Watchmaking in the News.

Shocking ETA Delivery Ban from the Swiss Antitrust Commission

Let’s start this first edition of PRIMETIME with some fresh news and a pretty incomprehensible story. In this rather complicated context for watchmaking and we don’t yet have the definite official numbers.

But based on what we already know overall turnover of the Swiss watchmaking industry has apparently seen a small increase of export figures, it’s very marginal but makes people feel good, kind of a placebo effect, but the overall production volumes have declined quite drastically.

We are talking approximately 3.5 million fewer watches produced in a single year, approximately 15% less and this is hurting, in particular, the lower-tier segment of watches produced. The luxury segment is still doing strong and increasing in fact, but this downturn is really meaningful and has an impact on the entire industry and we will come back on this in a future video.

Anyhow, a few days before Christmas the Swiss Competition Commission, kind of an antitrust commission, well they just sent out a really sweet present to the Swatch Group and suddenly and rather brutally told them that they could no longer deliver ETA movements to third party brands, meaning to the likes of Breitling, IWC, Chopard, TAG Heuer, Baume & Mercier and so many other brands.

This decision was to take effect as of the 1st of January and we are talking roughly 500’000 movements for which these brands have to find an alternative. Ultimately this commission came slightly back on this decision, but just pushing it back for a few months. In the short term, there are no real other solutions to the sourcing of such movements by other suppliers.

The big irony of this story goes back to some 10 years ago when Swatch Group announced that they would stop delivering movements, ebauches and components to third-party brands and at the time it was this same commission which obliged them to continue in delivering these brands.

So one doesn’t really understand everything, the politics behind and the shenanigans, but it can still be best summarised as “what goes around comes around” for the Swatch Group and will naturally make the life of some of these third-party brands quite complicated. We will follow up on this, but in a rather shaky business environment, the timing of this decision may really seem quite odd. 

Richemont Brands & Extended Warranties

More brands from the Richemont Group are now offering 8-years of guarantee on their watches, such as Panerai, IWC and this is obviously a really good thing. It should simply be a standard and we just don’t understand the ones which are still offering only 2 years; if you trust the products you’re selling, give the customer a clear sign that that’s the case. 

Rolex News: increased prices & lawsuit ahead

2019 was quite a crazy year for Rolex, benefitting from such hype, just amazing. To cope with this situation, we heard about production capabilities increase.

But that’s all very secret and difficult to verify, but on the other hand, one thing very public and announced recently is that as of the 1st of January, Rolex has increased the prices of its models by approximately 8% and you know what, I doubt it will have much effect on the desirability of most of its products and will just increase the smile on the retailers faces and for those who bought models in 2019, you just saved 8%.

Obviously, this price increase will also be good for Rolex’s balance sheet, as if they really needed it. Talking Rolex and desirability, one has to quickly talk about the flipping of some of these hyped watches and one has to say that we’ve seen prices go a bit down in the last couple of months and same can be said regarding Patek, plus a few AP and RM models.

Still concerning Rolex and this will most probably create a precedent as they recently started to sue a company customising some of their models and claiming they are actually counterfeiters. Interestingly enough, Rolex went against an American LA-based company called La Californienne and I say this because there are so many similar companies around the world, even a few here in Switzerland.

So I guess times might become a bit complicated for those doing these customizations and it mustn’t be a comfortable feeling to have a horde of Rolex lawyers on your back, but I am really interested in seeing the outcome of this lawsuit, it will be a pretty explicit demonstration of the power of the crown.

Anyhow there is such a fine line in terms what can and can’t be done, but I personally think that the biggest issue is that most of these people/companies are really playing in a grey zone, basically insinuating that you are purchasing a Rolex and this is where the problem lies. 

Crocodile Leather Ban in California

California recently banned as of the 1st of January the use of crocodile for watch straps and it actually goes beyond simply straps, but this is a trend which we believe we will witness more and more in the coming years. But we have already seen alternatives, like calfskin and even bracelets from vegetal origins bracelets embossed with crocodile and alligator patterns.

Some News Regarding The Future of Watch Shows: Watches & Wonders, Baselworld...

Still regarding the US and since we had talked about a few months ago, we were pretty excited to head to Miami for the February edition of Watches & Wonder, a bit of sun, some nice cocktails, some nice watches and nice people, sounded perfect, but this event has just disappeared from the agenda.

The bizarre thing about it is that there was no real communication regarding the cancellation of the event, this was very quietly done and just proves once again the challenge of organizing watch shows. On that matter naturally, 2020 will be a pretty decisive year for the future of the two main venues of Baselworld and SIHH, this last one now rebranded Watches & Wonder. Both shows will now be running one after the other, like in the good old days, actually the good old days were when there was only show.

But anyhow SIHH being first here in Geneva end of April, followed by the Basel event early May. And when we say decisive, well one has to remember that some big names continued to pull out, such as Richard Mille out at the SIHH, but they’ve done so in style with the rather eccentric Bonbon collection or Audemars Piguet, but obviously, this was a bit less flamboyant with the questionable introduction of the Code 11:59, and we’ve just heard that Greubel Forsey is also leaving the Geneva show.

But the haemorrhage also concerned Baselworld as Seiko, Jacob & Co. and Breitling are also out. This may sound quite gloomy but for us the benchmark of a successful event was definitely set last year by the Dubai Watch Week, what an amazing event and we still have fantastic souvenirs of it.

2019 Recap

Let’s now come back on some of the most memorable moments of 2019 in some kind of compilation of reports published during the year and please find below links to all our YouTube we are referring to in this edition of PRIMETIME:

Vacheron Constantin Twin Beat: https://youtu.be/o6XL-orHZLI

Ressence E-Crown: https://youtu.be/4itZDu08Ifs

TAG Heuer Isograph: https://youtu.be/P6YVsd_vWLE

Hermès L'Heure de la Lune: https://youtu.be/7iNjXcJlUzQ

MB&F Legacy Machine Thunderdome: https://youtu.be/8F7zZzPPhhc

Purnell Double Spherion: https://youtu.be/A7mGJEGEqLM

MB&F Flying T: https://youtu.be/mm278cOqN4k

Hautlence HL Sphere: https://youtu.be/Xx7SNNjIXhM

Bulgari Octo Finissimo record thin chronograph: https://youtu.be/Hh5Vwr9gE6A

Greubel Forsey GMT Quadruple Tourbillon: https://youtu.be/aOR1TBmRf50

Greubel Forsey GMT Sports: https://youtu.be/fhn-p2HZcGw

Greubel Forsey Handmade: https://youtu.be/m8F59Dbovms

Moritz Grossmann Hamatik: https://youtu.be/PaWcqMlozGA

Charles Frodsham Double Impulse Chronometer: https://youtu.be/TeQqi_9rYRc

Hajime Asaoka in Tokyo: https://youtu.be/p_bOpjkW9nY

Valentin Remontet lightest mechanical watch: https://youtu.be/upO2-mZbRCc

George Daniels personal timepiece: https://youtu.be/Pv5D50DgVAE

Jacob & Co Baselworld: https://youtu.be/BPd_qL5uXbo Role of the EPHJ: https://youtu.be/BA42YIivNJg

UNBOXING Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL65cdEnvv8PAgRLuM5phM9tsgcX-lTJqE