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In-Depth: Swatch Group Battles With COMCO Over ETA Movement Sales
At issue is whether Sellita really will be able to compete with ETA in an open market for mechanical watch movements.
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Hodinkee
At issue is whether Sellita really will be able to compete with ETA in an open market for mechanical watch movements.
SJX Watches
News last weekend that Switzerland’s competition regulator, COMCO, also widely known by its German acronym Weko, was weighing a ban on ETA movement sales to third-party brands caused a major stir in the watch industry – and a terse, lengthy response from Swatch Group, ETA’s parent and Switzerland’s biggest watchmaking conglomerate. The move was ostensibly to allow alternatives to ETA – once Switzerland’s dominant supplier of mechanical movements – to develop. According to the Swatch Group, the ban was entirely without merit, especially given the fact that ETA was no longer the biggest supplier of movements to the industry. That title now belongs to Sellita, which supplied a million movements in 2019, compared to half the number for ETA. Now COMCO has formalised the year-long ban in an announcement that puts in place a “temporary suspension of the supply of [ETA] mechanical movements to customers”. The ban will be in force until COMCO makes its final decision by the summer of 2020. The ban, however, allows ETA to sell its movements to existing clients that are small- and medium-sized watch brands, defined as having less than 250 employees, which will probably be of little consolation to ETA. According to a Swatch Group spokesman quoted by Reuters, the majority of ETA’s movement sales are to companies with more than 250 employees, and as a result, ETA foresees it won’t be able to sell any movements next year. According to the statement, the ban is foun...
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According to Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende (via Reuters), Switzerland’s Competition Commission, a federal body that oversees competition and antitrust matters, is considering an outright ban of movements sales by ETA to third parties, in other words brands outside of the Swatch Group, starting January 2020. Also known as COMCO, or its German acronym WEKO, the agency is expected to deliver a verdict on December 19 . No explicit reason was cited for the potential ban, but it was implied that a recent COMCO report on the industry structure of the movement business is the reason. It is possible that COMCO believes the number of alternatives to ETA is sufficient that the watch industry would be better served over the long term by forcing watch brands to switch away from ETA. COMCO has long tussled with Switzerland’s biggest movement maker, in a dispute that began 17 years ago, when ETA announced it would gradually halt sales of ebauches, or movement blanks, to brands not owned by its parent company, Swatch Group. Because ETA was, and still is, Switzerland’s largest movement, reputedly producing some five million movements a year, its decision was regarded by COMCO as anticompetitive. And the wider Swatch Group – which is the country’s largest watchmaking conglomerate – produces perhaps a third of the components needed for watch movements in the entire industry. In the subsequent years ETA and COMCO reached various agreements over movement supply, with the l...
Quill & Pad
The Swiss press is reporting that the tug of war between Swatch Group and Comco is now back on the table – and could result in dire consequences for the entire industry as soon as 2020, when ETA may stop delivering movements to outside brands. Get the story here.
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IWC’s latest limited edition is a surprisingly small run – 80 pieces to mark the 80th anniversary of the flight of the giant Latécoère 521 flying boat Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris from New York to Lac de Biscarrosse in Southwestern France. Starting on Bastille Day, July 14, in 1939, the flight was the first nonstop crossing of the North Atlantic by flying boat. A passenger on the 28-hour, 27-minute journey was French aviator Antoine de Saint Exupéry. And it happens that one of IWC’s most popular sub-collections of pilot’s watches watches is Le Petit Prince, named after the famous novel by de Saint Exupéry. So the Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Chronograph Edition “80 Years Flight to New York” is an offshoot of the Le Petit Prince collection, with a few tweaks. It retains the vaguely retro flavour, with Gothic-esque numerals and lozenge hands, but instead of the standard blue dial of Le Petit Prince, the anniversary watch has a brown metallic dial, matched with brown ceramic bezel. The edition is based on the Timezoner Chronograph, usually available only in the standard black and white livery of IWC’s basic Pilot’s Watches. It’s an unusual watch that combines both a flyback chronograph and IWC’s proprietary “timezoner” mechanism. Originally developed by the defunct watch brand Vogard, the timezoner mechanism has a rotating world time bezel linked to the second time zone, so turning the bezel moves the 24-hour hand in one-hour ste...
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Revolution
A young team headed by a 24-year-old movement specialist pulled off a technological coup that resulted in the robust, low-cost, ubiquitous Valjoux/ETA 7750.
The new UR-111, which walks back a few of the linear displays in order to emphasise linear minutes on a rotating cylinder and interlocking seconds.
Revolution
Above, TAG Heuer Carrera CH 80 as introduced at BaselWorld TAG Heuer has announced today that it will “postpone” production of its latest chronograph movement, the caliber CH 80, in order to “focus on” production of its cal. 1887, which is now referred to as the CH1887. “La Chaux-de-Fonds, June 5, 2014 – In order […]
Teddy Baldassarre
Teddy Baldassarre is an authorized luxury watch retailer of brands like TUDOR, OMEGA, IWC, Grand Seiko, Breitling, Blancpain, Glashütte Original, Zenith, Longines, ORIS, MIDO, Tissot, Hamilton, NOMOS Glashütte, Baume & Mercier, and more.
Teddy Baldassarre
Teddy Baldassarre is an authorized luxury watch retailer of brands like TUDOR, OMEGA, IWC, Grand Seiko, Breitling, Blancpain, Glashütte Original, Zenith, Longines, ORIS, MIDO, Tissot, Hamilton, NOMOS Glashütte, Baume & Mercier, and more.
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Teddy Baldassarre
Teddy Baldassarre is an authorized luxury watch retailer of brands like TUDOR, OMEGA, IWC, Grand Seiko, Breitling, Blancpain, Glashütte Original, Zenith, Longines, ORIS, MIDO, Tissot, Hamilton, NOMOS Glashütte, Baume & Mercier, and more.
Worn & Wound
“That makes perfect sense, since MI6 looks for maladjusted young men who’d give little thought to sacrificing others in order to protect queen and country. You know, former SAS types with easy smiles and expensive watches - Rolex?” “Omega.” I’m not James Bond. I know it may come as a surprise, but I don’t spend my time playing in high-stakes poker games (or baccarat, if you prefer the books), I don’t chase terrorists across European cities, and I don’t save the world from a colorful megalomaniac every few years. But I do have a bit of a crush on Eva Green, and I do wear an Oh-meeg-uh, so I guess I can forgive the confusion. Specifically, and for about the last half-decade, I’ve been wearing a reference 2220.80.00 Omega Seamaster Professional Diver 300M, the same watch worn by Daniel Craig in the infamous train car scene of Casino Royale quoted above, and, for my money, the best Seamaster to come out of Bern, maybe ever. I don’t make that claim lightly. The Seamaster is, by the standards of a ‘luxury’ watch, remarkably ubiquitous. I see Seamasters a lot - on the wrists of my bartenders, on the subway, and almost every time I move through an airport. A lot of that is thanks to one thing: Bond. But while most people know the Seamaster thanks to its starring role in three decades worth of Bond films, the name goes back far further - all the way to 1946. Granted, those first Seamasters have very little to do with the dive watches we most associ...
Monochrome
If you have kids, you’re probably familiar with the Moomins – the lovely, hippo-shaped fairy tale characters created by Finnish author Tove Jansson. First introduced in 1945, these charming creatures have inspired everything from books and comic strips to TV series, films, and theme parks. Their whimsical world also caught the eye of Finnish watchmaker […]
Worn & Wound
Founded in 2015, Vero Watch Company is dedicated to creating well-built, durable, and reliable watches at affordable prices. All of their watches improve on the models that came before them. In 2020, this continuous development led them to partner with trusted Swiss manufacturers held to the strictest quality control guidelines. They are passionate enthusiasts who meticulously create watches for dedicated collectors, and this passion also extends to their commitment to sustainability and environmental initiatives. One of these initiatives involves protecting our forests. Last summer, Vero launched a pair of Smokey the Bear watches in stainless steel, with 10% of all sales benefiting the US Forest Service. Piggybacking on the success of these two sold-out models, Vero is releasing two new ones to commemorate Smokey’s 80th anniversary. However, these new ones are made of bronze instead of stainless steel. The story of Smokey is quite interesting. To understand his significance, it’s essential to know a bit about his history. Smokey’s origins can be traced back to World War II when there were limited numbers of firefighters due to wartime demands. This left communities to deal with wildfires as best they could. The U.S. Forest Service established the Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention (CFFP) program to address this issue. The program aimed to educate the public about the dangers of forest fires. They selected a bear as the program’s mascot and drew inspiration from th...
Monochrome
Self-winding calibres are undeniably an advancement, especially those boasting extended autonomy. Yet, there is a timeless ritual, almost archaic, the deliberate act of winding a watch by thumb and forefinger, each click of the ratchet wheel a symphony for the discerning ear. This tactile dance, this connection to the mechanics, is a pleasure some aficionados […]
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In this week’s episode of A Week in Watches, we’re coming to from the Gateway Pavillion at Fort Mason in San Francisco, where just last week nearly 100 watch and gear brands came together for the biggest Windup Watch Fair on record. It was a truly great time, and we’re excited to do it again in Chicago in just a few months! As is customary for the Windup editions of A Week in Watches, we’re bringing you highlights from the show this week. Managing Editor Zach Kazan talks to Mike Pearson about the all new Christopher Ward Twelve X – one of the true sensations not just of Windup, but in the watch world at large over the last few weeks. He also chats with Nicholas Bowman-Scargill from Fears and Rob Caplan from Topper Jewelers about their latest collaboration, which launched at the fair, and he spends some time with another new release from Paulin that was also a huge hit with the San Francisco crowd. Finally, Zach chats with Trip Henderson, Founder of Lōcī Watches, a young California based brand making their Windup Watch Fair debut. The post A Week in Watches Ep. 80 – Highlights from the San Francisco Windup Watch Fair appeared first on Worn & Wound.
Quill & Pad
Ian Skellern's suggestion for an International Chronometry Competition is a group of well-heeled collectors – brands/independents are also welcome to participate, but I suspect they will wait to see how it goes – set off from, say, Geneva, but could be New York, Dubai, or Singapore, wearing one or two watches, on a two-week world tour. Here he explains how it might work.
Hodinkee
Get excited: It's auction season.
Hodinkee
To an important degree, the answer is that it's the wrong question to ask in the first place.
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So you wanna talk sport watches, eh?
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SJX Watches
Of the half-dozen commemorative editions Grand Seiko is rolling out to mark its 60th anniversary, one watch is significant over all the others, because it has a brand-new calibre that represents the first of a new generation of movements. A complete rethink of the 9S family of movements – first unveiled 22 years ago – the 9SA5 makes its debut in the Grand Seiko 60th Anniversary Limited Edition (ref. SLGH002). While the movement is cutting-edge for the brand, the design of the SLGH002 is a throwback to vintage Grand Seiko – the dial emulates the aesthetics of the first Grand Seiko 3180 of 1960 but with a modern twist, namely with widened hands and hour markers. As a result, the dial is quintessential Grand Seiko, having a sculptural quality thanks to the broad dauphine hands and substantial, applied 18k gold hour markers. Even the frame around the date window is 18k gold. The star above six o’clock indicates “SD”, or “special dial”, which means gold hour markers (and sometimes a gold dial) Made of 18k yellow gold, the case has a diameter of 40 mm and a thickness of 11.7 mm. Most of its surfaces have a brushed finish, interspersed with wide, faceted bevels that are mirror polished. The watch is notably thin for a self-winding Grand Seiko – the typical high-frequency Grand Seiko has a case just over 13 mm high – as a result of the new 9SA5 movement, which is the work of the Grand Seiko Studio Shizukuishi (formerly known as the Shizukuishi Watch Studio). ...
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From funky quartz Pateks to egocentric video art, we cover it all.
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A steal in steel.
Hodinkee
A horological commemoration of a French flying boat's first transatlantic passage.
Hodinkee
The boys weigh in on the idea of an old watch becoming too valuable to be treated like a real watch.
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