sWatch out!

[automatico]

The swatch crazies are at it again.

http://www.ablogtowatch.com/swatch-group-increase-prices-uk/

 

Sales are Down!   Raise Prices! 

I bet this works just like their last genius move:  "We are selling all the movements we can make!"  "So we will make 10% less this year and 20% less next year!"  That'll teach 'em!''  (three years later)  "What do you mean some of the watch companies are making their own movements?"  "They cant!"  "What do you mean Why Not?"  "Because we make their damn hairsprings!"

Three years later:  "What do you mean Eta movements are stacking up in the warehouse and not selling?"   "Jack up the prices!"   "Make 'em bleed!"

 

I love to see these haughty p-ricks twisting and turning.  Looks like they have never figured out they are making an obsolete 1950s product that no one needs, while making them cheaper per unit than ever thanks to automation (adjusted for inflation), meanwhile trying to sell them at today's hyper inflated swizz watch prices to buyers that are just as smart (or smarter) than the average French wine swilling watch company CEO.

 

The comments are good, showing that no one is being fooled.  Five percent is not much at all but it shows swatch is going to jack up prices every time the pound drops against the peso...I mean swizz franc, but they will never lower prices.

 

Here is how I feel about it:

"A Toyota is not a Lexus but every Lexus is a Toyota."  "A Swatch is not a Breguet, but every Breguet is a Swatch."  Substitute Breguet for Omega, Longines, Rado, Hamilton, Tissot etc.

[seafoam]

Selitta has hurt Swatch co as well.  They're versions of the ETA movements with expired patents have proven to be just as good if not better that the ETA versions.  And they're a LOT cheaper.  

[RickFlorida]

20 minutes ago, seafoam said:

Selitta has hurt Swatch co as well.  They're versions of the ETA movements with expired patents have proven to be just as good if not better that the ETA versions.  And they're a LOT cheaper.  

The sellita 2836-2 costs 236 dollars according to Ofrei site.    That's not cheap at all for old technology.

 

That is more expensive than an ETA 2846.

 

Sellita is jerking us around too.   They should be 99 dollars I think.

[seafoam]

That is pricey.  I guess i meant the higher end brands that still use ETA like Omega.  

Edited February 21, 2017 by seafoam

[Mike on a bike]

There is always STP:

 

http://www.ablogtowatch.com/visit-stp-watch-movement-manufacture-fossil-group-answer-eta/

[Sogeha]

My heart bleeds for them and in all their righteous indignation about cheap inferior Chinese movements they quite forget to mention that the Swiss industry got started by making cheap, inferior copies of British movements. Once you get greedy there is always someone prepared to undercut you.

 

Yes MOAB I flagged Fossil up some time ago as a company going places fast. Check the high street jewellers and they seem to have a good variety, but look into it a bit deeper and they are all Fossil. 

Relic, Abacus, Michele Watch & Now Coach NY, Skagen Denmark and Zodiac Watches. Fossil also makes licensed accessories for brands such as Adidas, Emporio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld, Michael Kors, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Burberry, DKNY, Diesel and Armani Exchange. 

Not bad for a company founded in 1984. They are also buying everything they can lay there hands on in the Swiss industry.

[panerai153]

When the greedy pricks at Swatch started all this years ago, they thought that they were going to hammer all the small manufacturers that compete with the low to mid range Swatch brands into the dirt. "Cut off their movements, cut off their heads"!! I along with a zillion other watch fanatics predicted the same thing that's happening. Business abhors a vacuum. Create a vacuum, and very soon someone will come in to fill the space. Well, guess what, they did. Sellita, Soprod Seagull and Seiko/Citizen have moved right into the space created by Swatch. While some of these movement may be as expensive as ETA, what is more important to a watch manufacturer is a steady dependable supply of movements. No one wants to go through all the expensive steps of designing and manufacturing a new model, only to find that the movements you planned on using are not available. AFA I'm concerned, It would be fine if they have to eat a warehouse full of movements!!    

[eunomians]

When the greedy [censored] at Swatch started all this years ago, they thought that they were going to hammer all the small manufacturers that compete with the low to mid range Swatch brands into the dirt.

 History repeats itself (unless we remain vigilant and not ignorant of history's fine lessons).  

Remember when these greedy jerks bullied all the small family-owned cottage watch companies back in the 1970s? Sell us your company for dirt cheap or get erased off the face of this planet by Quartz movements? LVMH, ETA/Swatch,

Etc...

 

By the way, look at who owns Nivarox now! Anyone else think that hairsprings are important to our hobby?!? Yikes!

 

PS. Hublot owners aren't real watch folks lol! Hublot's modus operandi is a perfect match for Swatch/ETA, like-minded bullies ready to stamp out the small upstart fish

 

[gasebah]

But guys, I don't get it. I do not by any means want to play advocate for the Swatch group but they have raised prices only in Britain. This is not a price increase per se. It is clearly a reaction to the weak pound. So far goods can be moved around inside the EU and given the weak pound European buyers will take advantage of the discount the British Pound gives them, which may be partly a reason why the British economy is still doing quite well. To me it seems natural that companies outside the UK try to protect their business this way.

[automatico]

"There is always STP."

 

I like Fossil/STP because:

1...They make good lower and mid priced watches.

2...They are trying to bring the Zodiac Sea Wolf back to life.  The ZSW is one of my all time favorites except for the snap on case back and they fixed that.

3...They have the guts to go up against swatch with their swiss made etaclones.

 

 

"My heart bleeds for them and in all their righteous indignation about cheap inferior Chinese movements they quite forget to mention that the Swiss industry got started by making cheap, inferior copies of British movements."

 

They made thousands of fake American Railroad style pocket watches with similar brand names too.  They are known as 'swiss fakes'.

 

http://mb.nawcc.org/showwiki.php?title=Swiss_Fake

 

[Sogeha]

34 minutes ago, automatico said:

 

They made thousands of fake American Railroad style pocket watches with similar brand names too.  They are known as 'swiss fakes'.

 

 

True brother, my point isn't that Britain is great, wave the flag and all that, but that when one gets complacent in business someone will take over. Actually I believe British horology started by copying Italian, that copied Ottoman, that copied Chinese. Well or something like that.

 

This is why most likely Fossil will thrive and Swatch will decline.

Fossil reacts to the market and Swatch attempts to dictate to it. We all know how that plays out.

[SSTEEL]

On 2/21/2017 at 10:19 PM, seafoam said:

Selitta has hurt Swatch co as well.  They're versions of the ETA movements with expired patents have proven to be just as good if not better that the ETA versions.  And they're a LOT cheaper.  

 

Indeed, and the new kid on the block, STP, who also make Swiss movements based on the ETA 28XX calibers are also selling more than every of their range of movements too.