More Bad News For The Swiss Brand!

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Here is the actual article for today's paper.

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When has the Swiss brand ever NOT had a bad year?
It seems like ever since I started collecting watches seriously (2008-09) the Swiss in the industry have been having a bad day, week, month, year! ..... It must be my fault !!!
:grin
 
The millennial's and gen x/y are not buying watches other than Apple. That's a huge market and the baby boomers are not enough to sustain it.
 
I'm a boomer and am doing my part by buying 38 Swiss watches. 10 are Invicta.........:hmm: well maybe I have 28 Swiss watches, but I'm still trying to my part:up:
 
When has the Swiss brand ever NOT had a bad year?It seems like ever since I started collecting watches seriously (2008-09) the Swiss in the industry have been having a bad day, week, month, year! ..... It must be my fault !!! :grin
respectfully disagree TB...they were planning caviar events...they decided it was time to change the business model and restrict eta engine supply....then came the unforeseeable ...the now which had been here more than 1 year...the new normal
 
respectfully disagree TB...they were planning caviar events...they decided it was time to change the business model and restrict eta engine supply....then came the unforeseeable ...the now which had been here more than 1 year...the new normal
Well I have two Hamiltons and don't plan on buying anymore Swiss watches. The cost of service is almost what I paid for them and by the time service is required could cost what I paid for them or more. It would be cheaper to just replace the movement with a stella than to have an authorized repair center service them. So its either do it myself or wait till it breaks and replace the movement with a clone and good for another 10 years or more.
 
The karma monster is coming back around. Pretty sad when Swiss watch sales are fueled by
corrupt business practices.
 
The Dallas newspaper may be current, but the link you provide says different about the actual article date.

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Lol, so there's a correlation to corruption and swiss watches? Of course it is a corrupt industry allowing a monopoly is just plain wrong. Plus their quality is going down but the prices aren't. This is why I prefer Seikos and Citizen/miyota. Of course eta still makes a nice movement but I'm trying as little as possible to support it. Oh of I could just get a Patek Phillipe... Dreams are nice.

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I don't see a Monopoly here. There are a plethora of companies. Just because of the Swiss side of things, that doesn't make it a Monopoly. I wouldn't call Italian suits or Italian leather shoes a monopoly just because it is the benchmark. Each product has an area that makes the best or what is said to be the best. If someone is willing to pay the money for the brands that are produced there so be it. Because the product, in this case Swiss Watches, is made in the top area, they can ask whatever they want. Doesn't mean they will get it, but there are always those consumers out there that will pay the money for the status or for the recognition.

Lol, so there's a correlation to corruption and swiss watches? Of course it is a corrupt industry allowing a monopoly is just plain wrong. Plus their quality is going down but the prices aren't. This is why I prefer Seikos and Citizen/miyota. Of course eta still makes a nice movement but I'm trying as little as possible to support it. Oh of I could just get a Patek Phillipe... Dreams are nice.

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I agree Dan. Not sure where the quality of the major players is going down in Swiss made watches and prices are getting more competitive these days. There were unfortunately smaller companies who didn't survive when Swatch Group announced it would be pulling back its supply of movements, but only the strong survive and it helped weed out the unstable companies who could not weather the storm. IMO it has only made the industry stronger in the long run, forcing new movements to be manufactured. Taking the crutch from under companies relying solely on the Swatch movements will make things more competitive in the industry. Swatch has opened the pipeline again, but the demand to find other viable options for Swiss made automatic movements may have inadvertently helped create shorter lines at the Swatch movement doors.
 
Good news about the Swatch supply issues loosening up...Thanks Mike!

Here is one of the earlier articles on the topic Eric.

http://wornandwound.com/amidst-industry-slump-swatch-groupeta-looks-to-reopen-supply-of-movements/

AMIDST INDUSTRY SLUMP, SWATCH GROUP/ETA LOOKS TO REOPEN SUPPLY OF MOVEMENTS

AUGUST 2, 2016 WORDS BY ILYA RYVIN

SHARE THIS STORY:

There’s no denying that the Swiss watch industry is experiencing a downturn right now. Exports from Switzerland fell in 2016, down 16.1 percent in June when compared to June 2015 figures. Swatch Group, undoubtedly one of the biggest players in the Swiss watch industry today, has been hit especially hard by the tepid marketplace, reporting a 53.6 percent dip in operating profits.
But this article isn’t about Swatch’s profit margins (at least not directly), but rather a piece of watch industry news that went under the radar. Earlier this year around mid-June, Reuters reported that Weko, Switzerland’s competition commission, would examine the possibility of Swatch Group-owned ETA increasing supply of mechanical movements to third parties. This is a significant reversal of a 2013 court ruling allowing Swatch to decrease supply of movements and key components to third parties.

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I haven't seen prices increase since this article. It seems the prices of the ETA 2824-2 movement have come down low enough for smaller companies like Raven watches to start using them once again instead of the Miyota 9015 and their prices remain very competitive.


Article from 2011

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swatch-court-decision-looms-over-watch-industry/31832336
 
I agree with all of what you said here Mike. And with all of what you said here, I believe in the future, probably not that distant, that prices will rise once again. If not, great, but I do think they will come back some, maybe not to what the prices used to be, but higher none the less. That will be the test of the market to see how strong the industry is.

I agree Dan. Not sure where the quality of the major players is going down in Swiss made watches and prices are getting more competitive these days. There were unfortunately smaller companies who didn't survive when Swatch Group announced it would be pulling back its supply of movements, but only the strong survive and it helped weed out the unstable companies who could not weather the storm. IMO it has only made the industry stronger in the long run, forcing new movements to be manufactured. Taking the crutch from under companies relying solely on the Swatch movements will make things more competitive in the industry. Swatch has opened the pipeline again, but the demand to find other viable options for Swiss made automatic movements may have inadvertently helped create shorter lines at the Swatch movement doors.
 
I don't see a Monopoly here. There are a plethora of companies. Just because of the Swiss side of things, that doesn't make it a Monopoly. I wouldn't call Italian suits or Italian leather shoes a monopoly just because it is the benchmark. Each product has an area that makes the best or what is said to be the best. If someone is willing to pay the money for the brands that are produced there so be it. Because the product, in this case Swiss Watches, is made in the top area, they can ask whatever they want. Doesn't mean they will get it, but there are always those consumers out there that will pay the money for the status or for the recognition.
I was referring to ETA sorry not swiss Co.'s in general. You either make your own, source from ETA or source from cheap Asian ones. If you want your watch to be "swiss" you must source 60% of it's parts from Switzerland thus there basically is a monopoly because if you want that branding (which if you don't you won't really make it) you must buy ETA.

Oh also I'm pretty sure if you take your ETA movement to get serviced it must be serviced by them, costing a lot to those who don't know how to fix them.

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