2009 Salon International de la Haute Horologie - SIHH

It is the end of February and the Swiss Watch version of the annual garden party has come and gone. The SIHH (Salon International de la Haute Horologie) annual watch fair in Geneva has brought together a select cadre of elite swiss watch manufacturing houses and the world's premier watch dealers and press. The purpose is to debut new products and to provide the most opportune time for orders to be placed for the coming year.

The SIHH or Geneva Fair is the outgrowth of the schism created when The Vendome Group began to accelerate it's acquisition of leading elite brands and the subsequent competition for space and prominence in the traditional watch fair in Basel. The Vendome Group merely created their own fair to showcase their many brands and allied companies. Today the participants in the Geneva Fair are Vendome Group Brands: Cartier, Baume & Mercier, Piaget, Jaeger LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, Mont Blanc, IWC and Officine Panerai and Roger Dubuis and allied but independent brands Audemars Piguet, Girard Perregaux, Jean Richard, Urwerk and Parmigiani Fleurier.

Despite the diversity of these many brands it is evident that there is a commonality of purpose and methodology in this vertically integrated industry where virtually every watch manufacturing concern is intimately associated with the same suppliers for parts and services and the worlds distributors and retailers are a small and select group that the brands are in constant battle for influence over and prominence amongst the press, watch retailers and the public.

In such an integrated industry how does innovation flourish and how does one's technological advances remain secret in a world where the brands are nearly all owned by one of three giant conglomerates? Very carefully and rarely for long. When Richemont or Vendome Group seek competitive advantages in styling or technical innovation it is immediately adopted by its subsidiaries as an economy of scale in an effort to capture market share and the spotlight from other groups such as Swatch Group (Omega, Longines, Glashutte Original, Blancpain, Breguet, Tissot etc. and LVMH (Tag Heur, Boucheron, Louis Vuitton and Hublot.)

O.K. So what is new for 2009? Nothing truly innovative but variations on existing themes and despite the social veneer movers and shakers are very very worried about the economic firestorm in the major watch consuming markets of the U.S. and Asia. When the recovery begins we will see more new products and aggressive advances in technology but for now the industry is preparing for a very difficult year. Charles Darwin would tell you that next year we will know who did the best job of overcoming 2009 as a challenge to survival.

Watch Afficianado's...BUY NOW !

After years of steady increases in price and expansion of brands and production, the Swiss Watch Industry has hit the economic wall. The worldwide economic crash is being felt in the boardrooms and workshops of the legendary companies that make the world's finest timepieces.

Some of these companies have been around since the last big downturn in fortunes, known as "the Great Depression" and records show these companies were fortunate to survive it and most did not prosper until the 1980's and 1990's. The emergence of a larger and more informed middle class in the industrialized nations is the force behind the reach for luxury items such as elite Swiss timepieces.

Many of the elite makers are new incarnations of ancient identities that died out before the new world order that came from the consolidation of brands by The Big 3 (Swatch Group, LVMH and Richemont). Thirty years ago most of the great watch manufacturing brands were family owned, and today Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet are the last of these family owned firms.

We are entering a new and much more challenging chapter and not all the companies will survive and just as fortunes are being lost in the market, the value of one's treasures may be in decline as well. Prices of high end watches will soften and the choice will be made company by company of how to address the diminishing demand. Some firms will reduce staff and production, some will reduce prices and the retailers will run more and more sales to encourage interest in stagnant inventories. Opportunities for buyers are already much improved and trending towards more siginificant discounts as small retailers fight for survival and large retailers reduce overhead and staff to deal with siginificantly reduced business.

It is notable that Ferrari sales have plummeted from record levels to the point that sales have fallen reportedly 75% in recent months.

For the buyer, with the wherewithal to leverage his interests, opportunities to buy at fantasticly reduced prices are here and will continue to grow as the smaller firms fail and the public companies are stressed. Collectors whose fortunes were made on Wall Street are liquidating their prized acquisitions to keep roofs over their heads and only the top of the food chain of most sought after collectibles will retain their inflated market values. The wise collector will see that it is smart to be a buyer when much of the world is selling at distressed levels. The coming months might be the best time to buy in the last 20 years.

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

At a time when many people and businesses are under economic duress, some questionable practices become more common. Counterfeit watches and especially counterfeit Rolex are becoming ubiquitous. The dealers in such things are becoming brazen and are using terminology to hide their practices.

Aftermarket is a term some dealers use to deceive. The term refers to the production of Rolex parts (bracelets, dials, bezels etc.) by non Rolex producers and these parts are not original and although difficult to differentiate these parts diminish the authenticity and value of genuine Rolex watches. There are dealers who accumulate used Rolex acquired in India or other out of the way places and create a kind of patchwork Rolex that is passed off as genuine and when sold are much more profitable than the original unaltered watch with all original parts.

Failure to inform buyers has led to numerous lawsuits and the reputable dealer must constantly prove his truthfulness and dependability and is often unjustly made guilty by association. There are dealers who have been sued for selling "aftermarket" Rolex bracelets stamped 18 K that on close examination were less than 18 K and that is against the law.

Aftermarket dials and bezels and the whole category of altered preowned and counterfeir Rolex demands due diligence by the buyer and most dealers whether Authorized or secondary market will provide proof and guarantees against these questionable practices.

For the collector who goes far afield to find hidden treasure, the book The Rolex Report (available on Amazon.com) is quite comprehensive in educating the collector as to how to differentiate the valid original product from those meant to deceive. When you have influence seek to support a truthful approach to selling only authentic Rolex and other watches.

A search on Google frequently brings up the genuine dealers and the dealers in "aftermarket" products and the uninformed assume that a dealer who appears on Google in the same search as Rolex's own website, should take a closer look. Don't let these fakers seeking to deceive and take advantage of you or others get away with this practice. Interestingly Ebay is finally seeking to end the multitude of counterfeit products being sold on Ebay around the world, after enormous losses in litigation to leading makers of prestigous brands. Eventually Google will have to apply "Truth in Advertising" to those Ads appearing on their domain.

To the buyer who knowingly seeks to buy a fake Rolex... shame on you. Supporting illegal or unethical activities is close to being a criminal and in some cases is criminal. Those who are fooled by apparently genuine status symbols that are in fact fake eventually scorn the pretenders who rarely become worthy of real trust.

Swiss Elite Watches scrutinizes all parts and products and deals only in genuine and all original parts from all vintages in Rolex and all other products we sell. We have abundant guarantees to protect our clientelle and ourselves from fakes, forgeries and counterfeits.

Urban Legend of How the Swiss Watch Industry Began

In 1991 I was employed by Corum Watch Company in the United States. My territory was the eleven Western states. In June of that year, I and two other members of the Corum business in the U.S. were invited to Switzerland to visit the factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the month of June. For me it was a kind of homecoming as I had returned to work for Corum after six years working for Audemars Piguet Watch Company in the U.S. I had worked with Corum from 1982 to 1985 and had visited the factory at that time.

The owners of Corum were the Bannwart family which included the founder of Corum and his son Jean-Rene. These men were genuinely decent and artistically and commercially talented individuals that were nonetheless very Swiss in their hard work and down to earth values of family and community. Polished, well traveled with excellent manners and culture.

The Corum factory employed perhaps one hundred fifty personnel and there was very much a family environment. One evening Jean-Rene and several of his staff informed the three visiting Americans that we were going into the hills for a barbeque and to dress casually. The staff included the director of publicity and a charming young woman who worked in the sales department.

We got into two Range Rovers and headed into the mountains above the valley floor where the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds is situated. The city is in the Jura Mountains and this area has been involved in watch making for more than 200 years. As we rose above the valley floor Jean-Rene began to describe our destination. As we rose on paved roads we could see a fairly large farm with white buildings which was described as a very famous dairy. We approached the fields surrounded the dairy buildings and began to go onto a dirt road. We stopped at one point to open a gate and to shoo away several cows to prevent them getting out of the gate while we moved the cars. If you have never been to Switzerland the cows all have large bells and collars with Swiss Alpine designs on them. They make a pleasant gonging as they move.

We passed the dairy buildings and it was pointed out that at this very farm is where the Swiss Watch Industry actually began.

In the 1600’s watches were made primarily in England and the technology of the day were key wound mechanisms. A traveler on horse back traveling from England to Germany had come to La Chaux-de-Fonds with a timepiece that was broken and asked if there was someone who could repair the watch. Someone in the village suggested the traveler go up the mountain to the dairy on the hill and ask for the son of the dairyman. It seems the boy was quite well known as being handy with machines. So the traveler made the trip up the hill and met the boy and asked the boy to fix his watch. The boy promised to do his best and the gentleman traveler continued his journey with a promise to return after the winter snows had melted.

The boy spent the winter months taking apart the watch, examining the mechanism and made careful drawings of the parts and discovered the broken parts and repaired them, and when the traveler returned in the spring he presented the repaired watch and from that day devoted himself to the making of timepieces in the winter months when much of the farm work was impossible due to the abundant alpine snow. As legend would have it, this dairy farm is reputed to be the place where the art of watch making in this famous watch manufacturing region started. Perhaps it is a true story. It certainly seems likely that some talented and bright young boy with a facility for machines could be fascinated and dedicated to discover how this object worked and to use this instrument for inspiration for a life’s work and the foundation of a culture. Young Swiss men have been doing just this thing for generations.

The story was completed in a four hundred year old farm house on the property next to the dairy’s meadow. A stone farm house with two rooms with a wood burning pit to warm the two rooms and a wood rectangular roof that is open at the top to let the smoke out of the building. No plumbing, no electricity and a bare stone floor with simple furnishing just as the people would have used when this home was built. We cooked over the fire and told stories till we’d had enough wine to see the need to return to town and our hotel. I dreamed of that young boy that night and marveled that it takes but one person to create something that can change a culture or even the world. Without Swiss timepieces my life would certainly be different.

p.s. La Chaux-de-Fonds is a major watch manufacturing center in which Corum, Girard Perregaux and numerous companies are situated. The Musee International de Horlogerie (Watch and Clock Museum) is the finest museum of timepieces and a must see for any watch aficionado. The town also is famous for several buildings designed by the architect Le Corbusier.