Ok it’s not as cool as a usual Steve Jobs “one more thing…” but I do have one more feature for you. I have set up a classifieds section. I think my readership is pretty high end, so you may have some luck there. I’m going to post a few pieces soon.
As always, if you have any other suggestions on what you’d like to see here, let me know.
In case you missed my post this morning, please look here to find out about all the changes to the site and visit the new forums!
For those of you who are not familiar, Beat Haldimann is one of the most incredible watchmakers in the world. He is one of these guys who crafts nearly everything by hand. His first big piece, the H1 is a stunningly beautiful central tourbillon.
Haldimann H1 from PuristSPro
Just as it seemed as the world had another high end classic watchmaker, Beat went off the rails. First, he created the H8. It is nearly the same as the H1 except a few minor details. First, the tourbillon is bigger. And second, there is no time indication. Yes, you read that right, THERE IS NO TIME INDICATION.
Haldimann H8 taken by Francois Xavier
Just posted on PuristSPro recently comes the Haldimann H9. It is an H8, but the sapphire crystal is completely black so you cannot even see the tourbillon that is not indicating the time.
Haldimann H9
If you are asking yourself, “Self, WTF is going on here?!” then you are probably very sane. However, I must admit that I love them, and here is why:
This is art.
Almost every brand will tell you that their watches are art. Some are closer than others. Beat has successfully created true art. Not pieces of design, not craft, real contemporary art. The H8 asks and answers a question. What interests us about mechanical watches? The H9 pushes that one step further. They completely remove the utilitarian aspect from the horology, leaving only the essence and a void that must be filled by thought.
I believe Beat has succeeded where many others have failed. These watches will certainly open him up to criticism. Frankly, they will probably never be appreciated how I believe they should be. But I am happy to know that someone else out there “gets it”.
Here is a video from youtube of some of Beat’s creations.
If you are reading this post on the site, you’ll see that I’ve made some major changes. It is still a work in progress. I am doing this all myself and learning as I go, so please forgive me for using you as my beta testers.
So what’s new? Well, aside from aesthetics, the biggest change is that I have set up a space for community forums. As I mentioned yesterday, community plays a huge role in enjoying and learning about watches. There are already fantastic online resources, but I want to facilitate a bigger sense of community here on TickTocking. I know my friends and readers are some of the smartest, most interesting, most well-informed collectors in the world – the cream of the crop. If I can facilitate new friendships and interesting discussions, then I will be very happy.
I have set up a comment thread in the forums where I would love to hear your suggestions and advice. If you have 5 minutes today, please drop by and leave your thoughts. And even better, start a thread of your own or comment in someone else’s! Empty forums are a sad sight to see.
I know some people are easily distracted by shiny objects, so I’ve also started a video thread to share some videos I’ve taken of some incredible pieces. You can see the first post here.
My friend Gary made a great post on PuristSPro detailing the pieces that he has added and subtracted from his collection recently. Not only is the collection fantastic and the photography top notch, but the notes and introspection add a glimpse into the true power of watch collecting.
Recently I had a somewhat tongue-in-cheek twitter discussion with Jack Forster about the concept of “owning” a watch. I generally think of myself as experiencing rather than possessing and therefore move fluidly between experiences.
And for me, this fluidity is where the real magic of this hobby takes place. First in terms of personal growth, each step is a process in honing one’s own tastes. You begin to first learn what interests you and what does not. Later that turns to what is important and what is not. And finally it ends with the simple question: WHY? The lessons I have learned in this journey have helped me untangle mysteries in every facet of my life.
And even more importantly, being open to new experiences opens you up to the community. I looked through my database yesterday. Over the last decade I have corresponded with over 500 people privately about watches – sharing advice, looking to buy or sell, etc. Many of these people I now consider close friends.
I often think about what the point of these objects is, and this is the best answer. They are an excuse to celebrate the creativity and life’s work of amazing creators, to facilitate introspection, and to foster communities of self-selected individuals. The watches themselves really become secondary in the grand scheme of things.
Yesterday, the results of the 2011 Concours International de Chronométrie were announced. This is a competition where brands submit their pieces to be tested under numerous conditions and shocks to see which keeps the best time. Unfortunately, my subject line will be the only of its kind in the industry, because really, who cares?
This is one of many cases where I feel the watch industry is asking the wrong question. Guys, you’ve lost. Your watches that cost more than cars tell worst time in all tested conditions than a watch McDonalds gives for free with a Happy Meal. In fact, maybe next competition they should enter a McDonalds Happy Meal watch to end this silliness once and for all.
Of course these tests have a rich history. Before quartz, they made a lot of sense. It was important to focus on precision when no alternatives were present. But now that problem is solved. Precision is a weakness of mechanical watches, not a strength.
Every watch company and executive has to have a clear answer to one question: “Why make a mechanical watch?” ”To strive for precision,” is an answer that lies somewhere between insane and idiotic.
So congrats to the winner, Greubel Forsey‘s Double Tourbillon Technique. It is a fantastically beautiful watch for all the right reasons, not made one iota more interesting by this contest.
Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon Technique shot by Andrew H of PuristSPro
Last time I wrote in, the US Dollar (USD) was crashing with respect to the Swiss Franc (CHF), or perhaps more accurately: the CHF was surging against the USD. Most major world currencies right now have a severe risk of inflation, as central banks are printing money to try to get out of their debt. At some point, this money started to flow into the CHF as it was perceived to be one of the most stable currencies. As Euros and dollars were traded in mass for CHF, their value in CHF terms plummeted. The bottom came at .70 CHF/USD, a true disaster level for the watch industry in the US, and a major problem for the Swiss watch industry in general.
Especially at the high end, almost all of the costs of producing a watch are in Switzerland and denominated in CHF. However, most pieces are exported. So the expenses are fixed, and suddenly the revenue is worth 30% less. Big problem. Of course the “solution” is to raise prices. That is why you saw multiple price increases this year from almost every brand. In general, they are not gouging, simply trying to retain their necessary margins. That presents it’s on slew of problems. Of course as price increases, quantity decreases. It becomes increasingly hard to make revenue numbers, not to mention you start to see inventory levels build up in showcases.
About 6 weeks ago, the Swiss National Bank decided to intervene. They basically set a target for CHF/EUR and started buying EUR to get there. Again, if you are buying EUR and selling CHF, the CHF will start to be worth less with respect to the EUR. This is a dangerous move for Switzerland. They are a small country and they are growing their reserves dramatically, not to mention those reserves are now denominated in EUR which is a particularly risky currency right now with all that is going on with Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain (they are basically all bankrupt and since they are on the EUR, have no central bank to print their way out of it).
But here in the US, we don’t particularly care about the financial help of the Swiss, we just want our watches! And thankfully, the move has greatly lessened our pain. With USD now at around .90 CHF, we have seen our purchasing power come back dramatically. Unfortunately some brands were a bit overzealous with their price increases and now are a bit stuck. It’s hard to lower prices and tell retailers or end customers who have bought the watch that it is now cheaper (for a retailer that kills their margin). I was in a retailer the other day and saw a showcase of a usually hot brand that is now filled with double the inventory of normal – the sales people were all complaining that they cannot sell them at the current prices.
Luckily with MB&F, I saw this coming and postponed our last price increase as long as possible, eventually canceling it when CHF started to fall. We did not have much to invoice, and I sensed that something was going to give. It’s easy to raise prices, but, as I mentioned before, difficult to lower them.
I don’t think there is a bigger story in the watch industry than this. It affects all of us at ever step along the chain. Now all eyes are on the Swiss National Bank to see how long they can stick to their policy. Hopefully it works out well for everyone. I will keep posting on it here as developments occur.
Here we go again…
After a long hiatus, I’ve decided to return to the blog. I can’t promise a post every day, but I will try to post at least a few times/week. If there are any topics you’d particularly like me to cover, please tell me in the comments or by email.
And here….we…..go….
I haven’t written a Tech Tuesday post in a while (or any post for that matter. sorry). With a couple hours left, I thought I’d jot down something I’ve been thinking of quite a bit.
I love Foursquare. To me, it is perhaps the coolest mobile app – the true future of mobile. However, at present I have found almost no use for it. For the last couple months, I have been forcing myself to check-in as often as I can remember. I wanted to understand the service and see what I was missing. To date I have 21 check-ins. Granted I am not a power user, but in those 21 check-ins, the only benefit I’ve gotten is an occasional tip of what I should order in a restaurant.
This frustrates me. We all know mobile is the future. We all know location is a game-changer. How can the biggest location specialist provide such little value to users?
I have become particularly interested in this after reading Rocky Agrawal’s series of pieces on TechCrunch on the danger of daily deals sites such as Groupon. His general thesis is that the model is going to kill local businesses – driving too many cheapskate customers at prices that are too low. It all comes down to loyalty. Daily deals make sense for businesses if they create new, loyal customers. A restaurant can serve a customer at a loss if it knows that customer will be back multiple times. The problem is that these daily deals sites are actually destroying loyalty rather than creating it. They are teaching customers bad habits. And Groupon is incentivized against loyalty. Their entire business rests on selling you the next deal at the next place.
Who is best positioned to drive loyalty? Foursquare! They can identify loyalty, reward loyalty, and ultimately create loyalty. They are in a position to offer incredible value to brands, merchants and consumers (not to mention some nice value for themselves and their investors).
Why isn’t this happening? Your guess is as good as mine.
We, American watch collectors and professionals, are in for some rough times. As of this writing, 1 US Dollar = .86 Swiss Francs (CHF). Here’s the one year chart:
Unfortunately there are no good solutions here. Earlier this year, MB&F had to raise the USD price over the CHF for the first time ever. Now we are going to have to raise our USD prices again to keep up. Even at $205,000, an HM4 in the US is STILL cheaper than the 178.000CHF world price. And, if you’re lucky enough to snap one up at the current $188,000 retail, you’re getting nearly a 10% discount at full retail.
All the big brands either have already or are just about to raise prices. Unfortunately that’s not the end of it. It’s likely that prices will not be able to be raised as high as they should for fear of stalling sales, so that is going to mean dealers are simply not going to get the same quality of inventory. I’ve been fighting to keep my MB&F deliveries on schedule, but I know it’s tough for a head office to send a piece out and immediately lose significant margin due to the exchange rate. I have already heard from various retailers who are struggling to secure inventory from many of the big groups.
The scary part is there is no end in sight. If you had to bet and knew the USD was going to move 5 points, would you bet it jumps up to .91 or down to .81? Unfortunately I’d take the negative side of that bet. For foreign buyers, the US is going to become a true bargain. For the rest of us, I fear it’s going to be very difficult to find what we want here – and if we do, we better be ready to pay up big time.
Tomorrow I leave for Basel. This is MB&F’s third year in a row exhibiting there and the second in The Dream Factory. The Dream Factory comprises MB&F, URWERK, Speake-Marin, and Christophe Claret – certainly one of the most exciting areas of the fair!
The Dream Factory is in The Palace Hall. If you will be in Basel, please do stop by. We are open to the public and will have some of our collecting in showcases to view. However, if you would like to get a more personal look at the collection, I have a few appointment spots in my schedule left. Contact me through the link at the top of the blog and we’ll book a meeting.
See you there!
