Are the independents too greedy?
The ball is now in the court of the young independents. But haven’t they shown themselves to be too greedy? “Yes, we are expensive,” admits Richard Piras, an associate of Lionel Ladoire, whose entry-level price is 108,000 Swiss francs, “but this price is essentially dictated by the production costs of our products and our products are totally exclusive and developed by ourselves for ourselves. Thus, the prices are fully justified. But I admit that they require an explanation and an education of the product. It is stupid, but when a watch sells for more than 100,000 Swiss francs, people ask, ‘Is it a tourbillon?’ No, it is not a tourbillon, but our time display system, for example, on ceramic ball bearings, involves already an enormous cost. It is not a module and its assembly is by far as complex and as long to make as a tourbillon. It is necessary to explain all of this. It is a real challenge. Having said that, without lowering our prices, we have adapted our range to the current state of the market by changing the materials used for the three-part case and by proposing the option of a smaller buckle. The original is made of titanium and gold and weighs 30 grammes.”




Alain Spinedi, Louis Erard CEO Heritage DATE and 1931 Petite Seconde Open


Key words: prudence and anticipation
The problem is different for Thierry Oulevay who, at the head of Jean Dunand (the other owner is Christophe Claret), produces only about 30 ultra-exclusive and totally unique watches per year (about 20 Orbital Tourbillons and ten Shabakas). Armed with his long watchmaking experience (he was the driving force behind the re-creation of Bovet, which he later left), Oulevay knows “what a start-up should not do,” and denounces “the lack of a long-term strategy, the lack of stylistic anticipation, the fact of not knowing how to take one’s time in developing a product, the danger of creating too large of an offer and the lack of resources.”
More than ever, “money is the essential ingredient,” but in these uncertain times, “everything must be juggled according to the cash flow, the banks and the payment deadlines.” The key word is prudence. “During the good times, when everyone was steaming full speed ahead,” explains Thierry Oulevay, “I always remained within my means. If I had ten pieces on order, I made eight. When one builds for the long term, you must refuse to be pushed ahead. It was this rush forward by everyone that aggravated the situation and fed the mills of the parallel markets. It is necessary to be wary of all opportunism, to be modest, to maintain a certain reserve and to contain fixed costs. One of the many challenges during the crisis has been to reduce the costs of communication yet to remain visible.”

The strategies of the independents confronted with the economic crisis: Part 1
The strategies of the independents confronted with the economic crisis: Part 2
The strategies of the independents confronted with the economic crisis: Part 4
The strategies of the independents confronted with the economic crisis: Part 5
The strategies of the independents confronted with the economic crisis: Part 6


Source: Europa Star October-November 2009 Magazine Issue