Column - The Swiss Watch Industry Is Bankrupt

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Robert-Jan

·Apr 3, 2014·#SpeedyTuesday

Fratellowatches starts with a new series of articles as of today, columns written by others as well as by ourselves. Columns about the watch industry, watch collecting, trends, design and so on. We start our first column with a publication by Professor of Turnaround Management Jan Adriaanse. Imagine Imagine a world without Rolex. Imagine a world without Breitling. Imagine a world without Swatch. Can you? We can. But are most of the 140,000 visitors of Baselworld 2014 able to do so? We doubt it. When we asked international acclaimed watch blogger-journalist Robert-Jan Broer he implicitly confirmed: “I haven’t seen smart […]
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Column - The Swiss Watch Industry Is Bankrupt

 

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blufinz52

·Apr 3, 2014·Hears dead people, not watch rotors.

Excellent article. Thanks for posting.

 

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citizenrich

·Apr 3, 2014

When Tesla stops offering leather and wood trim or when custom home builders stop putting $55,000 commercial kitchen appliance "packages" in custom wood and organic kitchens, then maybe the Swiss should worry. Wealthy people, and especially nouveau rich love spending as much money as conspicuously possible on the rarest metals, trees and other organic
endangered materials.

Ceragold for me, not for thee...

 

U

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ulackfocus

·Apr 3, 2014

The article was obviously written by someone who is a tech geek. They don't understand people who love luxury items made with old world craftsmanship. The industry survived the worst tech wave back in the 70's when battery powered wrist gear was introduced. This next wave won't be anywhere near the threat that quartz watches were because it's not as huge of a novelty. The mechanical watch industry is thriving precisely because it's NOT another battery powered iGadget. Men who can afford a nice mechanical watch will wear a nice mechanical watch, just like they wear nice shoes, belts, ties, etc.

 

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MSNWatch

·Apr 3, 2014·Vintage Omega Aficionado

Swatch is actually well positioned - continue with the luxury products with omega, breguet etc and enter the smart watch trends with all the technological benefits with the swatch brand. Perhaps have a few crossover products like the modern x-33 but I don't think the high end mechanical watches are going away anytime soon.

After all the paper bag didn't exactly put hermes or chanel out of business.

 

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Jimmy Jim

·Apr 3, 2014

citizenrich

Wealthy people, and especially nouveau rich love spending as much money as conspicuously possible on the rarest metals, trees and other organic endangered materials.

I can just see some dude flashing his wrist "My jeweler told me that the insides of this watch are an exact replica of a famous one from the 30's with a modern update. That and it is made with platinum, diamonds that were pooped from a rare monkey in Africa, and the strap is made from orphaned baby seals who live on the Isle of Naboombu. A steal at $415k if you ask me, I will probably buy another because I can."


All joking aside, I see the industry as being stronger than ever. If anything, it looks like most manufactures are rebooting vintage looks and designs driving people like me to dig deeper into the history and discover what this amazing world is all about.

 

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SpikiSpikester

·Apr 3, 2014·@ ΩF

Academics often try to stir things up with these sorts of positions. I don't think the author is doing anything different here.

As far as collecting watches goes, it's hard to see the market for the top end and rare pieces going away - people with money will always spend it on their chosen luxury items. The market for mid-priced watches would probably be where prices are vulnerable if the predicted collapse in interest occurs. Even that would likely be seen as good news for many of us here 😀

 

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MSNWatch

·Apr 3, 2014·Vintage Omega Aficionado

Also, the fact the popularity of this forum where the majority of the discussion is focused on mechanical and modern vintage omegas is exhibit #1 in support of the strength of the mechanical watch industry.

 

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AuBuyer

·Apr 3, 2014

Jimmy Jim

I can just see some dude flashing his wrist "My jeweler told me that the insides of this watch are an exact replica of a famous one from the 30's with a modern update. That and it is made with platinum, diamonds that were pooped from a rare monkey in Africa, and the strap is made from orphaned baby seals who live on the Isle of Naboombu. A steal at $415k if you ask me, I will probably buy another because I can."


All joking aside, I see the industry as being stronger than ever. If anything, it looks like most manufactures are rebooting vintage looks and designs driving people like me to dig deeper into the history and discover what this amazing world is all about.

Makes me think of Kopi Luwak coffee. 😎

 

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Lex4TDI4Life

·Apr 3, 2014

Two boos for the clickbait headline.

The real inconvenient truth is that most mechanical watches, in an age where no less than 4 non-watch devices are telling me the time right now, are effectively jewelry. I do not see the market for jewelry diminishing absent a worldwide economic debacle making it irresistible to melt down cases en masse. That being said, I am sure someone will hybridize smartwatches and jewelry design (think iPhone in rose gold with diamond accents), in which case they will become part of, not a replacement of, the current horological landscape. The thing is, who wants a $20,000 smartwatch that will be technologically obsolete in 2 years? Mechanical watches are already obsolete. They are worn for completely different reasons.

 

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Event horizon

·Apr 3, 2014

I thought g shocks were a kind of multi function smart watch and theyve been around for years. Would any of us wear some monstrosity from google or samsung as a watch. Looking at all the high end watches on this forum alone i think the swiss watch industry is safe for a couple more years.

 

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dsio

·Apr 3, 2014·Ash @ ΩF

I think what's going to be interesting is if Apple don't just develop battery tech, but actually manage to combine some of the Swiss / Japanese expertise in hybrid power systems (Think Seiko Spring-Drive / Omega's Omegamatic system) and can kinetically power a smart watch to some degree to give either very long, or perpetual energy, in high quality materials like finely finished steel and sapphire, you could have something very compelling. Its never going to threaten the Swiss watch industry though, and especially not the vintage watch world, any more than the Tesla Model S can threaten the classic car world.

 

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Privateday7

·Apr 3, 2014

Mechanical watch is probably the ONLY acceptable jewelery a man can have beside wedding ring (well try gold neck lace, ear ring, or bracelet and suddenly rap music blast from background).
A provocative professor who try to grab headlines by predicting doomsday will not be able to change that.
Women mechanical is different animal. It is another reason to add jewellery to whatever they have put in their body.
I think I will not see Swiss watch industry collapsed anytime soon. Not in my lifetime.

 

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dantaspaulo

·Apr 3, 2014

Some people pay a little fortune for a fortune of Jacu bird coffee which is, literally, the produce of s🤬 t.

http://modernfarmer.com/2013/10/flight-jacu-bird/

 

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woodwkr2

·Apr 4, 2014

As a younger member who loves tech, I do wish I had two left wrists. I enjoy trying/wearing the latest fitness monitor gizmos (be it fit bit, jawbone up, or the like). They're damn ugly, but I like the data they track. They also look terrible next to a nice watch, so the Up band was out and the pocketable fitbit was kept. It can't do HR monitoring from the pocket though.

 

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STANDY

·Apr 4, 2014·schizophrenic pizza orderer and watch collector

Swatch have already started to claw back service charges via not allowing experienced watchmakers parts.

We all know you will need a new smart watch every time a new iphone comes out.

Cuff links were supposed to be obsolete 20 years ago with a similar doom and gloom of the young not going to bother ( they are bigger than ever with sales records recently)

 

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blackwatch

·Apr 4, 2014

There's no reason a smart-anything has to be on the wrist.

 

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woodwkr2

·Apr 4, 2014

blackwatch

There's no reason asmart-anything has to be on the wrist.

Careful, I think there's some union wrists up North that might take offense.

 

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Lex4TDI4Life

·Apr 4, 2014

And let's not forget that Google glass and its progeny will make smartwatches obsolete in a matter of a few years.

 

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ulackfocus

·Apr 4, 2014

Yes, and anti-gravity transports will eliminate vehicles with internal combustion engines.