The story of Swiss watchmaking began in Geneva in the 1540s. At the behest of John Calvin, the city imposed a ban on jewelry, the craft that had sustained Geneva’s artisans. The law, however, left one deliberate loophole: timepieces, those most practical and Protestant of devices, were still permitted to be worn. Denied their old market, the city’s artisans, joined by religious refugees from France and Italy, retooled and got to work.
[...]
By 1870, the Swiss already commanded more than two thirds of the world’s watch output – the first and biggest winners of the new age of time. From 1907 onwards, Swiss watches won first prize in the pocket-watch category every year at the British chronometry competitions at Kew. Their victories built on advanced escapements, a finer class of finishing, and Guillaume balances that shrugged off heat and cold. In 1945, a few decades later, the Swiss accounted for over 80 percent of the global watch market.
[...]
Yet just as Swiss watchmaking reached its zenith, a rival technology was stirring: quartz timekeeping, first proven in 1927 by a room-size crystal clock developed by a team at Bell Labs, then refined, miniaturized, and perfected by Seiko at its R&D lab in Suwa, Japan.
[...]
Biver saw that, in a world where machines were taking over, he could command a premium with the work of human hands. He turned the precision of quartz against itself: ‘That famous quartz precision became of secondary importance. Who cares about ultra-precision to a quarter of a second in everyday life? As a famous Italian retailer explained to his customers: you’re a lord, and a lord doesn’t need the exact time!’
The results came quickly: by 1985, Blancpain had made nearly 9 million Swiss francs in sales and by 1991, that figure had surged to 56 million francs. Compared to the established luxury players these numbers were small. But it was a victory for the emotional appeal of Swiss watches and set a clear course for the future of the luxury watch industry.
[...]
When Hayek arrived, Thomke quietly revealed what his team had built: an inexpensive Swiss-made quartz watch that could put the industry back into all three market segments: the final realization of Hayek’s original vision. The watch launched in March 1983, and soon after, it took off, a true Swiss-made alternative to Japanese quartz.
[...]
Swatch’s real importance wasn’t in dominating the lower end of the market (Swiss watch revenues remain extremely top-heavy to this day), but in giving Swiss watchmaking its confidence back.
[...]
It’s easy, with hindsight, to mock predictions like David Landes’s. But, ultimately, he was right: Swiss watchmaking should have died with quartz, along with the lamplighters of Victorian London, the ice harvesters of New England, and the telegraph operators of Western Union. Instead, Biver, Hayek, and the watchmakers of Switzerland found a way to outlive their own obsolescence – not by competing on function, but by redefining value.
Biver doubled down on the human touch: craftsmanship, heritage, and emotion. His approach became the blueprint for the largest watch companies of today, as well as the new wave of independent artisans. In 1996, Patek Philippe launched its iconic advertising campaign: ‘You never actually own a Patek Philippe, you merely look after it for the next generation.’
Hayek took the other approach: embracing the new technology, re-engineering everything from the ground up, and applying it to a changed world. It was the same approach picked up by Apple when it launched the Apple watch in 2014. Once again watches had a function – not just as a timepiece, but as a medical device.
[...]
Today, Swiss watchmaking is a $30 billion business, with a near monopoly on luxury manufacturing. The country ships just two percent of all watches made each year, yet that sliver captures almost 45 percent of all revenue from watches worldwide. An industry that once faced extinction is stronger than ever. Some things survive not because they have to, but because we want them to. Instead of causing the end of Swiss watchmaking, the Quartz Crisis was the moment it was reborn.
From the article:
I figured Swiss watches were made in China now just like everything else