marcus75
76
Cost cutting
I notice since I started seriously collecting that the Watch Brands are REALLY into marketing (glamarous catalogs, advertising and parties). Here in the US, we have a saying "sell the sizzle instead of the steak." IMHO these high end brands are too much into marketing and reinforcing their images instead of heavily focusing on innovation and quality. I don't know the rest of you but I'm a pretty sophisticated buyer who focus on the cost/value ratio and high quality of the brand. Glamorous Catalogues with beautiful artwork and pictures doesn't seem to impress me as much as the pure technical marvals/achievements of these magnificant time pieces. Cut out the fat and focus on the lean meat is what I say!
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...