Part of a series on Smartwatches' possible impact, notably the AppleWatch, on the swiss watch industry. Looking at the conditions for a smart watch to be swiss made.

1. 11/11/2014 Can the iWatch carry the ‘swiss made’ label? | Transformation Hydraulics
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THOUGHTS ON BUSINESS STRATEGY, AND HOW TO MAKE IT
WORK. BY NICOLAS SCHOBINGER.
Can the iWatch carry the ‘swiss made’ label? 1
An article from the very serious Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in german)
from last week raised the question whether the iWatch would be
manufactured in Switzerland. According to experts, this would be a
true coup. Why, because they would likely strive to get the ‘swiss
made’ label. From a marketing perspective, its instant prestige and a
credible ‘watch­making’
cachet.
Studies (like the swissness series from University of St. Gallen and
McCann Erickson, notably this early study) show that Switzerland is
associated with watches even more than with chocolate or banks.
Jul
08
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2. 11/11/2014 Can the iWatch carry the ‘swiss made’ label? | Transformation Hydraulics
To carry the label ‘swiss made’ for watches, 3 conditions are to be met
(see regulation from 1971 updated 1995):
the movement needs to be swiss: (i) it has been assembled in
switzerland, (ii) its accuracy has been verified in switzerland,
and (iii) components manufactured in switzerland have to
account for at least 50% of the value (60% with a 2013 revised
proposal not yet effective)
the movement has been started­up
in switzerland
final quality assurance is done in switzerland
An electronic watch can obviously meet these criteria. Brands
proposing electronic watches like Swatch or Tissot, to name a few, are
able to carry the ‘swiss made’ label. Tissot’s touch collection for
example are equipped with several sensors for functionalities like
altimeter, temperature, compass, and they are all ‘swiss made’.
Given the creativity and efficiency of Apple, one can imagine that they
would find a way to get their ‘swiss made’ onto the iWatch – if they
want so.
In a tweet I went even further, asking the nasty question whether an
iWatch could get the hallmark of Geneva (so­called
Poinçon de
Genève). The idea alone seems so disruptive to me: Apple in the same
league than Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, or Chopard?
Experts will tell you it’s not going to happen, because the hallmark of
geneva is governed by a special and very restrictive regulation.
Notably Art 3 seems a challenge for a smart watch.
A more interesting question to me however is, what this means for the
swiss watch­making
industry and in general for switzerland as a
whole. More on this in another post.
Copyright 2014 Nicolas Schobinger. All Rights Reserved.
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