartier and Omega show incredible craftsmanship. Which is better Cartier or Omega? There are some that lean towards the opinion that Omega is slightly better in terms of the actual mechanics but then again, Omega only makes watches and that could be why some feel this way.
Which do you think is better, Omega or Cartier?
Feel free to share your opinion in the comments below!
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Sources:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/303640/most-valuable-swiss-watch-brands/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/288276/most-searched-luxury-watch-brands/
http://www.statisticbrain.com/wrist-watch-industry-statistics/
http://www.forbes.com/companies/cartier/
https://www.rankingthebrands.com/PDF/Interbrand%20Best%20Swiss%20Brands%202016.pdf/de/