How the Swiss watch industry survived the digital disruption.

1. James Bond and how
Swiss watches survived

4. In the late 1960s the first digital
watches were produced in Japan.

5. From 1970 to 1985, more than
1000 Swiss watch
manufacturers went out of
business. Over this time, the
amount of employees went
from 90 000 to 30 000.

7. Today, the industry employs about 40 000.

8. In unit, the Swiss watches sum to about 1
percent of global sales.
In economic value – more than 40 percent!

10. This is a great disruption!
And a remarkable turnaround!
How did all this happen?
Let’s look further into this story…

12. South of Germany, East of
France, West of Austria and
North of Italy, there’s a small
country called Switzerland.

13. A very mountainous country…

16. …The Swiss watch industry is not as
old as the Alps…

17. …but almost…

18. … Back in 1541, Calvin abolished
jewlery in Switzerland.

19. Legislation often has
unintended consequences…

20. Since watches were not
considered as jewlery, jewels
could be attached to watches
and thereby satisfy the human
demand for luxury.

23. Over the centuries Swiss
watches became famous. In
1790, Geneva exported about
60 000 watches.

25. With a long tradition of knowledge in
precise mechanics, Switzerland
became a dominant player in the
watch industry…

26. But maybe more importantly, the
Swiss had been into clever
marketing for a long time…

27. The Omega
Speedmaster

29. In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary became the first
man ever to climb Mount Everest. On his
arm, there was a Rolex Explorer.

31. In
In ’Dr.No’ from 1962
James Bond wore a
Rolex Submariner.

32. The quartz watch (digital
technology) was originally
developed by a Swiss
institution.

33. But it was never commercialized in Switzerland.
Instead it was the Japanese firm Seiko which
pioneered quartz watches in 1969.

34. In “Live and Let Die”
from 1973, the British
agent wore a
Hamilton Pulsar 'P2
2900' LED Digital
Watch. It had no
gadgets, but the
watch was the latest
technology, and
that’s what appealed
to Mr.Bond.

36. In the movies ”The Spy Who Loved me”
(1974) and ”Octopussy” (1983), Mr.
Bond wears Digital watches from Seiko.

37. This must have been the
ultimate confirmation of the
disruption of Swiss watches.

39. The first digital wrist watch, Pulsar, was
launched in 1972 and cost 2000 USD.

40. In 1976, Texas Instruments launched a
digital watch that cost 20 dollars!
A 99 percent price reduction in 4 years!

41. This dramatic decrease of prices implied
that all of a sudden, everyone bought
digital watches…

42. … And those watches were not Swiss…

43. … They were Japanese, Seiko and
Casio flooded the market with
digital watches in the 70’s and 80’s.

44. Digital watches were cheaper,
looked good and had sufficient
performance.

45. Seiko and Citizen together sold 1.8
million watches in 1974.
In 1978 they sold 19.7 million units!

46. During the 70’s and 80’s more than
1000 Swiss watch manufacturers
went out of business.

47. In 1984 the business press
observed that:
quot;The Swiss watch industry has
been in decline ever since it
delayed switching over to
electronic watches in the early
seventies.quot;

48. But that’s only one part of the truth…

49. … Many watch manufacturers went
bankrupt simply because people
bought digital watches instead…

51. Other firms like Oris instead focused
on mechanical technology and the
beauty of these watches.

53. Tag Heuer invested extensively in
marketing and succeeded in creating
a ‘sporty’ appeal around the product.

55. Rolex never went into digital, instead
the firm focused increasingly on
positioning the watch as jewelry.

56. When Rolex was embraced by the Yuppie
movement in the 80’s it had established
a strong position in the luxury segment.

58. Omega, probably the main competitor
of Rolex decided to be both digital
and mechanical. As a consequence,
the brand was diluted, the firm
went bankrupt in the 80’s. The
brand lived on, but had lost much of
its market share to Rolex.

59. The main reason for this is that
Omega failed to recognize what a
watch was really about.
It wasn’t about function. It was
about beauty, luxury and status.

61. In the 1980’s the market for digital
watches became over-
populated and the appearance
and status of mechanical
watches turned out to be more
appealing to many customers.

63. Under the leadership of Nicolas
Hayek, SMH (formerly known
as ASUAG-SSIH) introduced
the Swatch fashion watch in
the mid 80’s.

64. In 1995 the Swiss once again
took over the lead in world
watch production with 38
million units shipped versus
30 million for Japan.

65. When
GoldenEye
was launched
in 1995,
Mr.Bond was
again wearing
a mechanical
watch.

66. Omega is
nowadays the
Bond watch
and the
Swiss watch
industry is
more
successful
than ever.

67. It was accomplished
through clever
marketing, re-
positioning the
mechanical watch
as jewlery.

68. quot;It's the only piece of jewelry many men
will allow themselves to wear,quot;
// Ilona Zimmer

70. Patek Philippe's Star Caliber 2000 pocket
watch has 21 functions.
It keeps track of the sunrise and sunset, the
moon phases and changes of the night
sky.
The watch contains of 1,118 parts, including
135 wheels, 336 screws, and 292 pins. It
is sold in sets of four watches for about
$10 million.

71. quot;People buy these watches like others
buy Picassosquot;
//Nicolas Hayek, chairman of
the Swatch Group.

72. quot;You don't buy these watches to know
what time it is.quot;
//Nicolas Hayek

73. The value of total exports of Swiss
watches is five times higher today
than in 1970.

74. Given that the industry employs less
people today, the value produced
per employee has increased by 25
times since 1970!

75. A watch used to be a watch.
Today it can cost between 1
dollar and 1 million dollars.

77. Swiss watches prospered in the 16th
century as luxury goods.
They survived the digital disruption by
increasingly going back to these roots.

78. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lionoche/140444296/
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79. Thanks to the following sources:
Jörnmark, J. and Ramberg, L. Globala
förkastningar 2004
Ekstedt, M., He, C. and Stheen, K. (2004)
Schweizisk klockindustri – en tid av
omställning.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/04/15/rtech
_ed3_.php
http://www.timezone.com/library/archives/ar
chives0097

80. Christian Sandström
www.christiansandstrom.org