No more ETA quartz circuits as of 2012

[importr]

Prolly not news to most , but just for clarifcation:

http://www.cousinsuk.../page/News.aspx

[RWG Technical]

Did not know this, thanks for the info.

Just another step in the trend to not sell or do anything outside the supplier. In the end the loosers will be the consumers, can you say MONOPOLY...

The Swiss have made many mistakes in the past and almost killed their watchmaking industry... for example the 70's take over by Japan, that brought them to their knees, now this, seems as if they are not learning from the past mistakes...oh well, I can hear the Chinese factories rubbing their hands and tooling up to fill the void.

[freddy333]

Ditto Ziggy. The Swiss are literally handing their business model over to the Chinese on a silver platter.

[maxman]

Did not know this, thanks for the info.

Just another step in the trend to not sell or do anything outside the supplier. In the end the loosers will be the consumers, can you say MONOPOLY...

The Swiss have made many mistakes in the past and almost killed their watchmaking industry... for example the 70's take over by Japan, that brought them to their knees, now this, seems as if they are not learning from the past mistakes...oh well, I can hear the Chinese factories rubbing their hands and tooling up to fill the void.

Could not possibly agree more...well said Zigmeister.

Mike

[krpster]

Wow. They really do not know how to effectively run a business. I do not know the ins and outs of movement/watch manufacture and sales but I cannot imagine it is significantly different than automobiles with which I am intimately familiar. To turn around and say "screw you" to all your existing and previous customers and leave them with no alternative is just insane. Can you imagine taking your car in to get fixed just to be told "Sorry, we cannot sell you parts. You will have to buy a new car from us instead." Oh well. Like already said, others will step up to fill the void.

[ubiquitous]

I think the overall goal of this initiative is to stub the saturation of new emerging brands within the watch industry by curbing the availability and ease of ‘manufacturing’ watches (whereas that ‘new’ brand would have no other expertise or knowledge of watchmaking otherwise) and to motivate other brands to develop and manufacture their own movements and products in-house to become more independent (which is a good thing). Oh, and perhaps to also eliminate the proliferate usage of ETA movements in the replica segment, but let’s face it- The replica segment won’t be affected or impacted by this as they’ve already started moving to non-ETA based solutions quite a while ago with actual clones of ETA movements

I think Hayek’s intentions were largely market share driven in the sense that new brands found it very easy to get into the business of making and selling watches, and usually at a lower cost. After all, ETA had already done the hard part of R&D of the most complex aspect of the watch; all that need be done from there is design and manufacture a case, dial, etc. This would in effect undercut the Swatch Group’s market share with their competition being the very watch brands they are supplying movements to. So in theory, the easy way to curtail that is to stop supplying those movements and strong arm the little guys out of business as they’d have no other means to produce their product.

The larger, stronger brands would of course remain, and even have the option of having ETAs supplied to them as finished calibers instead of just ebauche kits. But it seems like a lot of the big brands are working towards independence anyway with in-house being the goal (as they should; they certainly have the capital to do so, and with an in-house movement, they’ll be able to command a higher retail premium, control parts distribution and servicing post sales, etc).

Also, there’s something to be said about exclusivity as opposed to ubiquity. It’s hard to peddle panache when the heart and soul of one’s product is everywhere from low cost fashion brands to replicas.

“Hey, check out my new ‘Joe Mamma’ watch! It’s got the same ETA 2892 as the one in your Omega Sea Master Pro!”…

In the end... Zigmeister is absolutely right. The need for that entry level movement will be filled with lesser priced alternatives from Asia. History repeating itself? Maybe... Perhaps a bit of irony as I believe it was Hayek that saved the Swiss Watch industry from the quartz revolution, wasn't it?

[offshore]

This is as much about non supply of parts, in an attempt to drive repair work to the "Authorised Service centre"

You can bet Swatch will still have a supply of circuit boards, for their own use!

This whole deal of setting up boutique brand outlets in each capital city, and removing AD's, is so a buyer for that brand has only one place to buy, AND to get their service work done.

And the consumer is screwed again.

First the cost of ETA quartz movements was bumped to a price whereby they were again worth repairing, and replacing circuits/coils/quartz...then the parts supply is removed!

Cosy eh!

O/S

[automatico]

Well...this is nice. Shorting out supplies of circuit boards to supply houses so customers will have to buy a complete movement.

There is one thing the mighty eta did not think about...Citizen/Miyota, HR, Hattori/Pulsar, ISA etc movements are as good (or better) than just about any quartz eta movement ever made.

The only thing that keeps 'swiss made' (eta) movements standard in 'swiss made' watches is the swiss brand name displayed on the movement.

It is not quality.

It is not price.

...and coming soon, it is not parts availability.

I can not remember how many eta 955.xxx movements I have replaced and I still get a dull headache when a two hand Concord Mariner, Ebel sporty wave etc shows up with that absolutely horrible, fragile, little skinny trouble prone, two hand, upside down battery eta monstrosity in it...always with a doa circuit board...or worse. The catalog price used to be around $250 for a movement, now it is "call for price" because they are too polite (or ashamed) to print the ever rising price.

'swiss made' ain't always 100% 'swiss made' with swiss movements either...

An eta 955.xxx etc with green plastic = swiss parts, assembled in Asia (or no telling where) sometimes with the disclaimer "swiss parts, china assembly" etc.

Blue plastic = swiss made and assembled.

Older patek philippe quartz gents watches usually had an eta 955.xxx in them with a fancy cover over the movement to disguise what it really was. Lady models used the eta 256.xxx iirc.

PP mechanic..."Yes sir, I can replace the complete movement in your beautiful patek philippe watch with a genuine movement for the special price of only $965.00, labor included."

PP owner..."Ok, if that is the best you can do."

PP mech...Yes sir, I assure you it is, I will just barely break even."

30 minutes later...

PP mechanic..."Hello, Watch Supplies R US?"

"Please send me one eta 955.112."

"You say they are still $29.95?...that's great!..make that two, next day delivery!"

[Kerbus]

I know precisely what you mean. I replaced that very type of movement with upside down battery earlier this year. Thankfully, none other than Gary Clark sold and installed it for me. It made me regretful I ever bought the Ebel back when I did in the first place.

[subbiesrock]

I do not doubt for a second that this is almost exactly how it works...

More and more, I genuinely question the true value of Swiss watches. As if they don't make enough on the initial sale, they try to stooge their customers in the after-sales as well? It's the height of hypocrisy when they [censored] and complain about reps.

Watch histories are a bunch of marketing spin, in the end it is and always has been about the bottom dollar.

[maxman]

Why does this matter? who here wants a quartz anyway? tic tic tic toc.

[wat44]

looks like they have a pretty GOOD idea of how to run a company...

[boostin20]

^Most of that is probably from the rep market, lol.

[ExtraExtra]

Im sure some of these 'houses' have started looking at getting their movements and parts in China.....getting it there would allow them to keep the price high and their margins higher. The good thing that can come out of this is that the factory may be forced to improve their quality...you know like move the factory away from the wool, lint and dust factories and that could only be good for reps.