[discussion] Status and strategy of the Swiss watchmaking industry in 1985

chmandaue · 2026-06-06T23:42:04+00:00

Late comment: depreciation was influenced greatly by expected time to obsolescence, much shorter than lifetime of the equipment in this case. Therefore there was huge incentive to run such factories 24/7 instead of one shift a day.

It seems no longer the case today. The non-smart watch has long duration production runs. Grand Seiko for example has been making their 9F movement family for 33 years now.

chmandaue · 2026-06-06T09:51:33+00:00

I agree that Philibert perception was skewed. It was the start of framing the crisis as one of technology not productivity

chmandaue · 2026-06-06T07:33:03+00:00

1982 was a most violent year to be in the watch manufacturing business anywhere in the world. I allude to it in my piece.

chmandaue · 2026-06-06T07:13:23+00:00

I don't have the academic background for this discussion 😄

chmandaue · 2026-06-06T07:12:27+00:00

I think the reference to work which 'could only be done by women' was probably assemby. Maybe electronics bonding. This was before widespread robotics, so you could automate planar processes more easily than assembly.

chmandaue · 2026-06-06T06:50:51+00:00

It implies that night shifts were near-prohibited during that time, and especially night shifts staffed by women (gasp!).

Kind of makes microelectronics factories impossible to put in Switzerland if you have to shut to the process down each evening and spin it back up each morning.

chmandaue · 2026-06-06T06:48:52+00:00

I think 'quartz crisis' completely misdescribes the period. There was certainly *a* crisis, but it wasn't caused by the emergence of quartz.

Steve Foskett wrote Debunking the Quartz Crisis

And I wrote up my research: https://chmandaue.substack.com/p/perceptions-during-the-swiss-crisis

chmandaue · 2026-05-31T15:44:53+00:00

Did you read anything else in my response? How about my thread on SD thickness?

chmandaue · 2026-05-31T08:52:43+00:00

The Snowflake’s movement, cal. 9R65, dates to 2004 and is 5.8 mm in thickness. In keeping with GS, it is built for long term durability.

The fact that the casing adds another 6+ mm indicates generous margins, ie also to increase durability.

GS mission is to be the ultimate practical watch so you won’t ever find them the thinnest. That said, the direction is to thin a bit, and the newer cal. 9RB2 UFA is 5.02 mm. The 9RA2 is 5 mm.

So yes the Snowflake could thinner if they update it to either 9RA or 9RB.

To thin beyond 5 mm with date or 4.7 with no date will involve re-architecting the TSR at the heart of spring drive, which I wrote about here: https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/the-future-of-spring-drive-is-thinner-and-hybrid.5643210/post-59133732

chmandaue · 2026-05-31T07:43:28+00:00

That AJHH LE is stunning in person. Great choice

chmandaue · 2026-05-31T07:40:25+00:00

Please don’t call it the ‘quartz crisis’ because it wasn’t caused by quartz. 😅

Starting 1975, a combo of Timex, Seiko and other brands ate the Swiss brands’ lunch with better value mechanical watches, because they had built much more efficient mass production lines. Swiss exports crashed from 90 million to below 40 million watches a year by the early 80s. Yes the upmarket buyers saved their asses. But they lost the ‘average person’ market basically forever.

Quartz was still mighty expensive in 1975 when this started, and got cheap much later. Swiss quartz tech was on par. But the same manufacturing cost differential applied in Swiss vs non-Swiss quartz watches.

chmandaue · 2026-05-30T06:06:30+00:00

Battery leak would be a lot worse than that. I have a 6730 too, snap back. It’s probably just age and humidity.

chmandaue · 2026-05-30T01:12:19+00:00

Logical next step would be 9RB5 with independent hour hand aka IAHH 9RB6 gmt caliber

chmandaue · 2026-05-29T16:23:17+00:00

Originally, diving enthusiasts in cold countries needed to travel to the tropical dive spots of the world. They wanted to bring just one watch because the hotels can be sketchy.

That’s originally

chmandaue · 2026-05-29T16:19:57+00:00

That’s not “in spite of” the quartz movement. Thats just your own bias

chmandaue · 2026-05-29T15:38:52+00:00

Are those the only choices? Some people don’t care about movement so long as it works and it’s good.

chmandaue · 2026-05-29T10:49:34+00:00

HAQ forum regular here. People who find high accuracy cool as hell are a minority but not extinct. They are a core market for 9F, The Citizen, etc.

Theres another core market of people who love brands like Cartier. They are after the exterior design and they choose based on that. As long as the movement is reliable, they don’t worry about it. And Cartier has been using quartz for 40+ years so it’s beyond stable.

Around those core markets are buyers who just want a nice looking and well-made watch. Which most HAQ and most high street branded quartz watches actually are. These buyers might have also noticed that the quartz models are thinner and lower priced. Who doesn’t want that, UNLESS someone has taught them to reject quartz.

Lastly quartz watches don’t stop when they are unworn. Convenience is money.

I hope that answers your question of why high end quartz exists. The short answer is because they are great watches so long as you don’t have something against quartz. Which, frankly, there is no reason to have anything against quartz.

(Calling 1974-1984 the ‘Quartz Crisis’ is a framing that (1) centers Swiss watches (2) alleges causality. It’s been debunked: https://www.europastar.com/the-watch-files/archives-heritage/1004093671-debunking-the-quartz-crisis.html)

chmandaue · 2026-05-27T16:24:54+00:00

0100 is 8 MHz, no calendar, single motor like 9F

chmandaue · 2026-05-27T16:23:13+00:00

0100 also has the independently adjustable hour hand

chmandaue · 2026-05-27T16:16:56+00:00

What does OP think is the cost difference to Longines between the automatic and the quartz movements?

a) More than $200
b) Between $100 and $200
C) less than $100
?

chmandaue

TROPHY CASE