ETA Withdrawal of Movement blanks reposted from watch lounge email
Posted: 10 Feb 2010 03:43 AM PST
Nicholas Hayek of the Swatch Group
In accordance with its strategic plans, ETA will withdraw the supply of blanks at the end of 2010. As the company currently has the monopoly on this market, it is reasonable to expect that many other players will be keen to jump into the gap left empty by ETA. But who really can?
To find out, we spoke to the people in the know, the movement makers themselves.
The Eight Year Withdrawal
Mr Hayek, the president of the Swatch Group, has never made a secret of his plans for ETA: ideally, in the long run, the company will not supply any component of its own creation to any third party, regardless of whatever or whomever it is. Understandably, the Swatch Group wants to guarantee that only the brands within the Group benefit from the exclusive use of its components, which seems reasonable from a business point of view.
Therefore, back in 2002, Swatch made the first move to put this plan into action, starting with blanks. But the Swiss Competition Commmission (ComCo) hadn