Independents

nickd
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Thanks...

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for the clarification.  What you say makes sense.  And you're 150% right about the cynicism.

One of the problems with this discussion is that it's a minefield of sensibilities.  The independants are universally considered to be nice guys, and wondering about their business models is like questioning their integrity and honesty: people would perhaps prefer to think they're dealing with diligent elves starving in artist's garrets rather than dynamic small businesses:  people are often sensitive about justifying their very expensive purchases to themselves: like it or not these watches are considered as investment items by many (look at the interest in the recent Dufour auction)...

The problem is further compounded by this forum having participants who know about production engineering, metallurgy, finance, business, marketing etc, so the discussion can rapidly get very detailed and technical, and touchy.

And then the independents shoot themselves in the foot, imho, by revelaing too much in interviews.  For example, the argument that the price may be higher because they don't have the economy of scale of a large producer buying-in doesn't hold too much water when you've got CAD and CNC.  And anyway, a run of components for 90 watches + extras for mistakes + enought to do limited editions and custom version + a spares etc means that you've suddenly got your own economy of scale with internal production of raw components in batches probably close to 200.  Then someone will argue that the CAD/CAM/CNC kit has to be written off, and someone else will point out that they're probably trying to do this in in the Series 2 costs, and someone else...   The veiled form makes the mind imagine the best, nakedness in harsh light begs criticism of imagined imperfections.

The question about the price difference is perfectly valid, but how does it develop without going awry in the details?    To me, the only valid answer that avoids the minefields seems to be "that's the price it takes to run the business that produces the product, and the market will support that price", but I'm not sure how satisfactory an answer it is.

As a slight tangent, I have two very nice old movements I'd like to have rebuilt and housed in stainless cases (a 15''' chronometer and a 16''' chronograph).  I've contacted a range of people and companies with the same list of requirements asking for a guesstimate.  There's so far a difference of a factor of five in the initial estimates.

nick