Horological Meandering

Anyone who has been in this industry long enough will know and remember the tremendous highs as well as the near extinction lows.

Remember the year when AP only made 4 pieces?

When most of the watch industry was devastated by the Quartz crisis?

When Lang, Biver, and Schnyder led the revival of the haute horlogerie segment, following on the genius of Hayek (Sr.) and Mock to save the Swiss watch industry in general?

It is almost cliched to forget the bad times and those who stuck by you through thick and thin during lean years, not when milk and honey flow and life was just about running carefree through the flowery blooming fields and dancing and drinking through the night, after making multiple trips to the bank during the day to make unfathomably large deposits.

Glamorous sultry beauties tempt with their come hither looks and fashionable dandies in their highwater skinny jeans and colorful cravats prance, singing the praises of what is, at heart, an obsolete technology enjoying yet another outsized (and, alas, fleeting) "moment in the fashion sun"

But fashion and lust, unlike style, unlike true love and passion, are fickle and passing. 

The fashionistas "love you long time" until their ADD / ADHD addled short attention spans move on to "the next big thing" and leave you, despondent, despairing, broken, your massively excess machinery, capacity, and employees lying still and unproductive, wondering, "what happened? I thought you loved me?" as cash flow dips negative  and inventory is marked down 10 cents on the dollar or less...

The true enthusiasts, the purists, may be pains in the ass, asking questions and scrutinizing minutiae till the cows come home, long after your employees want to leave the store, long after your marketing and sales people wish they can leave work, stop answering emails, and go do what they REALLY enjoy doing...

but please try to remember this - we will be here for you, to support you, to spend our hard earned dollars on the products you design and produce, buying at prices that will allow you to remain in business, because we really love chronometry and horology; for us, we live the culture. For us, it is not just "the current flavour of the month" before we move on to jet planes, hypercars, bespoke suits, gold flake infused vodkas, hydrojet packs, or whatever else catches the fancy of the "celebrity lifestyle" addict.

We talk the talk, but we also walk the walk.

Watch culture IS our culture, our life.

But storm clouds are gathering...

As a dear friend, one of the most no nonsense, no bullshit CEO's in the industry just told me from Switzerland, "Thomas, it's a war. In wars people get hurt, people die. Stores will close, brands will die. 

But that's a good thing; the recent success of the industry has allowed too much bullshit to get shoveled around, too much crap to get produced.

The good and the worthy will survive.

We are doing just fine - 

15% growth year on year; product aging that is healthy; inventory growth of one watch. One watch."

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So there is a ray of light, of hope, amidst the dark ominous clouds...

To the watch industry overall, we love you and support you, please don't forget us or abuse us and then expect us to come save you when your hundreds of millions of dollars of finished goods inventory remain unsold because your newfound "fans" that intoxicated you with their easy and loose "likes" left you to move on to the next big thing.

We may not be here by then, having starved to death from your lack of attention and care...

We may not be glamorous or sexy, but we are earnest, sincere, and most importantly, we put our money where our mouth is, year after year, decade after decade.

We are PuristS.

Sincerely,

Thomas Mao

"just another lifelong Purist but a sincere one"

Cheers,

Daos

The Apple watch is close to being that 'good alternative'.

And there are reports that the Gold edition is flying off the shelves in China.

Until it improves on its battery life from 18 hours to 42 hours, then we see the real 'war' happening