LOL, Trump’s $100K watches are now speculated to be made in China
Trading cards, mugshots, what else can Trump hock to save himself from bankruptcy? This time, it’s watches, which are being sold for a whopping $100k. According to Swiss watchmakers, though, these things are hardly worth the cardboard they’re mailed in.
Turns out you really can polish a turd …
Trump recently debuted a pair of gauche watches for an equally gauche price. The first watch, a model called “The Fighter” is selling for between $499 and $799. Why the high price? That’s real imitation gold right there! At least, that’s what it looks like. The other watch is a seemingly 18-karat gold design, embellished with diamonds, selling for $100,000 a pop.
The designer watch community was unimpressed.
Watch aficionados the world over were quick to lampoon the “luxury” timepieces, with A Blog To Watch founder and editor Ariel Adams describing the gaudy creations as “cobbled together, patently unoriginal and vastly overpriced.” Adams believes that Trump is working with a white labeler: a company that rebrands and markets existing products and passes them off as the marketer’s creation. “Anyone can go to a white labeler and say, ‘I want a watch with this case, this bracelet and these other details,’ and a white labeler will Frankenstein it together, put your name on it and sell it to you,” Adams told the Hollywood Reporter, adding that the white labeler will price that product for whatever price their client (in this case, Trump) desires. Adams said that the $500 watches that Trump is currently hocking are marked up by at least $300. Normally, a watch of such quality would be worth $200, if that.
A marketing director of a well-known Swiss brand who asked to remain anonymous agreed. Although the website selling the Trump watches claims that they are Swiss-made, the Swiss marketing director told Hollywood Reporter that Trump’s unfortunate timepieces became the laughingstock of an online group chat of luxury watch collectors. “When you look at all of them, they scream Chinese-made watch. None of them is worth the asking price,” the marketing director said. According to Ariel Adams, it’s likely that the watches were indeed made in China. Adams went on to say that Swiss-made tourbillion-style watches were usually manufactured for about $50,000 in the past, but China was able to engineer a $6000 tourbillion watch, which was no doubt purchased by Trump in bulk and relabeled.
Nevertheless, Trump’s most avid supporters would likely buy these watches even if they were made of cardboard.
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