schema.org for watches : catalog, dataset, product ? - schema.org

Question

I'm working on a website about watches. Goal is to display brands, brand's collections, watches, news, reviews, videos, an so on.
I'm asking myself on which kind of schema to use on collections / watches... Watch is a product, but we don't sell watches. We only display informations about watches, their brands, the official descriptions, some reviews, etc...
Is a collection a "DataCatalog" and each watch a dataset ? It is a good idea to want to add itemtype on a collection ? Or only use "Product" type on final watches from collection ?
I think it's difficult to understand the good way to implement schema.org due to the types limitation. And you, What do you think about this kind of problem ?
Thanks in advance for any suggestion

Answer 1

If you want to describe watch as a product using schema.org/Product is a perfect catch. I'll explain.
As you may see from schema.org/Product class structure it doesn't contain any properties for describing selling or buying. It has review, brand and other product specific properties. For describing offer/offers it has special item - well, offers of type schema.org/Offer. This type instead is exactly about selling/buying smth with properties price, acceptedPaymentMethod, etc.
Consider example from schema.org/Product page:
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Product">
<span itemprop="name">Kenmore White 17" Microwave</span>
<img src="kenmore-microwave-17in.jpg" alt='Kenmore 17" Microwave' />
<div itemprop="aggregateRating"
itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/AggregateRating">
Rated <span itemprop="ratingValue">3.5</span>/5
based on <span itemprop="reviewCount">11</span> customer reviews
</div>
<div itemprop="offers" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Offer">
<span itemprop="price">$55.00</span>
<link itemprop="availability" href="http://schema.org/InStock" />In stock
</div>
Product description:
<span itemprop="description">0.7 cubic feet countertop microwave.
Has six preset cooking categories and convenience features like
Add-A-Minute and Child Lock.</span>
Customer reviews:
<div itemprop="review" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Review">
<span itemprop="name">Not a happy camper</span> -
by <span itemprop="author">Ellie</span>,
<meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2011-04-01">April 1, 2011
<div itemprop="reviewRating" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Rating">
<meta itemprop="worstRating" content = "1">
<span itemprop="ratingValue">1</span>/
<span itemprop="bestRating">5</span>stars
</div>
<span itemprop="description">The lamp burned out and now I have to replace
it. </span>
</div>
<div itemprop="review" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Review">
<span itemprop="name">Value purchase</span> -
by <span itemprop="author">Lucas</span>,
<meta itemprop="datePublished" content="2011-03-25">March 25, 2011
<div itemprop="reviewRating" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Rating">
<meta itemprop="worstRating" content = "1"/>
<span itemprop="ratingValue">4</span>/
<span itemprop="bestRating">5</span>stars
</div>
<span itemprop="description">Great microwave for the price. It is small and
fits in my apartment.</span>
</div>
...
</div>
As you can see all product specific properties inserted in Product entity.
For broader research you may check Google markup for products which of course influenced on schema.org way of handling things.
Relating Dataset and DataCatalog types - they are not intended for such use. Instead they provide way for describing, well, some datasets (e.g., dataset of New York weather). For further details about this types you may check:
W3C page about this proposal with examples
Post in schema.org blog which reveals more details about it