Horological Meandering

Marcus Hanke
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I understand ...

... and have to admit that your approach, to compare two watches in the same price range, might even be the more sound one. However, I think that the other approach is also justified: Too often we hear it is a folly to acquire the more expensive piece if the cheaper one offers the "same". I believe it is not wrong to check whether this assumption is correct or not.

Regarding Seiko's perception in Europe: We do not have to search for political or social reasons for the distorted perception over here. The reason lies simply in the fact that since the 1070s, Seiko and Citizen concentrated their export efforts on quartz timepieces, mostly in low price ranges. INstead of authorized dealer networks, the watch departments of supermarkets were the main distribution partners for decades. On the other hand, the good mechanical stuff (Credor, Grand Seiko) was held back in the homeland or a few other markets. The general public still has no idea that Seiko is one of the world's largest manufacturers of mechanical timepieces, and also produces extremely fine watches in the premium segment as well. It is the decades-long neglect of the European market that makes it now difficult for Seiko to increase its market share in the mechanical segment.

Of course, there is a very vivid and dedicated group of Seiko fans, I know many of them, especially in Germany. They invest a lot of effort to import interesting pieces themselves. However, that the most exclusive Seiko sports watch, the Marinemaster 300, still has to be sent to Japan for service, repair, even regulation, is a good example for the weird market position. True fans are ready to suffer for their enthusiasm, others aren't.

Of course this does not mean Seiko has a problem. As long as the production is easily sold in Asia, why should they be interested in establish an important presence elsewhere? Experience has shown that mono-market strategies are prone to failure whenever this market breaks away, due to economic and/or political reasons. The more markets are strongly served by a brand, the higher is the ability to compensate any problems by sales in other markets. This is why I think that Seiko is well advised to establish a stronger presence in Europe, even if - at present - the sales elsewhere are fully sufficient. Additionally, and this is my personal wish, I would much prefer  to see a tradition-focussed brand like Seiko being actively present over here, instead of a hundred of neo-brands nobody every heard about, all claiming being of truly Swiss origin, offering the always same designs and technologies.

Marcus