The news is more than alarming—it is a carnage. Statistics released by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry on watch exports for the first half-year 2009 read like a depressing litany: Hong Kong down 22.2 percent, the USA down 43.3 percent, France down 10.0 percent, Italy down 8.4 percent, Japan down 29.6 percent, Germany down 13.0 percent, Singapore down 30.3 percent, China down 36.4 percent, and on and on. The only curious exception to this landslide was the 44.1 percent increase registered for Korea. Since January 2009, Swiss watch exports showed an average decline of 26.4 percent. In the first half of the year, they were worth 6.1 billion Swiss francs, or 2.2 billion less than in 2008.
These results give an X-ray view of the state of the real economy and provide an implacable diagnosis of the watch industry—it has crashed back down to earth. Its forced landing has caused—and will continue to cause—collateral damage. After the ‘race to the stars’ of the last decade or so, the return to reality is worse than a cold shower on a wintry morning. Times are changing, as Bob Dylan sang more than 40 years ago. And, they will continue to change, something we too often forget. And, isn’t this one of the paradoxes of watchmaking—the art and industry of time—that it also constantly forgets the lessons of time itself?
Lost in the arrogance of its stratospheric success, watchmaking flew higher and higher, reaching new heights, while breaking one record after another, not only in financial terms but also in terms of technology and image. Yet, in the end, it forgot that, even though it measured time, it was not eternal in itself—in the great scheme of things, it was merely a drop in the global economic ocean. Whatever its accomplishments, watchmaking is, and will remain, only a small sector, condemned to suffer the consequences of disturbances beyond its control.
Today, the diagnosis calls for a healthy cure of modesty. Some pointless pieces have already fallen by the wayside, and others are certain to follow. In this can be seen a welcome return to good judgement, an unexpected bonus offered to those who understand the value of remaining ‘virtuous’. Those who resisted the nearly orgiastic frenzy that gripped so many others now have the time to furbish–––– their ‘weapons’ for the next campaign (When will that be? Soon, at the end of 2009? Over the course of 2010?). They will also lead with other ‘values’. Discredited, the notion of constantly one-upping the next brand will cede its place to moderation. Hollow words will fade in favour of quality. Contempt will be replaced with service.
But let’s be clear about one thing. Innovation has not died with the end of vanity, self-importance and ostentation. Quite the contrary. It now has the opportunity to thrive—not merely for the sake of appearance—and bring substance to watchmaking. In the current stormy seas, the fact that a brand such as Tissot is able to not only keep its head above water but is even making good headway, is symptomatic of what we are saying. A product of innovation, the T-Touch is a watch that, despite being overshadowed by its more vocal competitors, has ‘substance’. Its substance is even unique in its genre. This is only one example among many but it points to the right path, a path where innovation is carried out to create solid products at prices that reflect not their only appearance but that are a measure of their substance.


Source: Europa Star August-September 2009 Magazine Issue