Chinese (Broadly Defined) in Watch Business

choi

Raphael Minder, In Watch Industry, a Feud Over What Makes a Timepiece Swiss-Made. New York Times, Apr 28, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/2 ... n-requirements.html

Quote:

"Swatch, based in Biel, is the world’s biggest watch maker, with revenue last year of $7.8 billion. * * * Switzerland makes only about 3 percent of the world’s watches, but it so dominates the luxury end of the industry that Swiss watches account for more than half of the monetary value of the $40 billion global watch market, according to René Weber, an analyst at Bank Vontobel.

"China is both a rising rival and a growing market.

"Chinese investors have recently acquired a handful of Swiss watch companies, like Eterna and Emile Chouriet, which are still members of the Swiss industry federation. Jean Depéry, the Geneva-based director of Emile Chouriet, said his company had long relied on some components from China. What the new Chinese ownership has done, he said, is 'completely carve open their consumer market for us.' As a result, Emile Chouriet plans to make 70,000 watches next year — selling 90 percent of them in China — compared with only 9,000 watches in 2010.


My comment:
(a) Interesting. I could not have guessed anyone wants a watch. However, watch industry is on a tear, from the ordinary to the luxurious. Still Can't figure out why.
(b) Golden Hawk Manufactory Limited. Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), undated.
http://www.hktdc.com/manufacture ... imited/en/1X00DH2J/
(c) movement (clockwork)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_(clockwork)

(d)
(i) Swatch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatch
(a brand name for a line of non-luxury wrist watches introduced in 1983; Its parent company is now known as the Swatch Group)
(ii) The Swatch Group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swatch_Group
(formed in 1983 through the merging of the two Swiss watch manufacturers ASUAG and SSIH, and took its present name in 1998 (formerly SMH Swiss Corporation for Microelectronics and Watchmaking Industries Ltd))
(iii) Biel/Bienne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biel/Bienne
(a city in the canton of Bern; Biel is the German name for the town, Bienne its French counterpart; The toponym is derived from the name of [a god named] Belenus)
(iv) Longines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longines
(Now owned by Swatch Group; Founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832; Founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832; in 1866, then owner, who was founder's nephew, purchased two adjoining plots of land [in Switzerland] at a place locally known as Les Longines (meaning "long and narrow fields" in the local dialect) on the right bank of the River Suze in the Saint-Imier valley [where] he built a factory, to gather the entire production under one roof)

(e) Xetum Founder and Designer
http://www.xetum.com/company/founder/
(Jeffrey Kuo)