.. to join Sellita. Johannes Jahnke helped develop the SH21 movement for CWL and was instrumental in the merger of CWL and Swiss company, Synergie Horologeres a few years ago. With JJ leaving what does this mean for CWL's future? Ordinarily CWL take a pride in exhibiting at the London based November showcase, SalonQP, but they're unusually a no-show this year (at least so far) .. speculation is that the change at the top may mean that they now longer have the SH21 to show-off anymore?

 

People that want them will still buy them...

SalonQP has got more and more expensive year on year, and offered less and less return for exhibitors... CWL aren't the only people not exhibiting... expect brands to run fringe events in their own boutiques...

 

Indeed. But for CWL they have no boutique and are now seemingly not showcasing themselves anywhere outside of their HQ in Maidenhead. (where??). They boast at being the next Rolex and up their with the big boys in the Jura, but surely they'll need to show their face to have any chance of being up there with the big boys.

 

Seiko's UK HQ is in Maidenhead... they seem to be doing ok.

Salon QP has developed a reputation as a drinking/jolly... and is expensive to exhibit at... typically you'd want 10x return on investment on a trade show presence... that's a lot of £375 quartz watches.

This feels very much like non-news... The guy developed a movement that's used in 3 of their models, and a few others around the group they're part of... given they buy in everything else, there probably wasn't another big project like this for him to undertake... so he moved on.

 

..and who can blame him. Will he take his SH21 complication with him and rebrand it under Sellita though? CWL were banging on about the merger saying it's the big break for them but seemingly no more if their chief (only) horologist does a runner and leaves CW selling cheap 'ok' stuff expensively. They prided themselves on providing watch fans with great Swiss pieces for low prices. Judging by their shocking, woeful tales on repeat QC issues recently and massively inflated prices they no longer sell great pieces now (nor at low prices anymore). £400 is their least expensive model now, utilising a base Ronda quartz.

 

The IP on the movement will belong to CWL... stealing a movement in Switzerland won’t make you any friends.

Other than the obsessives on the CW forum, I’ve never heard anyone refer to a CW as a “great Swiss piece”... they’ll continue to make stuff that most people want... cheap watches.

 

Expensive cheap watches. The brand that aims to be "the Rolex of the internet" by knocking and mocking other brands along the way whilst churning out unreliable rubbish .. pots, kettles, black ..etc

 

I'm with you, although I never got far enough to actually evaluate one of their watches. I became enamored of a CW watch and tried to buy it. Had a horrible experience. Their customer service was very polite, but completely incompetent. One package disappeared in transit, and then they mixed up my order with someone else's, evidently because we are both located in CA (their excuse). A third package (separate order) contained the wrong size straps, so I ended up being 0 for 3 shipments in a row. To their credit, I eventually got most of my money back*. However, CW doesn't do RMAs from the US... worthwhile information to have if you're considering them.

Not going to tempt fate by ordering from them again. If their shipping department is that hosed-up, I don't want to flirt with their product quality. That said, I did end up with some leather deployant straps from CW that are great for the money... once I finally got the correct size.

*Minus return shipping for the other guy's order, which cost more than $80 as it needed to be insured.