Very interesting article about watches and being 'Swiss Made.'
Grab a cuppa, it's a long one!
Does Swiss Made really matter anymore? A year after the latest changes to Swissness laws, read the Geckota team’s take on Swiss made watches…
www.watchgecko.com
a cuppa, more like a 6 cup tea pot to keep you going.
I've read that before, a bit long, could have made it a lot smaller, but it is an interesting read.
Being "Swiss Made" doesn't for me personally, mean it has to be 100% Swiss, in material & labour, few can do that, Rolex is one more familiar brands that does (they make everything themselves, from Cases, to movements), but as long as the movement is made in Switzerland, and the assembly, testing, quality control etc is done in Switzerland by reputable watchmakers/technicians then I'm happy with it being labelled "Swiss Made". Although most of the High Street affordable Swiss brands that we know (Certina, Hamilton, Tissot, Alpina, Victorinox, Roamer etc and even IW's Mathey-Tissot, Swiss Military) will obviously have acquired some material or parts outwith Switzerland, they do at least use genuine Swiss movements and all of them have their own facilities in Switzerland for assembly, testing quality control etc.
I think the problem lies with some of the Fashion Brands, micro brands and these newer brands claiming all kinds of heritage and history or some strange link to Switzerland, like say Swiss Eagle. Although some are fine and keep to the rules, some use tactics (definitely outside the spirit of the rules) to get round the "Swiss Made" rules and some especially with the help of the Chinese just blatantly flout the rules.
When buying a watch, and this is something that watch community will often advise folks when buying off ebay or online, buy the seller not the watch, you don't just look at the description or aesthetics of the watch in deciding whether to buy, it's equally (maybe more so) important to investigate the brand/seller of the watch, to make sure you are dealing with a reputable brand/seller, so that you can be confident, that the product will do/and is, what it says on the tin.
When you look into a brand, go to their web site and straight off have trouble finding who they are, who is behind them, where they are located etc, then you should be very wary of buying without further investigation. That's one of the joys of watch collecting, the hunt.
