Interesting Swatch - taking on the Japanese?
Discussion
Most of us know that the Swiss watch industry appears to be moving steadily upmarket with the renaissance of mechanical movements: the best manufactures make their own movements, these are impossible to fake and thus the Swiss can continue to sell a 'premium' product at vast expense.
The original 'volume' market of Swiss mechanical watches to the 'average man' has gone, replaced by quartz and cheap Japanese mechanicals.
By 'cheap Japanese mechanicals' I mean Seiko, who I respect as a manufacture up there with some of the best of the Swiss. But they produce a reliable, functional, reasonably accurate mechanical movement for watches in the £100-£150 mark (let me know if they're *much* cheaper than that usually - my Seiko 5 movement watches are in a Monster (which has its own reputation) and the black titanium mini-Monster, so probably not the cheapest Seiko 5s).
I showed a skeleton Swatch a while back that had an automatic ETA movement. An oddity, but sold for £100. My mate, who is a bit of a Swatchie, has the version which has a full dial. It looks, to me, too much like a Breguet and being a Breguet fan, to me it's a piss-take. But it's a decent watch. It has the ETA automatic movement, with display back - but crucially it's also got a date. It's called the 'Heracles'...
He paid £23 for it. I'm guessing some voucher was involved but the retail price is going to be under £100. A quick Google sees them retailing at around £70.
Have Swatch suddenly dropped the price of 2824-2 movements (pretty much their cheapest automatic with date movement) to the tens of pounds level? Sure as hell they've never been that cheap before.
The movement in my skeleton was a new 2841 calibre - cut down and simplified, with what (we finally agreed) was a plastic escape wheel and escape fork, no pallet jewels (what sort of plastic is as yet unknown, but for any form of longevity it's got to be some 'new' material). I checked my mate's watch and the ETA marking was 2842, so it's a development of the 2841 with a date. And it's cheap - Japanese market cheap.
The Chinese are still cheaper - Sea-Gull are probably the only Chinese manufacturer you'd consider as a 'usable' export mechanical movement for simple time / seconds / date but the quality is nowhere near Seiko standards. And unless Swatch are prepared to dive the entire Swiss watch industry downmarket, I'd expect these new ETA movements to be up to normal ETA standards - and deserve the 'Swiss Made' branding.
So are Swatch fighting back and taking on the Japanese at least? Looks like there's a fight going on at the bottom end. If Swatch sell the 2842 to OEMs at the cost they're using it in Swatches, plenty of small Swiss OEM makers could make an all-Swiss mechanical automatic watch for less than £100...
The next interesting question is whether the 2841 and 2842 are actually being made in Switzerland or whether they are being made in China... and if so, whether they're Swatch factories or whether they're outsourced. It'd be utterly hilarious (but somewhat worrying) to find that Swatch 'swiss' automatic movements were being made by some well-known Chinese watchmaker
Given the Claro-Semag 888 scandal, I really can't see Hayek letting this happen, but business is business.
Anyone know anything? It's an interesting move by Swatch - instead of retreating up to the highest ground of haute horlogerie, it appears that they're fighting back in the low-cost space.
The original 'volume' market of Swiss mechanical watches to the 'average man' has gone, replaced by quartz and cheap Japanese mechanicals.
By 'cheap Japanese mechanicals' I mean Seiko, who I respect as a manufacture up there with some of the best of the Swiss. But they produce a reliable, functional, reasonably accurate mechanical movement for watches in the £100-£150 mark (let me know if they're *much* cheaper than that usually - my Seiko 5 movement watches are in a Monster (which has its own reputation) and the black titanium mini-Monster, so probably not the cheapest Seiko 5s).
I showed a skeleton Swatch a while back that had an automatic ETA movement. An oddity, but sold for £100. My mate, who is a bit of a Swatchie, has the version which has a full dial. It looks, to me, too much like a Breguet and being a Breguet fan, to me it's a piss-take. But it's a decent watch. It has the ETA automatic movement, with display back - but crucially it's also got a date. It's called the 'Heracles'...
He paid £23 for it. I'm guessing some voucher was involved but the retail price is going to be under £100. A quick Google sees them retailing at around £70.
Have Swatch suddenly dropped the price of 2824-2 movements (pretty much their cheapest automatic with date movement) to the tens of pounds level? Sure as hell they've never been that cheap before.
The movement in my skeleton was a new 2841 calibre - cut down and simplified, with what (we finally agreed) was a plastic escape wheel and escape fork, no pallet jewels (what sort of plastic is as yet unknown, but for any form of longevity it's got to be some 'new' material). I checked my mate's watch and the ETA marking was 2842, so it's a development of the 2841 with a date. And it's cheap - Japanese market cheap.
The Chinese are still cheaper - Sea-Gull are probably the only Chinese manufacturer you'd consider as a 'usable' export mechanical movement for simple time / seconds / date but the quality is nowhere near Seiko standards. And unless Swatch are prepared to dive the entire Swiss watch industry downmarket, I'd expect these new ETA movements to be up to normal ETA standards - and deserve the 'Swiss Made' branding.
So are Swatch fighting back and taking on the Japanese at least? Looks like there's a fight going on at the bottom end. If Swatch sell the 2842 to OEMs at the cost they're using it in Swatches, plenty of small Swiss OEM makers could make an all-Swiss mechanical automatic watch for less than £100...
The next interesting question is whether the 2841 and 2842 are actually being made in Switzerland or whether they are being made in China... and if so, whether they're Swatch factories or whether they're outsourced. It'd be utterly hilarious (but somewhat worrying) to find that Swatch 'swiss' automatic movements were being made by some well-known Chinese watchmaker
Given the Claro-Semag 888 scandal, I really can't see Hayek letting this happen, but business is business.Anyone know anything? It's an interesting move by Swatch - instead of retreating up to the highest ground of haute horlogerie, it appears that they're fighting back in the low-cost space.
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