Timeholders

There were a number of opposing voices, though. Movado Group founder gerry grinberg encouraged the swiss to embrace ultra-thin and ultra-accurate quartz watches. Its quartz concord delirium, a technical and strategic milestone in the swiss quartz comeback, proved that switzerland could compete with the japanese in new quartz technology.

The secret team that developed the delirium launched the first model in 1979. It was the world’s thinnest watch at 1.98 mm thick. It had no mainplate and its components were fitted into the caseback. A year later, the delirium IV, which measured a wispy 0.98mm thick, was a showcase of swiss quality and leadership and marked the beginning of a global trend for elegant flat watches, where thinness was viewed as an indicator of technical superiority.

Concord’s second quartz watch, the mariner SG was bron, which was elegant and ultra-thin, in contrast to the big and bulky sports watches of the day. Quartz technology allowed concord to build its reputation for technically innovative yet slim, refined designs in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“The delirium and mariner represent the concord DNA, which consists of being cutting-edge, modern, daring and unexpected. At the time of their introduction, these watches were radical and represented a departure from the traditional offerings.”adds Alex grinberg, president of concord.

Although quartz watches almost made mechanical watches disappear in the 1970s, they also lifted mechanical watches from the brink of extinction, for the swiss watchmaking industry had been suffering from a lack of innovation due to complacency because of its former dominance in the world watch markets.

As during the space race of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the united states and the soviet union attempted to outdo each other’s space accomplishments, the swiss and the japanese had been working concurrently but independently in the 1960s developing quartz technology.

Although the swiss originated quartz technology in the late 1960s, at first the development backfired. The majority of its watch manufacturers refused to accept it when it was first introduced as they saw it as an attack on traditional mechanical watchmaking, in contrast to the japanese and American who openly embraced it.

The swiss failed to see the advantages of quartz and its possible coexistence with mechanical horology. Cooupled with a general economic downturn in the 1970s and 1980s, this response was a recipe for disaster.

“The swiss watch industry was built on craftsmanship, limited production and authenticty – all emblematic of mechanical movements,”says Mary Leach, chief marketing director, movado group. “the swiss were slow to adapt to the mass-produced quartz movement which seemed a direct contrast to the craftsmanship of mechanical movements.”

The swiss watchmaking community felt threatened by the new quartz technology and the aggressive growth of japanese watch firms as demand for quartz quickly surpassed mechanical in the late 1970s. Between the mid-1970s and 1983, the swiss watch industry witnesssed its role in the world watch market drop. Instead of making a third of all units sold, the swiss were making ten percent of the global units.

“The most striking feature of the quartz crisis was the lightning speed with which it hit the swiss industry,”adds Ben balmer, beritling’s international marketing director. “combined with the adsence of vision, it overwhelmed those running factories. For them, it was difficult to understand and accept that centuries of traditional manufactuing and entire production infrastructures could become obsolete and nearly useless in the blink of an eye. By the time they realized it, it was already too late and those who did react did not have the firepower that some japanese firms like Seiko, citizen and casio had at the time.”

Since the curie brothers’ experiments in 1880, it was known that when an electrical current is passed across a quartz crystal, it vibrates at a fast and very precise speed, but the problem lay in harnessing this effect in a practical application. The stable and reliable quartz clock, marine chronometer and “portable” timer already existed decades prior to 1969, but the devices remained relatively bulky. Seiko was able to miniaturize every component and reduce the power requirement of the quartz movement to create a watch housing the 8khz caliber 35, precise to five seconds a month. It contained a crystal oscillator at its core instead of a balance wheel, an open-design stepping motor and a hybrid integrated circuit-all three main components were created in-house from scratch.

The astron thus proved that a watch with a classical appearance was capable of housing modern technology. It paved the way for numerous advancements like the second-generation quartz with its power-saving advancements that boosted battery life and allowed an increase in crystal frequency for improved accuracy.

Seiko also presented the multifunction LCD watch in 1975 and the first analog quartz chronograph in 1983. In 1988, it merged mechanical and electronic watchmaking to create the kinetic watch activated by the movement of the wearer, which converted kinetic energy into the electricity required to run the quartz-regulated movement – essentially fusing traditional and modern watchmaking.

In the 1970s, Seiko released many of its quartz patents to its competitors and, today, most quartz watches use the design and technologies that is made available.

“In the early days of quartz, seiko used to say “some day all watches will be made this way”in its advertising, says shu yoshino, general manager, public relations and advertising at the firm.

“seiko truly wanted its quartz technology to be the de facto standard from the beginning and opened its patents.”

The world’s first electric, battery-powered watch was the shield-shaped Hamilton Ventura, a forerunner of the quartz watch, which Elvis Presley wore in the 1961 movie Blue Hawaii.

As we enter the fifth decade of the quartz watch, we take a look back at how its introduction ensured that the world’s standard of accuracy would never be the same.

December 25, 2009, marked the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the world’s first production quartz wristwatch. That invention, the seiko quartz Astron, forever changed the way time was expressed by demonstrating that quartz was far more accureate than any mechanical watch could ever be.

Seiko’s 1969 achievement was ten years in the making. It followed the appearance of the Hamilton Ventura in 1957, the world’s first electric, battery-powered watch, which essentially replaced the mainspring with an electrical motor.

“That watch revolutionized the watch industry that hadn’t known a new technology for a very long time, and captured the attention of public and press, “says Matthias Breschan, Hamilton’s current president.

“That’watch of the future’, with its avant-grade design,was a huge success and is still a best-seller, over fifty years later.”

The upside is that indian consumers no longer seek out a watch simply for its time-telling function. It serves as a status symbol that provides a window on the wearer’s personality. And indian consumers have tremendous buying power.

“On one hand, the constantly growing middle class is aspiring to the luxury market,” says Louis ferla, managing director of cartier middle east.”On the other hand, the 115,000 high-net-worth individuals keep buying more and more cartier luxury creations.” This elite group is growing faster in india that anywhere else in the world.

In light of the country’s age-old heritage and savoir-faire in gemstones and jewelry, indian are born into a culture of purchasing and wearing gold and diamonds. They’re prepared to spend money for gifts, and the gifting tradition is especially important to indians during the wedding season, festivals and deepavali(indian christmas).

Unlike in the west, many purchases here are done at home during private family viewings. While watches ranging from classic and sporty to steel and fully-paved gold watches are sold in india, in the high-end luxury watch segment women over sporty stainless steel ones. Buyers tend to choose a variety of different brands and models, although many make choices based on what’s hot in bollywood.

The indian market is extremely brand and price-quality sensitive, ferla say.
“As indians are price-conscious, a small cost percentage(like tax refund or currency exchage)can motivate a trip to buy abroad. Don’t forget the size of the country – internal flights can take three hours. Singapore and Dubai are within three hours’ flight and the quality of retail outside india stimulates purchases during holidays or business trips.”

The decision-making process in india remains strongly influenced by word of mouth, personal recommendations and testimonies from brand ambassadors in maketing campaigns. This plays a part in the market initially favoring the more established and visible brands -a t least until watchmaking knowledge strengthens.

“for a manufacture brand such as jaeger-lecoultre, which historically focused the majority of its investments in resources on mastering horological complications over marketing spending, the indian market will remain a positive challenge,” says pretet. ” I don’t expect india to grow as exponentially as a group-orientated society such as china”due to the lack of high-end luxury infrastructure and high import tariffs.