That has yielded record revenues during the short-term hype, but longer term it’s like reducing the 100-metre dash by 10 metres and then celebrating when you break the world record. The industry’s solution to this so far has been to produce fewer watches and to charge more for them. ![]() The reverse view is that without MoonSwatch, the segment would have shrunk by a further 650,000 units, to add to the 10 million that have evaporated since 2015. ![]() Source: Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. Last year, Swatch sold a million MoonSwatches, and yet exports of watches with an export value below 200 Swiss francs only climbed by 350,000 units, according to the FHS’s 2022 figures. Without giving away confidences and while using Morgan Stanley’s figures as an indicator of what that would mean, that brand would have to increase its average retail price by around 40,000 Swiss francs.Īt a time when the industry is being accused of alienating its clients with spiralling prices, this is madness.Īs a reminder, buyers at the lower end of Swiss watchmaking are abandoning the category in droves. One brand I spoke to last month told me off-the-record that its strategy is to elevate its position to compete with Audemars Piguet. Not that there’s much evidence of others following suit. In Bremont’s case, that’s partly motivated by pressure from the brand’s new American investors to scale up, but frankly, the decision is one the brand and the industry should be taking anyway. Next year, Bremont will lower its entry price point twice in order to steal the attentions of the client that in the near future will be spending less than before on mechanical watches. But he could have been bolder and aired what he has said to me more than once since his appointment as Bremont’s chief executive in the spring, which is that luxury watches are now too pricey and that brands need urgently to reconnect with the lower end of the market.Ĭerrato, to his credit, is already on it.
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