Horological Meandering

These two are buy far the most interesting "releases" of 2008. The first news is huge! While still not officially announced, rumours are abound regarding Patek dropping the Geneva Seal due to the recent admission of Cartier. The obvious questions are 1) W... 

"Will this create a hike in prices as collectors step over their own mothers to sweep up all the Geneva Seal pieces." That would surprise me. If only a few had the Geneva Seal it would be rare but didn't all the Pateks have that seal untill today ? [edit ... 

There are a lot of high quality watches without Geneva Seal. For example Lange, Parmigiani, Dufour's and Kari's watches and the list will go on. Are they inferior when compared to VC or Patek? Certainly and 100% not. I know Patek and VC don't like the ide... 

Ling, I agree with you. If your watches are 'born' within the geographical canton of Geneva and reach minimum specifications for Geneva Seal, you should be entitled to it. That's the only reason to have a factory in Geneva.....apart from the nice lake and... 

and create the Sigma Seal . Not sure what the defect levels are for the Swiss watchmaking industry but aiming for 3.4 defects per one million opportunities would be a lofty ideal although its not as romantic, as the artisan qualities of haute horlogerie m... 

5%: that's the figure you get from everyone whether they sell $1000 watches or $10,000 watches (mechanical). Naturally, one expects that small production pieces would have a lower return rate but that is hard to prove with sample sizes of 20 pieces per mo... 

Wow this is serious news. I think the industry is finally waking up and doing things what brands like IWC, A.LANGE & SONE and many more, have done. I guess Senior Mr.Hayek would be happy Chao, luminor1950panerai