Jaeger-LeCoultre

I didn't post till now. I am curious to know how many of us ordered one. 

You only see the value if you understand that this movement is produced exclusively for this watch in low volumes.

A Reverso is defenetely on my radar (For a long time now), but the price increase - twice this year - makes it harder. Enjoy!

She wants to leave her stamp on JLC - and she wants to be forever known as the CEO who started taking JLC drastically upmarket? She probably has some research studies from management consultant firms and marketing firms that tell her this: "customers don't know what they want, they don't know what makes a watch expensive, they only know that the more a brand charges, the higher that brand is perceived." Thus she's probably thinking if I charge more money, customers will think more highly of the brand, even if we don't improve anything else about the brand. I'm guessing. Maybe one day a steel cased, time only, manual wind JLC will retail as much as an equivalent manual wind, gold cased, time only Vacheron Constantin! And then the unknowledgeable consumer will say, "JLC is a higher brand than VC." But we will know that the emperor wears no clothes - and that the time-only VC probably has better movement finishing than the JLC. Porsche is going to be doing this soon as well. As Porsche wants to create greater separation between itself and Audi. The gap between Porsche and Audi/BMW/MBZ isn't big enough and for how exclusive Porsche's brand is, Porsche feel that gap should be bigger. Porsche is also now its own publicly traded company and is worth more than VW AG! What's funny is that VW still owns a huge percentage of Porsche's stock too... Weird. The financial accounting doesn't make sense.

I'm mad that VW stock has fallen so much. It doesn't make sense.

But let's hope that this CEO is also going to raise not only prices, but also quality as well. At the end of the day, JLC needs to reflect the right values. If they're going to charge as much as Vacheron Constantin, then they need to have the same quality as Vacheron Constantin.

right now it justs looks like greed, because there has been an increase in price of about 40% in a little over a year without any real changes in quality

I'm generally quick to complain, but I also try to be careful and not be too quick to judge. I'm going to try to give this CEO the benefit of the doubt and let her prove herself to both the business community and the watch collector community.

Although it marginalizes some collectors, so isn’t all good universally, there is an interesting positive externality that can occur (but does not necessarily occur) when primary price increases are sustained successfully… a buoying of the secondary market

Reminds me Chanel’s steep and multiple price raises coupled with lower production. I understand they want to be at level of Hermes, so we’ll see.

Chanel saw an opportunity to raise prices, and they exercised that opportunity. Notice the steepest price increases were for their hand bags. These didn't have any major production constraint - the workers in the factory had to be spaced further apart in COVID, so it just took more floor space. Nevertheless, factory space is not a major cost component in the total cost of handbag production - even if factory rents were to double, the cost to Chanel to manufacture a handbag wouldn't go up significantly - but they'd sure use that as an excuse to raise prices. Sure, Chanel will claim materials cost more too, but materials costs never amount to more than 10% of the total value of the handbag...
Let's tie that over to JLC. Here, JLC is trying to go more higher end. They're doing more events. Seminars too. They're doing more customer engagement and mini exhibitions like the Patek Philippe Exhibitions. These events all cost money. And they are supposed to increase the brand's awareness perception among consumers. And with that increased awareness and perception, JLC's logic is that they can charge more money for their product.

Then it will be interesting to see how consumers ultimately will react to JLC’s strategy over the long term.

But the watch industry right now is telling consumers - ALL THOSE CONSUMERS WHO WAIT TO BUY OUR PRODUCT WILL HAVE REGRETS! Because either the watch will be sold out, or they'll have to pay more than retail to get one!  The motto all watch companies want the consumer to realize is "there's no time like the present."  

The time only is already wonderful! And pure in design.

Both have increased in prices too though.

The blue one used to sit at airport duty free stores, strap all faded from the bright lights.  Now, they're snatched up!  At least they're snatched up by people who really like the watch - not speculators whom are just buying Rolexes to flip.  

I only regret not buying two years ago when I tried one on. "Regrets - I´ve had a few". Enjoy!

I already have a Reverso and I like it a lot!  So at least I'm not completely without a Reverso.

Have a great start into the new week everyone