i personally recall myself a year ago when swatch group declared that no moevements parts to be sold anymore... i jumped off the ground back then and i was happy thinking that would be a berline wall like infront of watchmaking claimers who pop up every few months... i was optimist that action would push the wheel of the whatch making industry to a more advanced degree and we will be seeing a leap towards more added benfit ... Thats fine so far .
but when i started to see the numbers on the price tag growing bigger there i stopped and started to wonder how healthy is an IN-house moevement on several aspects , and is an in-house moevement a need... should be a standered for high end brands? same questions popped up for independents?
in the case of an independent i understand , know and want an in-house moevement as the case in majority of independent purchase is purchasing the horological DNA of the watchmaker behind the creation and it varies from a small dosage of that DNA to FULL chain of that horlogical DNA, the first is say an ETA based moevements and the last say a full in-house moevement ... at the end of the day independent watches are not cheap by anymeans compared to same functional benifit i can get from a non independent brand... so better get as much as possible of that DNA for what im paying.
But lets get back to high end brands why would i want or need an in-house movement ... would that provide me an extra DNA... if ill go with that theory then that would lead me to an idea that i was getting a non original or true DNA from those brands along the past years when an in-house movements were not in use...
On the other hand on economical regards obtaining the moevement parts making machines and the operating costs of it are not cheap in anyway let alone the mintenance of those machines cost... thus would lead to an increase in production costs which will lead us to a greater price tag.... would i really ask for same functional benifit im getting from a non in-house for an added price in the case of in-house... i dont think so.
is it a matter of genuanity? or a matter of getting a bigger bite from the market... personally i believe its a mixture of both ...
as im writing this one thing is on my mind that i dont wish for brands expendeture to the point where brands start consuming themselves...
Faisal