Heltsley
5
The cost of the equipment and also the demand
is fueling allot of the price increases, of course the speculators getting into the market trying to make a buck has not helped matters any. It use to be a more labor intensive endeavor to produce the truly high end pieces, and now the watchmakers are more likely to be heavily into engineering, computer aided design and manufacturing.
The fitting, finishing, and assembly are arts that have been lost by the majority of watchmakers over time. There was a period where maintenance was more profitable and the only way to survive in the industry. Now the demand has come back to a market that is now stretched due to the contraction of past and prices will be continuing to go up for all I would believe.
Euro / Dollar and watch price pressure.
The Euro/Dollar pressure is really what is driving a lot of the 10/20% price increase we have seen and will be seeing. When you hold back prices for a few years and the the exchange rates are not favorable you need to protect your margins and obviously co...
Couple of comments...
Hi Bill, I've been pondering this one for a while, and I guess you need to know the percentage of revenue and profit per currency to understand it. The hard thing for those of us in europe would be to see a local price increase due to a weak dollar - that...
I think it's time . . .
. . . to start producing watches here again ;-) . . . mischievously, Art
I agree!
i was thinking the other day... A US watch company, of very serious quality, would be in a good position right now... to make a name and start a legend.
the weird thing, though ...
... is that the price for crude oil is traded in Dollars, and in spite of the strong Euro, gas becomes more expensive here in Euroland every day ... Unfortunately, also the watches raise their prices over here, which must double the price increase in the ...
Rumour has it that the real reason for price increases is...
the elf unions are getting more militant and they are demanding significantly higher pay for taking an entire year to create a fine wristwatch. The elves that do the painstaking and tedious hand-finishing of individual parts with only a toothbrush and abr...
I agree with that
that there may be some political issues behinds these sky high price increases? They probably need the high wages because of all the taxes that they are giving to the governments in Euroland? Marcus is right in that the demand in emerging markets like Chi...