I've reflected on Graeme's defence/explanation of SR WL here and he makes many good points. However, he does bring up one thing that I've taken issue with elsewhere and in the past. That is, the 'Campy = Rolex' comparison.
It's self-serving and simply inaccurate.
First, the only people actually making that comparison are within Campagnolo or really, really dedicated enthusiasts - and they are missing the point. The danger to Campagnolo is not that SR WL doesn't work as well as DADi2 (it may or may not do, I haven't ridden it) it is that the brand is not
aspirational,
especially to those under 40, in the way that a Rolex is. A Rolex, outside the watchweenie world, is a status symbol; to buy a Rolex is to show you have made it. People who know nothing about watches know what a Rolex means.
I am not being unkind to Campagnolo, I don't think, to suggest that people do not view a SR WL groupset the same way.
Moreover, any company with any sense cannot afford to have an ageing demographic (unless that demographic will be replaced with other ageing buyers - i.e. a hearing aid manufacturer
). Who buys Campagnolo when the >50 crowd struggle to turn a pedal in anger or decide it's not worth replacing their bikes? Even worse, Campagnolo have risked accelerating that process by forcing all the diehards (who have, in the main, plenty of the disposable) onto disc if they want the new flagship.
You don't see Rolex doing things like that. They have kept their essential designs the same. They haven't moved to quartz; they haven't fundamentally changed their aesthetic.
Rolex would have kept the thumbshifter, if you'll excuse a forced analogy.
Now maybe the guys at Campagnolo have this all figured out, are chuckling into their aperitivos as I write, and the pricing strategy is designed specifically to make the brand the Rolex equivalent. And here the analogy works a bit better; it doesn't matter that it's not obviously better than something cheaper, because that's not the point. But the transition to that status isn't automatic and it isn't without (huge) risk.
It's always easier to criticise than to create (hence the old saying 'any fool can criticise, and most fools do') but the fact that so many individuals don't so much dislike the groupset as think the brand is missing a series of open goals has to sound a dim warning bell somewhere in Vicenza.