One thing I felt about the Basel fair versus the SIHH...is that :
My first impressions are that some Swiss do not understand the watch business. They know about old traditional watchmaking, but due to insecurity, and a sense of "superiority", or "condescension - (the ever annoying trait of displaying arrogance by patronizing those considered inferior)", are not willing to learn, and are also closed to ideas and change.
I was engaged as an inhouse advisor for certain brands for 2010, and horrors...the dynamics of certain brands are terrible....they still feel as if the main market leaders and trendsetters are Swiss or European...as in "who buys" and "what the market wants". They use imperial, old monied customers as the "gauge"...and not carefully selected markers..such as age, income, race, society, employment, education, exposure to media...but simply quoting "old monied men".
I am OK with the Richard Branson, or Bill Gates types...or even Hollywood...or even sports stars...but old money from old families who have not driven a car in their lives, or engaged in any "challenges" that brought them or their families to a new level.?
It is like...They are insisting that the best way (TODAY) to archive, project and manipulate music is the LP vinyl record. This "used" to be of some debate when CD was first launched, but today..altho recognised for smoothness and its feel...it is NOT at all a realistic business to build on the vinyl records for a business!
THAT IS EXACTLY how I feel about Swiss watchmakers who open with "so and so" of the S***** family buys only Pateks and is 'so open minded" that he has now moved to, or is considering that Parmigiani is so stunning and revolutionary!
First, this 67 year old man is the 4th generation of inherited old money, probably never earned a $ of his own. May never have built a business on his own.
He may never even understand or use the communications that we use today..the cellphone to the web.
It's OK. I sort of had my day with vinyl LP records in 1980 to 1990, bought astounding truntables..etc..but, I am open to discussing the "possiblity" that digital music will one day be more often used in the industry as a standard and more. This was in 1980.
So...when I was in Basel...an elderly man who has worked for some time with vacheron, says that "so and so" of a german family will only respect Patek, and implies that the Asians are not a significant or knowledgeable part of the market...it burns me up.
Wake up Swiss old men...how many of you actually buy watches if you are earning wages of a doctor or lawyer or mid level executive? Do they wear MBF and AP and RM like Asians do? Or for that matter...the Russians, Japanese and Middle easterns?
It's not just the wake of products like the RM, the Rebellion T1000 or the MB&F machines...all SWISS and all aware of the markets.
Even Swiss "naughty boys" and edge artists whatever, are waking up to what's "in", what's working, and what makes people wanna be people.
Do I want MORE Pateks? Well...maybe if I wish to sell them in the future, but not if I am shopping for a watch that is "cool" or "just me".
Not if I want a watch that is reflective of the times we live in...electric, turmoil, wars, financial crisis, a President of the USA that one could not have imagined in 1960.
Yes...maybe a watch that is brutal, cut, rough and shows changes at any unexpected level.
Round if I want to use it.
Inexpensive, I may not want GOLD if I cant afford it.
Distinctive, because I am, like many others..begining to loose identity in so many ways.
If one wants to conform...it almost will seem that there are many ways to simply inherit or better...buy the REAL McCoy from the1970s..why buy a new one for a premium..it's a replica of the original!
My cheers to some...like the maker below Yvan Arpa, I believe, ...who make a round 3 handed eta 2892 watch, in steel...rough and destructured...it is the century or decade of 2010!
...wake up call for some brands!
This watch below may be rough, simple, unsophisticated....but it SPEAKS of what is going thru the fabric of our society!
It is relevant.
It is creative..it is 'art"...or Art ya?