Nick Hacko rant about Swiss watch companies not selling parts to independent watchmakers

Archer

You must be feeling very generous today Andy...😉

I'm all for people manufacturing their own watch movements, but the reality is until he can make the balance spring, he will still be captive to a parts policy of some brand or manufacturer. Nivarox-FAR make 90% of

Archer

You must be feeling very generous today Andy...😉

I'm all for people manufacturing their own watch movements, but the reality is until he can make the balance spring, he will still be captive to a parts policy of some brand or manufacturer. Nivarox-FAR make 90% of the balance spring and balances (plus escape wheel and pallet forks) for the Swiss watch industry. The reason for this is simple - it's very difficult to do, and most companies (even larger ones) don't have the technical and financial resources to make their own. Some are doing it, but it is a long and very expensive road.

Although I appreciate the effort involved (trust me I do) yet another 6497/6498 clone movement coming on the market doesn't excite me all that much. There are already copies made in China, and one made in the US that I know of. Although I can see some who value it being made locally result in some sales, and those who want to thumb their noses at the Swiss will generate some sales, in the end I'm not sure how desirable this will be unless it's competitively priced, and the real thing is difficult to beat in that way.

As for making his own movement, designing a watch movement is a very different task than copying one. I have no idea if they would have the engineering background to do this and produce a reliable movement.

I would be interested to know if Nick will be selling parts for these watches, or will he be taking the same route that the companies he rants against do? As a consumer will I actually be better off with this movement in terms of serviceability than I am with an ETA 6497/6498 where parts are readily available on the open market?

Will be interesting to see how all this pans out as things progress.

Cheers, Al

Archer

Collectors will not be able to buy parts directly for sure, but if watchmakers really want to get approved for a parts account they certainly can...just like I have done.

Archer

The Swiss would argue that the whole idea of restricting parts is to ensure that repairs are done in the proper way. Up to you if you agree with that or not. I see poor work done by other independent watchmakers all the time, but also poor work done by brand service centers.

For Omega parts, the usual small annual price increases of a few percentage points have disappeared in the last 3 years, to be replaced with selected classes of parts (all dials, all crystals, etc.) doubling or tripling in price overnight. Omega is certainly making a lot more money on the parts they sell than they used to - there is no question about that.

For new watches that are introduced after the parts were cut off to the third party suppliers, there will be very few, if any, parts out on the open market. For the older watches, there will be parts floating around out there, but these are finite supplies that were distributed before parts were cut off to the resellers. For vintage many parts are discontinued anyway - any automatic movement previous to the 55X/56X/75X movements do not have all the parts available for them, even for me buying directly from Omega.

So for vintage more parts were available on the open market, but that supply is dwindling.

Cheers, Al