Monday, June 28, 2010
Just reading the FT the other day, as one does....
There was an article about the Swiss watch business. Actually there were several articles. Something to do with Hublot and how they've grabbed all the juicy bits from their failed movement supplier. So now they are doing it all in house. This supplier it seems supplied a wide range of brands. many of which are blitzed all over the FT's own, 'How to spend it' magazine. The interesting thing to me is that many of these brands, including the current incarnation of Hublot, are less than 10 years old. A lot of their strength is built on the heritage that Switzerland as a country has for making watches. Since most of them use the same engine, admittedly crafted by high calibre Swiss watchmakers, they are basically gifted marketing vehicles taking a ride on the greatest brand bus there is; 'Swiss Made'. I wonder how strong the 'British Made' brand is?
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It's an interesting point. When I was researching buying a watch, and after talking to Remo about it, I came to the conclusion that most Swiss watches are "badge engineered". The movement is effectively mass produced by a select number of suppliers and it is how the "maufacturer" makes the case and markets the watch that is where the "value" is added.
For a good example of this look at those chronographs with multiple dials. Not only do they do the same thing they are the same size and layout. Because they are the same movement. So what seperates a Paneri from a Zenit or whatever? Pure marketing.
Obviously some watch makers do everything themselves but they are fewer than you would think as most Swiss watch brands are part of bigger conglomerates, TAG Heuer and Omega are part of Swatch Group for instance.
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