swatch :: essays research papers

Competitive EnvironmentOne main competitor was Timex They designed a simple low cost crummy find that was made up of new alloy bearings. By having this new material it made automated production easier. The Timex watches were priced at a low pass judgment and were marketed to be disposable. The were priced to low and they were made so that they couldnt be opened they made for not aftermarket repair or sales of parts. At the end of the 50s one out of three watches bought in the US were a Timex.In 1970 with the introduction of the Quartz technology changed the market place once again. The crystallization watches had some advantages over the Swiss, they were based on electronics, it made it easier to add the date or the day to the watch. It also became significantly cheaper to manufacture, because the cost of the chips were being driven experience by chip manufactures.Out of this wave and leading the way were manufacturers equivalent Hattori-Seiko and Citizen. The two companies ma de huge investments in fully automated facilities around the world. They were before long joined by Casio, which was specializing in a low cost multifunctional, plastic watch that was incorporating features such as timers and calculators.By 1979 Hattori-Seiko had become the worlds largest watch company in terms of revenues they were producing 22 million watches annually. By the end of 1986 Citizen had become the overall global leader in both movement and complete watch production volumes. With the rise in vitreous silica technology hastened the decline of the Swiss watch industry. The Japanese watch makes saturated the global market with the quartz watch at rock bottom prices. In the early 1980s the Swiss market place in the watches below $100. their market share was 0%. Watches between $100 and $350 they had a market share of about 3%. But in the market place of $350 and above they carried a share of 97% of the market.Some of the strengths were that they were making watches that were at a low cost high volume. The factories were placed all over the world and were able to ship to all the distinguishable market places with great eases. Also by using the quartz technology they were again able to cut cost to offer a cheaper watch to the consumer. The customers like the fact that they could buy a cheap great looking watch that would take a licking and keep on ticking.